LONDON — Dogma, a new agency group with three founding companies spanning brand strategy, creative direction, and production, unveiled ambitious plans on Wednesday to scale via a new insights arm and acquisition of new agencies across experiential design, paid media, marketing, and strategy services in the next 18 months.

With a team of 40 across Stockholm, Copenhagen, and New York, Dogma is the new identity for the holding company that owns FwB, a 360 marketing strategy creative agency founded by Einari Eppo Nurmela and Jonas Löhr in 2016.

Its clients include Prada, Uniqlo, Chinese high street brand Urban Rivivo, Chinese e-car maker Zeeker, and the Stockholm-based eyewear brand Chimi, where Nurmela and Löhr both serve as partners.

Dogma also owns Blonde Inc., a creative production company run by Phillip Jacques, Adam Holm, Alfred Lauritzen, and Daniel Manicus, as well as the creative direction and design identity firm Public Image, founded by Nicolas Stefano Pedde Lay, Christian Egnell and Axel Lindahl.

Blonde Inc. makes highbrow videos and images for brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Prada, Royal Copenhagen, Google, and football camera solution provider Veo Technologies.

Public Image works with brands including Gucci, Jacquemus, Byredo, Off-white, and Eytys. Nurmela and Löhr acquired the two firms in 2023.

Kicking off a fresh round of self-funded acquisitions, Dogma will take a significant minority stake in Dot Dot Dot, the insights brand launched by Vanguards and Highsnobiety alum Christopher Morency on Substack.

Going forward, Nurmela and Löhr said Dogma will provide comprehensive marketing solutions by “partnering with best-in-class specialists.”

One thing that sets Dogma apart from traditional agencies, according to Nurmela and Löhr, is that they don’t believe in briefs.

“Normally, these briefs are set on unrealistic goals and brands not knowing what to do and what the landscape looks like. What we do is that we ask all the tough questions, like a business therapist. Based on the reason to exist for a brand, and based on the target group they want to reach, we come in with the full solution and act like an interim marketing department for these brands,” said Löhr.

“We come from the business and entrepreneurial side to help scale the business. Creativity, for the sake of creativity, we believe, belongs in a museum,” he added.

Their approach has been winning a growing list of clients, hence the need for expansion, the two said.

“We started to look in our direct network of friends and agencies who are world-class, who are changing the game, who are the ones that are early in building their agencies. That’s the energy we want, and what would it be if we brought them into our ecosystem of brands? That energy is our currency. Since the acquisition of Blonde Inc. and Public Image, we’re becoming a bigger unit that wins over other bigger agencies out there because we have a new way of thinking: business first, and creativity as a tool,” said Löhr, adding that group revenue has more than doubled since the acquisitions.

Efficiency is another competitive edge Dogma can offer, Nurmela and Löhr argued.

“I often call them [big agencies] cruise ships that are hard to turn. What we want to be is a speedboat. It’s about finding the experts with different perspectives, and then we make it super efficient for our clients to reach their goals, kind of like the next generation of brand building,” Löhr said.

“What we’re going to do is keep on doing what we’re doing, challenging our clients, creating holistic, good results for our clients, sharpening the narratives and then acquire agencies that support this model,” added Löhr.

In the next 18 months, Nurmela and Löhr said they will be closely looking at agencies that can contribute to areas they feel the clients are missing.

“If they feel like there needs to be a new communication agency that isn’t being filled right now because there’s so much homogeneity, then we’ll find that one agency. I think the lens is always that new-generation thinking. We’re not acquiring for the sake of acquiring, like, dare I say, some of our competitors. It’s not a land grab. It’s really about who is the best-in-class new generation of companies,” they said.

Dot Dot Dot, being the first target for Dogma’s acquisition ambition, aims to bring excitement to trend forecasting and consumer insights.

“It was so formulaic. It was all these massive, 100-page-plus reports. Every insight was the same. Dot Dot Dot is here to create real value that isn’t just reactive, but proactive. There’s such a power in doing something unexpected that people will start talking about,” said Morency, who used to serve as the chief brand officer at Nanushka and Sunnei’s parent company, Vanguards.

“What we want to do with Dot Dot Dot is that we want to build up to 10,000 subscribers and start testing things out, whether it’s events, whether it’s doing billboards, whether it’s doing completely unexpected things, but always throught this lens on culture, and market it in a way almost like we would market a fashion brand. I believe that the more insights-driven audience will find excitement at Dot Dot Dot, and discover what we think, who we know, and what we do at Dogma,” added Morency, who has also joined Dogma as chief brand officer.