The much-anticipated 2021 agency benchmark results are now live.
Agencies of all shapes, sizes, locations and sectors have participated in BenchPress 2021, providing a benchmark for agency owners all over the UK.
Thanks to the large number of agencies that took part, this year there are more reports than ever before.
Proctor + Stevenson, one of the UK’s longest-established marketing, design and technology agencies, today announced the formation of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group and with it, the creation of three new companies within its family.
The three new businesses – Proctor + Stevenson Strategy, Proctor + Stevenson Creative and Proctor + Stevenson Technology – reflect the key areas of specialism within the Group, and provide a roadmap for expansion, outlining an ever-growing range of services to clients around the world.
The move represents a division of the business into three ‘pillars’, with each company having its own Board of Directors, budgets and targets, while still benefiting from the shared resources and services provided by the Group.
“Despite the challenges of the past 12 months, Proctor + Stevenson has enjoyed a year of success,” explains Roger Proctor, Managing Director of Proctor + Stevenson Limited Group. “This is a time of great change and opportunity for us, and we’ve always believed that staying still is actually going backwards. Our new structure will not only mean greater transparency and accountability for our clients, it will also allow the businesses within the Group to be more flexible, more independent and provide more value in the areas it’s most needed.
“The restructuring is the next chapter in the Proctor + Stevenson story, demonstrating once again our desire to lead, rather than follow, and to enhance our position as a world-class agency with a world-class (and expanding) roster of clients. And while our ambitions are global, the new companies will remain as committed as ever to the local community in which we live and work. As a business, we’re Bristol born and bred, and we’re proud contributors to the ongoing success of the South West and the UK.”
For more information on the Proctor + Stevenson group of companies, or to discuss our services in more detail, please email [email protected].
The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is launching a new business support programme for businesses and individuals working in the creative industries, as part of its Regional Recovery Plan.
The programme is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) working in the creative industries, including creative freelancers, that require support as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sector specific business support programme is designed to build resilience and support change in response to Covid-19. It will offer support for individuals and management teams to reformulate operating and financial models and business plans through mentoring, peer networks and training and workshops.
There will also be grants for creative projects that support recovery and resilience. A grant fund for creative freelancers will give self-employed people the opportunity to become more resilient by developing their own creative product, practice or service, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A grant fund for creative businesses will fund creative projects that support recovery and resilience, employ freelance creatives, engage local communities and advance diversity and inclusion.
Grants will range from £1,000 to £3,000 for freelancers and £5,000 to £10,000 for businesses.
Regional Mayor Tim Bowles said: “Our cultural and creative industries really are the soul of the West of England and are an important contributor to our wider economy. As we secure our recovery from the impact of Covid-19, this much-needed support will help ensure that our creative businesses can continue to provide exciting and engaging jobs, attract new commercial opportunities and help ensure the West of England remains an exciting and vibrant place to live and work.”
The business support programme has been designed in consultation with members of the creative and cultural sector, with a focus on recovery from the pandemic and the priorities of inclusivity, diversity and community engagement.
The programme also fits with WECA’s ambitions to establish a West of England Cultural Compact, an initiative jointly funded with Arts Council England. This will involve the creation of a new strategic cultural partnership which will lead on the development of a Cultural Strategy and new activities to help increase investment across the creative and cultural sectors in region.
Professor Sue Rigby, Vice-Chancellor of Bath Spa University, West of England LEP board member and interim chair of the Cultural Compact, said: “Culture is part of our DNA in the West of England, and so many of us value it and earn our livings from it. The pandemic has highlighted our need for culture as a key part of our recovery, and the Cultural Compact will help us to bring this about as a region.
WECA will also be running the fourth cohort of its successful Creative Scale Up programme, which is already providing almost 60 creative businesses with online peer and mentoring support to help them respond to the impact of Covid-19.
Since joining the programme in January 2020, Bristol-based independent development studio and games consultancy Auroch Digital has secured a new publishing deal and taken on 15 new members of staff.
Dr Tomas Rawlings (pictured), Chief Executive of Auroch Digital, said: “The Creative Scale Up programme, particularly the mentoring process, was great – we were able to pick mentors targeting specific needs we have. We got direct support with business questions as they arose and that helped us deal with them and move forward.
