Their name says it all.
Catherine Veraghen and Wes Evans founded happy, inc., with the intent to create a different kind of relationship with their clients. Having seen too many client/agency relationships go sour, Catherine and Wes knew that the traditional “full service” agency model did not always serve the best interests of the client. “We saw how these agencies retrofit the client problem to meet their in-house skill set… and how frustrating it was for clients,” says Catherine. “And we thought, it doesn’t have to be this way.”
So instead, Catherine and Wes formed their Portland, Oregon-based creative services agency with a rather unorthodox goal – to stay small. By remaining small and assembling virtual teams on a project-by-project basis, happy can bring in senior-level niche expertise as needed to address a client’s requirements, no matter how complex or specific. The agency is located in a fertile area for interactive marketing, design, and technology – with a strong community of creative talent which happy taps into as part of its extended network.
In this virtual model, happy can “work with greater integrity with our clients and do it in a more truly sustainable way.” From the client’s perspective, it’s a more financially efficient approach because it means a greater percentage of the money they spend with happy will be used to solve their need, rather than to maintain agency overhead.
It’s also an approach that aligns well with the company’s overall sustainable approach to living and working. “We really do believe in ‘triple bottom line sustainability,'” Catherine says, referring to the practice of measuring a business’s success in terms of its economic, social, and environmental performance.
Happy, inc. specializes in interactive strategies and design and is focused on providing exceptional and innovative user experiences. Their clients’ success and happiness are the foundation, the source of growth, and the motivation for their business. For more information about happy, inc., please visit www.gethappyinc.com.