‘Spreading Happiness, anywhere’.

Happiness Brussels, the 'Creative Consultancy Agency', has been present on the Belgian market since 2005. It now has about 145 happy employees in Belgium and Vietnam (Happiness Saigon), and at the end of 2022, it changed its URL to 'happiness-anywhere'. 

 This way, the agency wants to reinforce its purpose 'Spreading Happiness, anywhere'. 

The idea is to be able to serve customers 'anywhere', with talents from 'anywhere'. Freelance talents from other countries connecting to Happiness, to serve clients, anywhere. ​ In addition to this network of 'Friends of Happiness', Happiness has also opened a physical hub in Amsterdam, to be physically present in the BENELUX for customers who require it. ​ 

The founders of the Amsterdam hub are 4 renowned Dutch talents: Daan de Raaf (Strategic Partner), Iris Minnema (CEO and Business Partner) and Joey Boeters and Nik Sluijs (Creative Partners). Joey and Nik are two enthusiastic, creative top talents, who have been teaming up for more than 10 years now. ​ ​ 

Karen Corrigan, Group CEO of Happiness Anywhere: "When Geoffrey Hantson joined Happiness in 2015, we already changed the email addresses of a number of people to ‘happiness-anywhere’. Because already back then, long before covid, we believed that, in times where technology makes just about anything possible, limiting how and where we work together is no longer relevant. Strong talents and strong ideas are timeless and limitless. They can literally come from 'anywhere'. And you can work with them from 'anywhere'. We have of course been experiencing this ourselves since 2008, when we started working with BLISS Interactive in Vietnam. Talent from 'anywhere'. For customers 'anywhere'. That is the basic principle. Hence ‘Happiness Anywhere’. 

In addition, knowing all bottom lines are under pressure at both client and agency sides, we no longer believe in a model that requires full-fledged 'agencies' in other countries, in order to serve a client. We do not think all talents we work with need to be on the payroll continuously. That model only brings unnecessary overhead. And that’s something clients and agencies really don’t need these days. 

Hence the idea of ‘Happiness Anywhere’, combining a loose, but dedicated union of 'Friends of Happiness' working from Anywhere, including the two fixed hubs in Europe and the one in Southeast Asia'.' 

Geoffrey Hantson, Group Chief Creative Officer of Happiness Anywhere: 

'Due to various phenomena coming together, the time is now to spread ‘Happiness, anywhere’.  

First, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will ensure our imaginative and creative professional craft will be more crucial than ever, making a difference for brands and differentiating them from their competitors with long-term creative platforms. And for that, you need talent. Talent that can come up with different solutions for similar briefings. Solutions that an AI won’t find. Such talent is scarce. Secondly, such a talent cannot and does not necessarily want to be 'on the payroll' anymore. It’s an industry trend: these talents work less and less in a permanent context. They either want to be at the helm themselves, or they work in a freelance context: where, when, and how they want to. That's why our "Friends of Happiness" model gives us access to every country’s best talent. We have found that these talents are happy to work with us as independent collaborators, keeping control of their schedule and the way they work.

This new agency model allows us to maximise our creative potential by calling on exceptional and motivated talent that can offer added value to our clients. So, what would stop us from going all in with this new agency model? 

The first customers served by 'Anywhere' are Marktplaats, Wolfoil, SPA® which are present in both Belgium and the Netherlands.