About us
Making things complicated is easy.
Making things simple is hard.
Why
Why simplicity matters?
- Simple ideas cut through the noise.
- Simple brands are more valuable than complex, confusing products.
- Simple processes lead to efficiency and speed.
How
How do we work?
We work closely with our clients, using creativity to solve business challenges—from brand strategy and identity to communication concepts, 360° marketing communications, and digital service design.
True to our name, we work efficiently and quickly without ever compromising on quality. From idea to execution, every detail matters.
What
The power of consistency
Brands are not built overnight. Earning attention and trust takes time. This is why everything we do is guided by a simple truth:
Marketing without a distinctive idea is meaningless—and without a lasting concept, it is inconsistent.
We create cohesive concepts built around a clear core message. We produce work that people actually notice and that makes an impact.
All of this adds up to two things:
- Greater efficiency
- Higher quality
Q&A
We leave no question unanswered
Make it Simple was founded in 2015 by creatives with extensive experience at Finland’s largest advertising agencies.
True to our name, we set out to challenge rigid and complex internal processes, oversized, inefficient teams, and superficial pseudo-strategies that are as empty as they are lengthy. We believe in keeping things simple and working efficiently.
From the beginning, Make it Simple has built its reputation on clear, inspiring strategies and distinctive, lasting creative concepts.
In 2024, we acquired Staart, Finland’s most awarded agency in 2023.
Staart perfectly complements our expertise in creative strategy, concept development, and multichannel communications. It expands our offering with top-tier capabilities in design, PR, creating cultural phenomena, and digital service design.
Today, we can help our clients solve the full range of marketing challenges.
We’re Finland’s best at developing lasting creative concepts. That’s our core strength. We build each concept around a clear core message, creating a rich world that works across channels, adapts to different needs, and stands the test of time. Virtually every concept we’ve created has been a commercial success.
Our other competitive strengths stem from our name. To us, simplicity means effectiveness and efficiency.
There’s hardly a type of client we haven’t worked with. Our experience spans retail, FMCG brands, B2B, fashion, gaming, online services, culture, nonprofit organizations, and local government. We’ve created international, national, and regional campaigns, as well as campaigns addressing social issues.
We’re ready to help your brand grow, too. We certainly have the experience.
The truth at the heart of our mission applies to strategy, too: making things complicated is easy; making them simple is hard. That’s why our approach to strategy lives up to our name: Make it Simple. We don’t create meaningless pseudo-strategies that are as empty as they are lengthy. We create clear strategies that define the core value a brand offers its audience. That core value becomes a core message, which forms the foundation for a consistent communication concept.
Developing a strategy is creative work, too. It means finding a distinctive point of view that sets the brand apart. We have extensive experience creating strategies across virtually every industry.
Awards matter to us. They help us benchmark our work against the best in the industry, both in Finland and internationally. They also push us to keep improving. That said, there are clearly too many competitions, each diluting the value of the others. That’s why we focus on a few of the most important:
- Effie Finland: By far the most important competition for us, recognizing marketing effectiveness.
- Vuoden Huiput: Finland’s national championship for the quality of ideas and craft.
- Cannes Lions: The Olympics of advertising.
- Eurobest: The European championships of advertising.
We also regularly enter a few other Finnish competitions, though these carry less weight for us.
Award juries have a major responsibility. They should judge the quality of ideas and how well they work, rather than rewarding executions that happen to be fashionable within the advertising industry at that particular moment.
We’ve enjoyed considerable success in these competitions, particularly at Effie Finland: 2 x Grand Prix, 2 x Gold, 2 x Silver, 3 x Bronze, 1 x Honorary Mention, and numerous Shortlists.
We work closely with our clients. The best results come when we sit on the same side of the table and work towards a shared goal.
That goal is always clear: marketing that makes an impact and delivers results. We believe real collaboration is the best way to get there. And the best collaboration involves the final decision-makers on your side from the start.
Most of our clients continue working with us after our first project together. What may begin as a one-off assignment often grows into a long-term partnership. As our understanding of each other deepens, we’re better equipped to help with new challenges and changing needs.
Timeframes vary considerably depending on the project.
Individual executions or campaigns developed in line with an established concept can be produced quickly. That’s one of the key advantages of a lasting concept over constantly changing campaigns: there’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time. Concepts make marketing both effective and efficient.
Creating a new concept from scratch, however, takes time. Allow at least a month for the initial planning phase, including research, workshops, strategy, communication guidelines, and creative examples.
Brand design also requires in-depth research, with the full process typically taking around six months.
We give every stage the attention it deserves. Skipping important steps only leads to additional costs later.
The total cost of each project is always precisely specified in our quotation.
Invoicing will typically be done monthly as the work progresses according to the following schedule, unless otherwise specified:
- Upon signing the contract 20 % of the total price of the offer.
- Subsequent months 25 %, 25 %, 20 % of the total price of the offer or in equal installments according to the schedule.
- Upon completion and approval of the work 10 % or the uninvoiced portion.
Extra work not included in the request for quotation will be invoiced according to our hourly price list. If the project changes significantly from the original request or the agreed-upon total cost, we reserve the right to change the price.
Printing, translations, stock photos, media costs, shipping and travel expenses are not included in the prices unless otherwise agreed or specified in the request for quotation. A 5% invoicing fee will be added to any third-party purchases made through us.
