Your external marketing department

Receive support with your marketing activities. Use your budget on the activities you need ad-hoc, month-by-month or by project.

Let's talk

Academic publishing and scholarly comms experts

Control your marketing spend

Our client base extends across the research ecosystem with societies, commercial publishers, intermediaries, libraries and governments from across the globe. We specialize in academic publishing and scholarly communications and understand the complex world you work in!

Feel supported

Each client has a committed IB project owner.

If your point of contact is away, we have a dedicated email address ensuring your query is always answered. We keep in regular contact with you to keep you happy and help with any queries.

Discover insights and trends to ensure you keep up-to-date with industry best practices and help you and your team develop and grow.

Retainer blocks
Commit and save monthly

Choose a monthly time block and save on our hourly rate.

Be supported by our whole team with any marketing activities:

Starter (20 hours)

£1,430

€1,705 | US$1,760 | CAD$2,475

Growth (40 hours)

£2,860

€3,410 | US$3,520 | CAD$4,950

Enterprise (60 hours)

£4,290

€5,115 | US$5,280 | CAD$7,425

Advanced (120 hours)

£8,580

€10,230 | US$10,560 | CAD$14,850

Gone over your block hours? Not a problem, you will be charged at the reduced block hourly rate - £71.50 | €85.25 | US$88 | CAD$123.75

Where applicable, prices are plus VAT.

We don't tie you in to long term contracts. These packages have just a rolling one month committment.

Prepaid hours
Pay for hours upfront and save

Pay a retainer upfront for a set amount of hours.

We'll work with you on what you need most.

As well as our core team, we have 70+ freelancers to help with specialist skill sets.

Be supported by our whole team with any marketing activities:

Hourly rate

£80

€96 | US$100 | CAD$140

We don't tie you into long term contracts, we just ask that you use your hours within 12 months of paying.

Payment is due on invoice.

Pay as you go
Flexible terms for short term support

Get the support you want with the hours you need. Receive a monthly invoice for the hours used.

Regardless of the hours used, our team can support you.

As well as our core team, we have 70+ freelancers to help with specialist skill sets.

Be supported by our whole team with any marketing activities:

Hourly rate

£90

€110 | US$115 | CAD$155

We don't tie you into long term contracts, just use the hours as and when you need us. Stop and start at any time.

Project support

Specific project support to a set budget

Set budget and deliverables in mind? We'll meet to discuss your requirements and quote based on what you need. Our project rates are a set price, and we'll talk about anything that is out of scope as we go through the project.

We'll have an initial kick-off meeting, agree on project objectives, and invoice for 50% of the project upfront.

As well as our core team, we have 70+ freelancers to help with specialist skill sets.

Be supported by our team with your project:

Project rate

Quoted as required

Meeting

Retainer services

Let's talk

Whether you need industry marketing support, need expert insight or just want to chat, book a meeting with our CEO Lou right now:

Retainer and prepaid hours commonly asked questions

How do I pay?
- Retainer blocks and Pay as you go: we invoice you monthly and share our bank details for transfers. You can create a monthly PO or an annual PO we draw from monthly. We are used to different accounting processes with our range of clients, so can work with the best way for you. Invoices are generally due in 14 days of being sent, unless agreed otherwise.
- Prepaid hours: we invoice you once you confirm the hours and then you use within a 12 months period from the date of invoice. The invoice is due upon receipt.
- Project support: we invoice a 50% deposit upfront and then two incremental payments of 25% and 25% at regular intervals after the project has started. Projects can sometimes be subject to client stakeholder delays, so we may invoice while the project is ongoing. If the project is completed earlier than expected, we will make one final invoice amount on completion, regardless of any remaining incremental payments.

What happens if we are really busy and have lots of tasks, and might go over our Retainer block hours?
- If you only want to keep within your committed hours, we can work with you to reprioritize your monthly tasks to ensure you stay within your agreed package.
- Any hours you use over your package are charged at our reduced block hourly rate (£72/€87/US$90/CAD$126). If you keep going over, simply add a new block.

What if I need a job turning around quickly?
- No problem. Jobs requested within a seven working day turnaround are subject to a rush job fee per project, which covers us reprioritizing our activities. This is the same as the hourly rate of your chosen service.

How long is the commitment?
- Retainer blocks: we have a rolling one-month commitment that you can cancel at any time.
- Prepaid hours: as you pay upfront, all we ask is that you use your hours up in 12 months, after that the balance resets to zero hours.
- Pay as you go: come and go as you please, you are charged monthly for the hours we use.
- In the beginning, we are getting to know each other. It often takes a little longer to get into the flow as your team gets used to having an extended marketing team to work with. We have tried and tested processes for briefing jobs and working with our clients, which we can adjust to suit your processes that provide transparency and traceability.

What do we get for the time?
- You get access to a multi-skilled team with industry experts actively involved in the academic publishing and scholarly communications industry. We offer marketing admin (research, data management etc.), design, content creation, video editing, copywriting, PR, social media support, HTML, and so much more.
- You don't just have one person; you have the whole team available.
- We also have our own quality control processes and check work before it comes to you, so it is not one person's time - a typical campaign could have three of our team involved, including our freelancers we work with on a regular basis all over the world.

What if we do not use all of our hours - do they roll over?
- Retainer block: no, every month, your hours reset. As we commit the team's time for the month, we want to ensure we provide you with the best service we can, so rolling over would cause unknown work coming in and wouldn't be a sustainable way for us to work.
- Prepaid hours: as you have prepaid, you just need to use the hours within 12 months of invoice. After that, the balance resets to zero.

Do I need to explain the industry to you?
- No! Even if we had someone join the team with little knowledge, they are supported by a team with vast industry knowledge, so you get time back, not needing to explain the complexities of our industry. We understand the research ecosystem, from academic publishing processes to library systems and all the fun stuff like open research and research data management (RDM).

We are not in the UK - how will this work?
- Our team, including our freelancers, are based all over the world. This helps us work in different time zones and accommodate our clients' needs. Some of the core team based in the UK even work in an agile way, mixing up day and evening UK working hours. We are the international bunch, after all!