Strategy•
Branding•
Content•
Digital•
Campaigns•
AI•
Slug Communications•
Strategy•
Branding•
Content•
Digital•
Campaigns•
AI•
Slug Communications•
Your best strategists are getting harder to find. And the ones you have are stretched thin.
Three quarters of employers are struggling to hire skilled talent right now. In agencies, the problem is worse at the top. Senior strategists are leaving for freelance, and the ones still in house are spread across too many accounts to do their best thinking.
74%
of employers can't find the skilled talent they need
SHRM, 2025
120k
fractional leaders in the US, doubled since 2022
Frak Conference, 2024
73%
of those fractional hires have 15+ years experience
State of Fractional Industry Report
Pitching is expensive. Losing is more expensive.
Free pitching costs the US agency industry $12.5 billion a year. That's 17% of the industry's total revenue, gone. A single review can cost over a million dollars across all the agencies involved. And pitch ratings are declining, which means agencies are spending more to win less.
$12.5B
lost to free pitching every year across US agencies
Duval Partnership
17%
of total agency revenue spent on pitches
Duval Partnership
51%
of the average workday is spent on low value tasks
HubStaff, 2025
When half the day goes to admin and process, strategy gets whatever time is left. That's not where your best thinking happens.
That's where we come in. Senior strategy, on your team, when you need it.
Slug is a communications strategy consultancy. We embed with agency teams for 3 to 6 months and do the work alongside you. Not an outsider handing over a deck. A strategist who sits in your meetings, knows your clients, and makes the output better.
We've done this for Diageo, JLR, Unilever, HSBC, Harry's and VW. $500M+ portfolios down to high growth challengers. Global pitches, planning processes built from scratch, brand campaigns that shifted markets.
We also bring AI into the room. Not as a gimmick. As a tool.
88% of CMOs now expect data driven results from their agency. AI helps us get there faster. We use it to stress test strategies, map audiences, speed up research, and build planning frameworks that would take weeks to do manually. It doesn't replace the thinking. It gives us more time to do the thinking well.
88%
of CMOs demand measurable, data driven results from agencies
AgencyAnalytics, 2025
2.3x
better client retention for retained vs project based models
Focus Digital, 2026
What we actually do.
Win pitches
Senior strategy lead for competitive pitches. We bring the insight, the story, and the comms framework that wins the room.
Build planning processes
If your team doesn't have a clear way to go from brief to strategy, we'll design one that actually works and train your people on it.
Launch into new markets
Comms strategy for brands entering new regions or categories. We've done it across N. America, EMEA and globally.
Turn challengers into household names
Growth stage comms strategy. We help brands make the jump from niche or DTC to nationally distributed and culturally relevant.
Global campaign strategy
Multi market, multi brand comms planning. We know how to make global frameworks that still feel local.
Comms transformation
When the old way of planning isn't working anymore. We help agencies rethink how they approach comms strategy from the ground up.
Got a pitch coming up? A client that needs better strategy? Let's talk.
We keep things simple. A conversation first, then a proposal if it makes sense. No 40 page decks about our process. Just good strategy people ready to help.
Get in touch