Last week when I joined an investment and consulting firm in the social sector, I saw corporate groups from the social sector paying huge sums to creative agencies in exchange for templatized designs and mediocre service. In my early days of volunteering for NGOs, I had witnessed how much the social sector struggles by its fundamental nature in terms of investment and capital. In my later days of freelancing, I had come to see how easy it is for “creative agencies” to leverage information-asymmetry to their advantage. The margins made by the agencies is appalling, to say the least, especially when the people behind most of these agencies are not even remotely familiar with design or creativity. In this article, I break down the problem of pricing in a market of asymmetry caused due to the skills involved and its impact on SMEs or other social sector organisations. I subsequently try to introduce a strategy that could possibly pave the way for cheaper “digital marketing” solutions for those who need it big time — the social sector.

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