• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 29, 2024

Last year at an industry event, Mike Grehan, founder of New York-based Chelsea Digital, gathered a group of seven friends and colleagues to share an idea. He wanted to form a collective of marketing experts at smaller agencies that could support all types of brands, including very large organizations.

These smaller agencies would offer nimble, yet genuinely qualified and knowledgeable consulting resources, especially as advertising and marketing make the leap into technical services based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

“When I acquired Chelsea Digital last year, I became a small business owner,” Grehan said. “We worked with enterprise-level brands, and I knew I had to partner with other specialists to successfully serve certain accounts.”

But rather than subcontracting with a list of companies, Grehan wanted to form a consulting group that could help brands create strategies based on how they would use AI and ML to optimize campaigns.

They also need guidance on the way platforms like Google Search, Facebook and others use advanced technologies.

Chelsea Digital is a boutique search and performance marketing agency.

Along with Grehan, the collective brings together Kevin Lee, Chris Boggs, Jake Sapirstein, Jonathan Cho, Daniel Olduck, and Jaime Nash. All are company owners and former senior executives connected with brands such as iProspect, Mindshare, Acronym, Didit, Reprise, NP Digital, and software giant SAP.

Grehan founded the group as MEC or Marketing Experts Collective LLC, but said the organization will be known as MEC Consulting Group.

The collective is U.S.-based, although one partner works from the London area. The group has equal ownership among the seven members, and each member brings to the partnership their own resources.

All have had experience working internationally, which will support the eventual plan to expand services geographically as demand grows.

Grehan likened the group to The Avengers, which “raised a few eyebrows,” he said. But the analogy became clear to the group once he explained that just like The Avengers, each of the seven experts have their “own identity and special power.”

Just as The Avengers came together when the world fell into peril and worked together as a team, the collective will do the same for marketing.

“The group is unique in that it brings together a team of seasoned marketing experts, each of whom offer a specialist area,” he said. “Brands can have the full team at their disposal or go a la carte.”

The beauty is that there are no “A-team pitches” for the account, and then “B-team services.” Clients will receive an A team every time they contract with the group.

The consulting firm, at least for now, will remain flexible in the way it works with clients and arranges contracts. Independent contracts will determine the length required to get the job done.