The combined business will offer five consulting capabilities: foresight and trends; dynamic demand; growth strategy; go-to-market innovation; and business capability and implementation.

Forge will be headquartered in London, with additional offices in Amsterdam and New York.

The Forge founder Steven Melford will be chief executive and lead the business alongside Eleanor Lloyd Malcolm, formerly managing director at Freemavens and now chief growth officer and managing director at Forge. The two will report to Bart Michels, executive director at MSQ.

Founded in 2012, Freemavens has been part of MSQ since 2020, when MSQ acquired its previous parent company Be Heard.

The Forge, founded in 2013, was acquired by MSQ in May last year.

The agencies’ clients include PepsiCo, CFA Institute, Danone, Diageo, Unilever and Kraft Heinz.

Michels said: “The strategic consultancy market is ripe for disruption. There is a big gap between brilliant strategic thinking and genuine business impact. 

“By combining our senior consulting expertise with intelligent data, integrated technology and applied creativity, we believe Forge is perfectly placed to close that gap, giving clients both the thinking and the means to act on it.”

Malcolm said: "We have the ability to deliver strategic advisory at the highest level with the tangible toolkits needed to drive engagement and implementation throughout an organisation.”