“As a result, we’ve been able to advance some key areas of the company. We’ve landed one big publishing deal for a new IP game and are circling a second big project, and that mentoring advice has been part of the mix of positives getting us there. Information provided by the Creative Scale Up team also led us to a UWE Digital Innovation Fund grant.”
Creative businesses wanting to find out more about the new business support programme, grant funds and the Creative Scale Up scheme should visit WECA’s Growth Hub page.
The Culture and Creative Industry Business Support Programme and grant funds are a key part of the West of England Recovery Taskforce’s regional action plan to protect and secure jobs, creating opportunities for all residents to share in the recovery. As part of this, WECA’s Together West of England campaign is connecting businesses with the support and guidance they need to adapt, build resilience and prepare for the future, as well as helping residents to access new skills, training and employment opportunities.
Through the West of England Growth Hub businesses of any size in the West of England can access free information and guidance on a variety of issues including workforce planning, HR advice and guidance, employability support, training and skills development and coaching.
There is a lot going on in the world right now – a pandemic, Brexit, and a lot of global uncertainty, but there are also a lot of opportunities.
Global trade is rebounding far quicker than it did after the 2008 financial crisis. Shipping volumes returned to levels in half the time that took to reach post-Lehman. Central banks are continuing to steam ahead with unprecedented financial support packages, driving some global stock markets to record gains.
Most importantly, different countries will recover from this period at different speeds. Which ones will recover faster? Which markets show the opportunity most suited to your expansion plans?
Maybe you have spotted an opportunity?
You need to consider these three things when looking to expand into new markets in 2021.
You have been working with your agency for a couple of years. They have a solid team and presence in a few different countries. You have talked to them about moving into different markets. It was a conversation that brought you excitement. They may have even offered to hire in specific countries for you. “Great,” you thought.
Do not remain with your existing partners for multi-market growth unless you have an extremely good reason to.
Dig into their network properly – assess their depth of expertise in different markets. Do they partner? Do they have a handful of account handlers in different countries and call that ‘international’? What is their client base? Which markets do their client base operate in? Are they showing bias by leading you into new markets based on their own experience?
The key to having a successful international partner is that they genuinely demonstrate to you that they have a substantial network that they have full control over (not partnerships). They need to be focused on the ways and means of providing the agility and connectivity that powers that network.
Customer experience has been an excellent buzzword for a few years. And yes, worry not, we have a customer journey loop we are proud of as well.
If you are looking to expand into a new market, the fundamentals should be understanding the culture and context of a new market. It is not about customer journey mapping in a conventional sense, but it is about truly getting to understand the culture, the context and how to reach customers in your new market. You can only really do this by assembling a team of people who deeply understand the markets you are moving into.
Get your context and cultural understand wrong and you have spent a lot of money and time launching into a new market badly.
What we have seen from clients who engaged with us throughout 2020 is that almost 100% needed help in planning their entry into new markets. The business case was there and strategically it made sense, but the substance in a business case needed building.
This comes from deep exploration into new markets. And by that, I do not mean spending time on ‘Google Market Finder’. I mean local insights – insights based on cultural understanding and a very deep level of data that is well assembled to digest and interpret.
Processing this data, at speed, is very difficult to do well across multiple markets without the right toolset and teams experienced in handling this data. Look for true added value from tools that your partner is offering or look to acquire some. Find a partner who will present you with assimilated data in ways you did not know possible to give you the context you really need.
Spend time interpreting and analyzing this data and ensure your entry into a new market is data-led and well researched, so you fully appreciate the opportunity (and pitfalls) of your strategy.
With less than a decade left to achieve Vision 2030, many organisations in the KSA region have successfully embarked on the journey to digital transformation. This is especially true when it comes to internal operations, streamlining workflows and taking administrative tasks online.
Some, though, will have found the task of transforming their marketing functions much more challenging.
The reason? Internal, administrative processes are fundamentally different to marketing tasks, and will require a different mindset to succeed.
