Why We Killed Off Our Company at This Year’s TOY

We love building and designing things for our clients at Coalesce. But just like any agency, doing the same for ourselves is always last on the list.

We use our TOY in January (Top of Year) and MOY in July (one guess to what this stands for) to help us carve out time for the inside work. And this year, we did something a little bit dangerous. We killed Coalesce.

We use our TOY in January (Top of Year) and MOY in July to help us carve out time for the inside work. And this year, we did something a little bit dangerous. We killed Coalesce.

It was actually pretty painless. And not as disruptive as you’d think.

It’s an exercise we pulled out of Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brand, one of our favorite inspiration books (they attribute the exercise to San Fran corporate story experts, C2). The author Marty Neumeier remins us that brands need “radical differentiation” to create lasting value.

One way to do that is to set a vision for how you want people to perceive you. And when do you typically hear how much of an impact you’ve made?

After you’re dead and gone, of course.

When do you typically hear how much of an impact you’ve made? After you’re dead and gone, of course.

Enter the obituary exercise: It’s 2048 and Coalesce is dead. What does your obituary look like?

What are people saying about us?
How do they feel about what we did and how we did it?
Did we accomplish anything?
Did we radially change our structure?
Did we bend with the wind?
Or we were the sole impetus of the Singularity?

It’s a good exercise alone, but it’s a great exercise as a team.

We got to see how truly aligned all of our partners are on the long-term vision of Coalesce. So we each independently wrote an obituary in private, then came back together to share them out loud.

They were all shockingly similar in tone and promise: We weren’t concerned with how many employees or offices we had amassed. We shot for the moon with some of our client work (Delta’s Moon Base?). And we all wrote about how this company made others feel: Empowered, capable, and very entertained.

We weren’t concerned with how many employees or offices we had amassed. We shot for the moon with some of our client work (Delta’s Moon Base?). And we all wrote about how this company made others feel: Empowered, capable, and very entertained.

Here’s mine. Here’s hoping it’s not far off.

January 20, 2048

Diehard Fans Mourn the End of Coalesce, a Creative Force for Disruption with a Space Fetish

After four decades of compelling and curious work, Coalesce is closing their doors. We’ll remember them as a modern and unconventional agency known for their hands-on approach and willingness to experiment. But their true fans describe them as “somewhat contagious (in a good way).”

They were built for the brave. They sought out notoriously challenging work. They were led by ideas instead of the bottom line, which sometimes got them into a bit of trouble. But they also understood the ebb and flow of small business life is a grand adventure, not a carnival ride on a track.

They were inspired by the rebels. They often made rules just to break them. They created a playground for business executives and artists to coexist as long as they were both on the same quest for beautiful design and delightful products.

They followed the ideas. It wasn’t always a straight line. They reinvented themselves constantly. They contradicted themselves. Some people didn’t get it. But I suppose that was the point.

They helped brands become the best version of themselves. Yes, their skills and work ethic helped the big kids innovate and the small guys compete. But it was the Coalesce network that made them infamous. They found that their smartest, sharpest, weirdest tools were people, not trendy tech or the shiny SAAS platforms. Agencies are, after all, only as strong as their agents.

And it was those people who built deep relationships with each client, becoming part of their culture, their team happy hours, their battles and, eventually, even some of their boards. They offered a load of technical and design services, but it wasn’t always their work that set them apart. It was that uncanny ability to seamlessly integrate into teams, making all their clients feel like they got a consultant, an advisor, a therapist, and kickass best friend who wasn’t afraid to tell them the truth. Plus, there’s no better way to say it, but they always just “seemed to be up to something.”

A few dedicated clients even kept them on the roster as consultants for years after their products were launched and had sunset, just for proximity to that weird Coalesce magic.

So yes, the trends came and went. But Coalesce persevered. Of course, until now.

They also drank a lot of coffee, which we all know now, definitely cures cancer, and doesn’t have any bad side effects.

Heads up: We are actually very much not dead IRL and are feeling pretty healthy these days, as a matter of fact. If you want to know what else we planned at the TOY (or how to run your own), reach out to a very-much-not-dead team: hello@coalesce.nyc