Interview with Albin Sandh, Project Manager at Think Happy Thoughts
Think Happy Thoughts - Agency of the Year 2025
We're an agency of 22 people, with clients like Electrolux, Hasselfors Garden and Thermia, but also clients within fundraising and civil society. Some of our client relationships have lasted over 10-15 years, which says quite a lot about how we work. The best thing about us is that we're bold, we dare to push boundaries - and we love it when clients let us do that.
About two years ago, I started as a project manager here at Think Happy Thoughts. I'm fundamentally a designer, which gives me great understanding of the design process at the agency and how important it is to have both space and trust in the creative work for a job to turn out well.
We at Think Happy Thoughts won gold as Agency of the Year 2025 awarded by Regi - a prize where the clients themselves evaluate the agency's work and particularly highlight the relationship and collaboration. And for us, that's central, we want to be a long-term collaboration partner, not just a supplier. We often function as an extended marketing department for our clients, where we develop both concepts, strategy and ongoing production. Everyone who works here is very keen to do well, both towards clients and internally.
A concrete example is the work with Örebro Stadsmission, which also won the Publishing Prize 2023 for best website in its category. The prize itself was the first prize I'd ever been involved in winning in the industry, so it was significant. It felt good - a receipt that what the team did was good enough to win a national industry prize.
All of Sweden's City Missions underwent a comprehensive brand journey at national level, and it became a natural step to develop a new website whilst simultaneously reviewing their entire fundraising work.
Fundraising became a primary part of the website, not something on the side, and that's where you at Octany came into the picture. Among other things, we created a gift shop that made it much clearer for donors what their money goes towards: a food parcel, a wash bag with toothbrush etc. When you put an image and a concrete purpose on the gift, it becomes much easier for people to relate and want to give a donation.
I was project manager for the work with Örebro City Mission, together with Sofia Strömberg from Örebro City Mission. We needed essentially a "plug and play" solution, something modern, flexible and with support for all relevant payment methods.
I analysed the market to see which tools could work for Örebro City Mission's needs and what we wanted to create. I googled with these specific requirements and Octany came up, so I booked a demo. We've now worked with your platform for three years, and it's proven to be a very good choice for the organisations we help.
It's the smooth flow for the user that reduces friction in giving. But, I very recently had a walkthrough of your new platform Octany Unite and now it becomes even easier. It increases what we as an Agency can do. We can control the material better.
Yes, it could be setting up a gift shop in the same flow as the other donations, attaching files, writing the message that should accompany it and thereby also working with the entire customer journey cycle.
The framework is clear to function technically and feel simple, yet large enough to feel free for our operations. It gives us great scope to experiment.
We'll be able to come up with new ideas for our clients. It'll be enormous.
But I also want to add here that I appreciate getting very quick and excellent support. It makes a big difference when you work like me on projects where fundraising is a primary part.
One trick can be to invest in strong storytelling with film and photography. If you shoot too broadly, you don't get through the noise. Better narrow, targeted and relevant for a specific target group, than trying to speak to "everyone".
The web is often the hub. We at Think Happy Thoughts collect data on what actually engages, which messages bite, which material works best. And then we scale with digital advertising, primarily via Meta and Google, but our specialists are comfortable with most modern platforms and tools.
A tip is also that LinkedIn is a relatively expensive advertising platform, especially if one's company is a bit smaller. The same target groups can be reached through more cost-effective advertising spaces - all depending on who you want to speak to.
We find ourselves in a time when AI both challenges and provides opportunities. An important part of our goals going forward is to harness those opportunities in a wise way. We want to continue being at the forefront, both creatively and technically, and use new tools to create even better results for our clients.
I don't want to reveal too much, but recently we've done a major film shoot for a client in the region that will be shown on Sweden's largest LED screen. It's a good example of where we thrive best, in projects where creative excellence, production and impact meet.