Internal processes are typically clearly defined, as are the roles of users. When it comes to digitalisation, the objective is to automate repetitive administrative tasks providing greater efficiency and transparency. For many internal operations, the IT environment is well-defined, and the success of moving away from legacy processes to new software, programs or processes relies simply on ensuring their robust, secure implementation.
In these circumstances, transformation projects can involve long development cycles and large capital budgets, and traditional IT project management frameworks are often appropriate.
But compare this with the role of marketing. Just as with other internal processes, any new technology needs to enable your team to efficiently operate at scale and to integrate securely with your CRM and ERP systems. But here the similarity ends.
Marketing technology connects your team to a constantly evolving audience with developing needs and preferences, and a fast-moving, innovative technology landscape where today’s new attractions quickly become old news.
Your marketing team’s focus is on optimising your commercial impact across all points in the customer journey. They rely on multiple digital channels, new media techniques and real-time data to connect with their audience and outpace the competition.
In short, speed and accuracy are of the essence, and your team needs to operate consistently and efficiently at scale.
You need the foundations of a good marketing automation system. But in the fast-moving world of marketing, the ability to innovate, test and learn is vital for competitive advantage.
Given these drivers, applying a traditional, large-scale IT approach to marketing digital transformation is doomed to failure. In fact, the stories of organisations who’ve tried and failed are widely publicised. For those still battling on, by the time their project is complete the media landscape and their audience will have moved on, with more nimble competitors steps ahead alongside them.
Marketing transformation can’t be viewed as a capital project with a start and end date. It requires a framework environment to enable a constant state of innovation, enabled by minimum viable products (MVPs), deployed in test-and-learn sprints.
It might sound counter-intuitive, but the framework anticipates and accepts a certain level of failure. However, it also ensures you integrate successful innovations to create an evolving, interoperable, open ecosystem over time.
So how does it work?
Every development is planned, managed and measured by its potential and actual impact on Return-On-Investment (ROI).
Discovery and planning are vital parts of the marketing transformation process. They create the vision and framework for everything you do.
While it would be a mistake to adopt small innovation sprints at the expense of thinking big, with your vision and framework in place, you can then narrow your focus down to a few key marketing processes.
By assessing the points in the customer journey that will produce the greatest commercial impact, whether through efficiency or improved customer acquisition and retention, you can create a prioritised roadmap of development sprints.
It’s at this point that many projects falter.
Once you’ve prioritised your starting innovations, there’s no doubt you’ll come across a number of cases where your system needs full integration and complete end-to-end interoperability to work optimally.
Instead, you need to focus on the minimum viable product (MVP) you need to test the innovation and measure its ROI.
The MVP approach may well require additional manual processes to start with, but it will put your innovation in the hands of your users quicker, and prove (or disprove) its commercial return against a smaller investment.
The push for modernisation from Vision 2030 is a bold, ambitious aim. To achieve it, marketing must have a clear vision for what the ultimate customer journey looks like, and how technology can facilitate it.
Success doesn’t rely on a large capital budget to create the ultimate, perfect machine: It lies in an agile framework, enabling a constant state of ‘test-and-learn’ innovation. An attitude which champions flexibility, evolution and growth is key, as is a commitment to innovation and a focus on ROI.
This shift in mindset can often be the biggest cultural challenge for an organisation to overcome. That’s why at Proctors, we work closely with our clients across the KSA region – and the world – helping them to achieve success and avoid the pitfalls which cause stalled or failed digital marketing transformation initiatives.
Get in touch with us and let’s talk about how we can innovate your marketing strategy.
Almost without exception, agencies are embracing a more flexible attitude and approach to work and an overwhelming majority of employees would like to see this continue. But as you get to grips with what the future of work might look like, some aspects of agency life should become less flexible and even non-negotiable. And this is actually a good thing.
Flying in the face of constraints, the winning agencies will be the ones with an uncompromising focus on their culture, focusing on how they can support their people to be their best selves and do era-defining work. An awakening for some perhaps, but really just smart business as the battle for talent ramps up. The quality of agency culture is topping the list of reasons for the top talent to stay or go.
So where does an uncompromising approach pay when it comes to the codes you set, the teams you build and the way you work together?
