Luke Evans founded indie martech consulting company Anchora four years ago, scaling from a small startup to having more than 50 team members across ANZ, India and Southeast Asia. B&T sat down with Evans to discuss the agency’s approach to longevity, trust and AI following its latest win, which sees La Trobe University added to its client roster.
The agency is striking a chord with brands seeking expert-led partnerships over traditional consultancies.
“La Trobe University is an awesome win. It validates to us that at Anchora, we’re really good listeners. I almost feel like listening is a dying art in the consulting world,” Evans said.
The emphasis on listening has to do with the agency’s balancing of risk and reward. By going above and beyond client briefs and reading in between the lines, the agency has built trusting relationships with organisations looking to solve specific and complex challenges.
“The risk might be that we do more proof of concepts at our cost to show that we have a way to do something better than the way an organisation is doing it at the moment,” Evans said.
“The reward will be that the organisation will see the value that we provide and engage us in other things.”
The La Trobe University win marks the fifth university client for the agency. Evans said that universities align with the “social obligation” at Anchora “to bring in the next generation of talent through the door”.
With university enrolment rates dropping nationally and dropout rates skyrocketing, La Trobe University is on a mission to bring students back to campus.
“Martech can help solve these big challenges,” Evans said.
In fact, the agency had a similar brief for Western Sydney University, which sought to improve their enrolment offers for students. Anchora’s work saw an increase in students enrolling through better and more intuitive use of technology.
A unique feature of working with universities are data siloes that make it challenging to target students.
“La Trobe is somewhat reliant on third-party data, which doesn’t always give you a direct line of sight to the individual. If we can use data in a more meaningful way, we hope to get more students,” Evans added.
What Keeps Anchora’s Clients Coming Back
“It’s not just a land and expand for us. We work with organisations and provide solutions that are valuable and will not overstay our welcome,” Evans said.
Building trust, especially in the age of AI, is also a priority for Evans.
“There’s no better way to build trust than being transparent. We believe there’s a social and moral responsibility in using AI in the right way,” he said.
Anchora uses AI in all areas of its business, from automated onboarding for new staff through to amplifying tech and ideas when working with clients.
“Security is really important to us. We will never use AI when it comes to customer data. The risk is simply too high and the impacts would be far-reaching”.
Being upfront from the get-go and making clear and digestible disclaimers is a foolproof way for agencies to build trusting relationships with clients.
“AI is a massive disruption in our industry, but any time of significant change requires a level of focus, dedication, investment, and patience. If you package that up and work with it as opposed to against it, you’ll be able to get on the right path forward.
“My advise to other marketers would be not to fear AI, the thing you should fear is other marketers who know AI better than you do,” Evans said.
As Evans looks back at Anchora’s journey, he advises other marketers not to forget to invest in marketing themselves, something which sounds a little bit like an actor playing themselves in a movie, though it’s an essential part of any business.
“Up until a year ago, Anchora didn’t invest enough in marketing itself. Having a tone and identity that is different from other consultancies’ ‘standard approach’ has elevated the brand and helped it stand out,” he said.
As indie agencies continue to make waves in Adland, Evans’ approach to building Anchora shows how a formula of trust, transparency, and a little bit of risk can do wonders.
