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OneFifty Blog

Social media and digital marketing news

OneFifty Consultancy

Why are we called OneFifty?

One of the questions we get asked the most is: Why OneFifty Consultancy for a Social and Digital Marketing Consultancy?


Much like website dwell time, that’s a data point that can be taken as either positive or negative. Do they ask because it is so thought-provoking and memorable, fully conveying the range of our values and proposition? Or is it because it is confusing and unclear?


Naturally, we opt for the former. However, although we mentioned it when we launched, it merits expansion.


So, Why OneFifty as a name for a social and digital marketing consultancy?

Well, it is inspired by Professor Dunbar. He is such an inspiring chap, he got a number named after him. We kid you not. That’s serious life goals, right there, eh?


Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar FBA FRAI
Robin Dunbar , FBA FRAI

But what did Professor Dunbar do, and why is it relevant for a consultancy?

Well, his research (you can read more, much more, here or here) is illuminating the nature of human connections. Throughout communities, from primitive to modern, villages to factories, social networks to parishes, the number hovers around or just below 150.


The number 150 acts as an upper bound for the number of active social connections a human can maintain.

That felt incredibly relevant as an expression of the challenge we fundamentally address: how to meaningfully connect with people on a social level.


Our tools of choice are typically social or digital ones, but the premise remains the same: in a world in which we are hardwired by biology to have a cognitive limit to our connections, how can you earn your way into that elect group?


There is no research on whether organisations are included in the 150 number.


Although this research on phone calls (for example) rather suggests (but doesn’t prove) that technology merely services our existing capacity for connections, rather than augmenting it.


Did we think about other names? Sure.

One day we might use some of them. They were pretty cool for a marketing business. But nothing summed up, so succinctly, our fundamental purpose. Or indeed, on an existential level, ALL of our existential purposes.


BUT – we’re “OneFifty”. Written in full. No space. Capitals. Always. Unicorns cry when people call us “150” or "One Fifty"



OneFifty's office
OneFifty's office

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