Karabo Songo built a marketing agency by going after the segment the large multinational agencies were not structured to serve properly, and then selling that specialisation to the multinational clients themselves. The strategy is available to any small service business: find the part of a big market the incumbents treat as an afterthought, and become the obvious answer for it.
Songo founded Olive Communications Group after working inside established agencies, and built a full-service marketing business specialising in below-the-line work aimed at a consumer segment the industry had been underserving, with clients across food, beverage, retail and transport.
Specialisation is how a small agency reaches large clients
A blue-chip client will not appoint a small agency to do what its incumbent already does adequately. It will appoint one for work the incumbent does poorly. Specialising in a specific consumer segment, channel or discipline turns a small agency from a cheaper alternative into a different kind of supplier, and that is a far easier sale.
Identify the segment growing faster than the industry serves it
The opportunity Songo identified was a consumer segment growing quickly while the industry’s attention and structure remained pointed elsewhere. That gap between where demand is moving and where supply is looking is the most reliable place to build a business, and it is visible to anyone paying attention to their own market rather than to industry commentary.
The revenue argument has to be made explicitly
Songo describes the core difficulty as generating adequate revenue growth from a niche offering, and the response as consistently demonstrating the revenue potential to clients. A specialist supplier cannot assume a client sees the size of the opportunity in the segment. Quantifying it, repeatedly, is part of the sale rather than something the client works out for themselves.
Talent retention is the constraint in a service business
The other recurring obstacle named is holding on to key people, addressed through market-related offers and deliberate senior recruitment. In an agency the product walks out at night, and a departure takes client relationships with it. Owners of service businesses should treat compensation benchmarking and succession within accounts as operational necessities rather than as HR administration.
Competing against multinationals requires proving the basics repeatedly
Breaking into private sector work dominated by multinationals means a smaller supplier is assessed more sceptically on delivery, compliance and continuity. Everything a specialist agency produces publicly for clients also falls under the codes administered by the Advertising Regulatory Board, and a documented record of compliant, delivered work is part of what closes the credibility gap.
Frequently asked questions
How does a small agency win blue-chip clients?
By specialising in work the incumbent agency does poorly, which makes it a different kind of supplier rather than a cheaper version of the same one.
Where do these opportunities come from?
From the gap between where consumer demand is growing and where the industry’s structure and attention are still pointed.
What is the hardest part of running a niche agency?
Generating enough revenue growth from a narrow offering, which requires quantifying the segment’s value to clients repeatedly rather than assuming they see it.
Why is staff retention critical in a service business?
Because the product is the people, and a departure takes client relationships with it, which makes compensation benchmarking an operational concern rather than an administrative one.
What makes competing against multinational suppliers difficult?
A smaller supplier is assessed more sceptically on delivery, compliance and continuity, so a documented record of completed, compliant work does most of the persuading.
Further reading
Originally published in April 2017. Updated September 2026 to set out the specialisation strategy behind the business rather than reproducing a question and answer profile.
