Partnership for agencies, consultancies and independent strategists
Become the partner your clients rely on most.
Independent intelligence that helps you find the right problems, make stronger recommendations and prove your impact.
Original Minds continuously reads the market, the customer and the brand to show why a brand is chosen — why not, and what to fix first. Use that intelligence to solve the right problems, make stronger recommendations, prove your impact and find the next opportunity — with evidence that stands up in the room.
What it does for you
Your business grows in three ways — get more clients, sell more to existing clients, and keep them longer. We help you with all three.
01
Win more work.
Walk in with a read of the category before the first meeting — the sharpest view of the market, the customer and the brand in the room. No guesswork.
02
Solve the right problems.
Start from what customers now value, not the client’s opinion of what they value. Spend less time debating and doing extra rounds of work.
03
Prove your impact.
The diagnosis sets the baseline; when the client continues, the reads continue. What moved shows — the credit you never get.
04
Grow the account.
Partner of record: a seat at the table, a session every second month — and the reads that surface the next piece of work before the client writes the brief.
And you punch above your weight
05
Know what they don’t.
The diagnosis names the gaps costing the client choice. A vague brief becomes a defined problem — and a defined body of work, with someone else’s name on it.
06
Make the case upstairs.
A leadership team that has seen the evidence doesn’t need convincing; it needs a plan. The findings are written to be defended in a board meeting.
07
Get paid for discovery.
The problem is established before anyone proposes the solution — a paid front end instead of free workshops and chemistry sessions.
08
Add intelligence without adding headcount.
An independent market and customer read in the engagements that need one — no research team to hire, no strategist on the bench between projects.
What the diagnosis reads
Only the most relevant brands get chosen.
Your clients want their brands to be chosen more. We provide the intelligence that tells you where brands are losing relevance, and why.
What customers get, at each level of value
Identity
Outcome
Experience
Meaning
What your client wants
01The client wants
Your client wants to know why they’re not chosen more.
We read it before you walk in.
The market, the customer and the brand — read independently, from what’s already being said. A category read before the pitch, and a diagnosis that shows where choice is leaking and why. You walk in knowing more than the incumbent.
02The client wants
Your client wants the right work, not more work.
We show where to focus.
The diagnosis names where relevance is low and which gaps cost the most, in order. The brief becomes the right brief — defined before anyone proposes a solution, defensible in the boardroom, and yours to answer.
03The client wants
Your client wants proof the work worked.
We keep reading, so you can show it.
When the client continues, the reads continue every quarter. What moved shows. You stay partner of record — at the table, with something new to say.
You keep the craft. We make the case.
Clients – before Original Minds
Why should we do this now?
Not sure our customers will respond to this.
Are you sure that’s the right strategy?
I don’t like it.
Can you justify the investment?
Let’s go back to the positioning.
Here’s the brief. — the wrong one.
Let’s do another round before we decide.
Everyone’s an expert. Nobody has proof.
You – with Original Minds
Here’s what’s happening in the market.
These are the best customers for you.
Here’s how they choose — and what they value.
Here’s where the brand is losing relevance, and choice.
Here’s where competition is beating you.
Here’s when to act.
Here’s the evidence.
Now, here’s our answer.
Evidence first. Then the work.
What we do
We read the market, the customer and the brand — against each other.
The Market
The Five Market Forces moving a category — regulation and economics, culture, the category itself, competition, and the people who shape choice — and what each means for how customers decide.
The Customer
Customer segments. Not who they are but how they choose — the real criteria, weighted by their role in the decision, built from what customers say before we look at the brand.
The Brand
How strong its positioning is, whether the identity resonates, whether the proposition fits, whether it delivers — across product, service, environments, communications and people.
The distance between what the customer values and what the brand delivers is where choice leaks. We name the gaps, order them by what they cost, and say what to close first.
We recommend starting with a Relevance Diagnosis. In 30 days, you and your client will know where choice is lost, and what to do.
Assessed segment
The Health Ritualist
01Relevance Score™
66
Credible→ Steady
02Positioning Strength™
61
Holding↘ Softening
03Brand Identity Fit™
72
Strong↗ Rising
04Proposition Fit™
58
Contested→ Steady
05Execution Strength™
64
Credible→ Steady
Why ongoing intelligence
Choice is a moving target.
Culture moves. Taste changes. Technology advances. All affecting customer choice. And lost choice means lost revenue. For your clients, and for you.
Why this isn’t just another AI answer
Anyone can produce a fluent market summary in thirty seconds. That isn’t evidence. Every Original Minds reading is built differently:
- Independent sources, never the brand’s own claims
- The customer’s criteria fixed before the brand is examined
- Sources printed beside the judgement
- A named analyst accountable for every conclusion
- What would change our mind, stated
- No estimate where the evidence is thin
- Ongoing reads, so relevance is watched, not guessed
We identify the relevance gaps that turn into opportunity for you.
Assessed segment
The Health Ritualist
The gap
Customers can’t see why it matters to them.
Proposition
Asked for, not answered
Prove
What the brand promises
Evidence
14 independent sourcesWhat it costs
Keeps customers from choosing it. They consider the brand, then buy the alternative that tells them why.
What would change our mind
Customers naming the brand’s reason for being, unprompted, in independent reviews.
Senior people. Accountable judgement.
Original Minds was founded and is led by Tobias Dahlberg — entrepreneur and brand strategist with twenty-five years’ experience across the Nordics, Europe and the United States.
Senior people only. No anonymous research team, no black-box output. Every reading is signed by a named analyst, every judgement is supported by evidence, and every source is visible — so you can win more business, prove your work, and grow your accounts.
“Tobias is one of the brightest minds in brand strategy today. Anyone who follows Tobias will end up smarter, richer, and probably more beautiful.”
Marty Neumeier
Author — The Brand Gap, ZAG, The Brand Flip
“It would be hard to find a more clear-eyed strategic thinker. If you are looking to go beyond the ordinary, you should get to know Tobias.”
Joseph B. Pine II
Co-Author — The Experience Economy, The Transformation Economy, Authenticity.
How it works
The Original Minds Partnership Programme
Partnership starts with the first client. What you get grows with what we do together. Membership is free, and the purpose is to help you grow your business.
From the day you join.
Category intelligence for the sectors your clients are in — what’s moving and what it means for choice — so you walk into conversations knowing more than the incumbent. A read before a pitch, on request, when there’s a real one.
With every client you bring.
A named senior contact, and the founder in the room with you and your client at calibration and at findings. Send us the brief and we’ll read what’s behind it before you answer it. Joint sessions when they help; your name beside ours when the client agrees.
When your client continues.
Partner of record: a seat at the table, a session every second month, and the reads that surface the next piece of work before the client writes the brief.
When you bring a client
You introduce themThey contract directly with us, with you named as strategic partnerYou’re in the room at calibration and findingsEvery piece of strategy, creative, design and execution the diagnosis raises returns to youWhen they continue, you continue with them.
The deal, plainly.
Your client stays your client. We don’t compete for your work.
You introduced the relationship. If the diagnosis identifies strategy, creative, design, experience or execution work, it returns to you. We don’t pitch around you.
The client pays Original Minds directly. You share in the revenue you introduce — a first-year share of collected revenue, agreed in writing, paid by Original Minds, never invoiced through you.
No white label. No reselling. Your name on your work; ours on ours.
Partners who bring recurring work get more of us — a limited tier, agreed in conversation.
For selected agencies, consultancies and independent strategists. We start with a conversation, not an application form. A limited number of partners in each market and discipline.
What it isn’t
Book thirty minutes.
Four fields. We usually reply within 24 hours.