We know from recent research and extensive work with our clients that a new cultural contract is emerging. Operating with a clear purpose, solid values and an unwavering commitment to wellbeing, diversity and open communication is non-negotiable. Structuring and supporting teams to play to their strengths, build healthy habits and be impact-driven is non-negotiable. Creating a connected working experience that makes the most of time and space wherever you might physically be, is non-negotiable.
We explore this new cultural contract and more in the Future Positive Talent guide, which you can download today. Find out more about what a new era of work demands and gain some critical advice on how to master it.
As a PR agency, we often talk about the importance of building the profile of a business or an individual, but what does that really mean? Here we cover the basics about building a profile – why it’s important, how it helps with day-to-day PR and where to start.
When we talk about having a profile, we mean being known for something – often for a specialism. For a PR agency, our client having a profile will either mean that, when discussing you with a journalist they might know you by name, or by company. Or we will be able to quickly demonstrate your profile by sharing articles and coverage that proves it.
Equally, you or your company might be given a quick Google at some stage. Generally, a range of pieces appearing, not just from your website, demonstrate what you stand for. The same goes for prospects or potential customers or connections – if they search for you, they should ideally see a good range of pieces that represent you and your area of expertise. (We’ve also written more about the benefits good PR brings across your business).
Being known for something in particular will mean you’re more likely to be featured in an article about it. You might become a go-to person on the topic. You could appear on a podcast or at an event all around it. Even if you feel you’re an expert, it’s much harder to convince a journalist to feature your commentary or news if they’ve never heard of you and can’t find much about you online. Especially if you’re up against competitors with ready-made profiles.
Remember, journalists need to be sure they’re speaking to an expert, rather than someone who could be talking a good game without much substance behind it. They can’t risk spending time on an interview otherwise. And, if they do find a good source with a decent profile, they will come back again, and could even remember you if they move positions or publications.
Two main things are important: the consistency of what you’re saying and the regularity of you saying it. Consistency comes back to your key specialisms or areas to push. And it’s not just about talking – it’s also about demonstrating. As an agency, you can do this through sharing creative work to prove your proposition, for example, or, as a business, through your output or your products.
We are happy to work on one-off pushes or launches, or on ongoing PR. But, to build a profile, you need regularity. It’s important to be providing what publications need frequently and consistently. That’s also key if you want to get into a particular publication. We will help you to understand what to target them with and we will keep them on our radar and discuss you with them at every appropriate opportunity. We can only do this with an ongoing relationship.
We often work with people who have never promoted themselves or their business, or worked with a PR consultancy before, so we’re experienced in starting from scratch. It’s an opportunity – a clean slate. But it’s also important to understand that it’s the start of a process of building a profile. PR isn’t about going from zero to hero overnight.
Take Joe Wicks, as an example. He wasn’t really on my radar until his brilliant PE With Joe initiative this time last year. We’re now faithful Friday home PE fans (fancy dress and all!) and you can hardly move for seeing another article or cover story about him. So I could be forgiven for thinking he was an overnight sensation.
But actually, he’s openly talked about his 10 years of hard work behind the scenes, leading to that event. If he’d have hired a PR company 10 years ago (and maybe he did) there’s no way he would have been so in demand. He worked hard on his product, captured the zeitgeist and now his profile is sky high.
OK, so we don’t all have Joe Wicks ambitions (although some might!), but we may want to become a sought-after speaker within our sector, or the go-to professional in our field within our local area. And it’s great to start with a clear objective.
As PR pros, it’s our job to help you define that objective – that’s why we kick off with our Three Lens Messaging Session. And from that, we create a plan which will have clear steps to build towards that ambition.
We’ve landed some great pieces for clients relatively early on in working with them – be that an interview with the BBC, the Evening Standard or The Times. Fantastic. But one piece – even a brilliant piece in a top tier publication – does not make a profile.
Having a profile is about momentum and consistency. Top tier titles might be part of that, but probably sector press will be as well. More about the importance of trade and local press here.
Two final points – it’s not about having advertorials or paid-for pieces. These aren’t always viewed in the same way as editorial. Advertising is part of the mix, but it’s not the same as having an earned profile. And lastly, timing is also crucial. It’s great if you did some activity five years ago, but if there’s nothing since that, your profile isn’t a current one.
