You know what they say about work husbands and work wives: they are the people who keep you sane in professional life. The ones who instinctively get how your brain works, who you can rant to after difficult meetings, celebrate wins with at unreasonable hours, and trust to have your back without needing twenty follow-up emails and a status deck. The relationship is built on chemistry, mutual admiration, shared suffering, occasional chaos and an almost suspicious level of understanding.  

If Laika had a work husband somewhere in the world, it would probably be Clearbox in Belfast.

Granted, we do have more than 50 partner agencies worldwide that we value immensely. We genuinely love our international network and there are brilliant people across every continent. But there is a particularly special Berlin-Belfast bond that developed with Clearbox over the years, and honestly, at this point these guys feel less like a partner agency and more like our Belfast office. 

Part of it is that they simply deliver. Clearbox cares deeply about results, whether that is media, socials, community traction or the overall impact a campaign creates. That matters enormously to our clients and our clients matter enormously to us. Clearbox are the kind of partner-in-crime you can blindly trust to outdo themselves every single time. No ego. No drama. Just a team that genuinely wants the work to succeed. 

But what really makes the relationship special is probably that we recognise ourselves in each other. We are weirdly similar agencies living parallel lives in different corners of Europe. We face the same challenges, ask the same questions, obsess over the same details and can discuss all of it with complete transparency. Whether it’s growth pains, leadership questions or hilariously niche agency-owner topics like “how do you approach your first male hire?”, there is something incredibly comforting about having people on the other side of Europe who just get it without needing a two-hour explanation first.

Clearbox also believes, like we do, in the power of relational glue and local community. That phrase may sound fluffy until you see it in action. They understand that the best campaigns are not built through transactional networking or soulless clipping hunts, but through real ecosystems of trust, goodwill and people genuinely wanting to make things happen together. That mindset does not only create very good parties – it also unlocks things for clients that no KPI dashboard can fully quantify.

And perhaps the thing we admire most: Clearbox is zero cynical. In communications, that is rarer than it should be. There is no detached “too cool to care” energy, no performative cleverness, no treating people like stepping stones. They care deeply about the work, about people, about creativity and about their city. Even when working with some of the largest companies in their industries, pulling headlines in major media outlets for market leaders, they still approach smaller local organisations with the same enthusiasm and respect. Not because it is glamorous. Not because it will win awards. But because there is this genuine feeling that helping is simply the neighbourly thing to do.

Honestly, they embody the Paw Patrol motto better than most agencies:  “No job is too big, no pup is too small.”

There is also the cultural overlap. We both love great design. We both believe brands should feel alive beyond a press release. We both appreciate good work swag perhaps slightly more than professionally necessary. Events matter. Merchandise matters. Atmosphere matters. A campaign should live everywhere — in the visuals, the social storytelling, the details, the energy in the room. Clearbox understands instinctively that communication is not just about visibility. It is about building collective culture around a brand.

And then there is the generosity. Their team always acts as a sparring partner whenever needed and shares knowledge incredibly openly instead of hoarding it. That is also a complete overlay with Laika culture. We genuinely believe the best agencies are the ones secure enough to make everybody around them stronger too.

Last but not least, we have Zelda. They have Iggy Pug. An actual pug. At some point you simply have to accept when the universe is trying to tell you something.

So yes, this is a love letter to our Belfast partner. But mostly it is a love letter to the people at Clearbox who continuously inspire us – like every good work husband should – to become the best version of ourselves.

– Ela & the Space Dogs