For further advice on this, we’ve also written about what you can do to support profile raising through your own channels.
It feels like no time at all since this course launched, we’re onto the third cohort of New Ways of Working already, and I’m thrilled with how it’s going! Would you like to sign up to be a part of the next group, starting on 29 March? The first two sold out and I’d love for you to join me for the third 🤗
It’s been awesome helping people to experiment with new ways of working in their organisations, which have so far included: BJSS (tech consultancy), Mencap (UK charity), Haringey Council, Mercedes-Benz, Ofwat (UK government department), The Co-operative Group, The Soil Association, BIMM (University), plus a US teaching organisation, an Italian marketing consultancy, a US equity management company, and a lovely non-profit organisation here in Bristol.
- By far one of the most useful, practical, engaging, interesting courses I’ve been on. Hats off to you, super well thought out, from a practical, mental and emotional perspective.
- The experimenting methodology gives me the opportunity to not only “take a course” but actually practising in the “real world”.
- The benefits to the business have been tangible and resulted in me thinking about work in a very different way.
- I loved having another colleague on the course and would totally recommend others try to do the same… I loved the organisation of the course, it all felt incredibly “slick.” … I loved Marks humble approach, he listened to us all intently and was patient with us when we needed more time on certain things.
- The experiments each week really helped me grow my comfort towards experimenting further. They gave me the perspective of how much needs to be a done, and an eye for what might be ‘bite-size’.
- I loved Marks generosity, he clearly spends a lot of time preparing and introduced me to very cool tools that we are now using in the organisation.
- As a facilitator, you do add quite a bit of magic sauce to holding the space, and your curation of materials is unbeatable.
If you’re curious about joining the next group (starting on 29 March) then read on for full details.
The course objective is for you to enjoy your job more and to be an even better member of your team. You’ll learn collaboration and leadership skills, how to hold meetings that don’t feel like a chore, and how to make better decisions by quickly seeking and integrating the wisdom of the group. You’ll learn how to give ‘brain-friendly’ feedback, know what’s getting in the way of being a great team, and develop the mindset to help make change happen.
To do this we’ll borrow from the best sources. These include agile, self-management, organisational psychology, and the most progressive companies on the planet. Here’s a sneak peek of the course platform:
The course is led by me, Mark Eddleston. I’m a new ways of working consultant, coach, facilitator and Founder of Reinventing Work. Since 2015 I’ve been practising new ways of working and synthesising the mountain of information that’s out there. The New Ways of Working course is something of a greatest hits. We’ll fast forward to the trusted, tried and tested patterns that are found in some of the world’s most progressive organisations.
On this course, you’ll be practising and learning all the way. You’ll get better at listening, teamwork, and self-organising. There will be pre-work ahead of each weekly meet on Zoom. You will have the chance to ask questions and to form a community on Slack. You’ll become familiar with Notion, where course content is shared, and with Focusmate which will help you to get through the content. You’ll experience Mural and Liberating Structures. Each week you will design an experiment that will be implemented in your own team. You’ll form partnerships with classmates who will help you, hold you accountable and be depending on you. Throughout, you’ll be experiencing some of the best collaborations tools and practices out there.
Throughout the course, you will learn structures that you can pop in your pocket, take back to work and use immediately.
Expect practical, interactive and participatory. Each week the format looks like this:
So it’s a weekly commitment of at least 6 hours, some of which will take place during work time.
The five-week course begins on Monday, 29 March 2021. We meet every Monday at 18.00 – 20.00 GMT, wrapping up on 26 April 2021.
This course is for you if you are:
To secure your place double-check the eligibility criteria ☝️ then send a note to confirm ([email protected]) and I’ll generate an invoice right away.
Please note that cohorts are limited to 12 places.
I’m a new ways of working consultant, coach, and facilitator and I came across new ways of working in New Zealand in 2015 after spending a pretty frustrating decade in traditional workplaces. It was the first time I found consistent fulfilment in work. This beautiful and challenging experience was with a law firm and community organisation that features on the distinguished Corporate Rebels ‘bucket list’. Once you taste this way of working, it’s impossible to go back. I’ve now been a member of staff in three organisations that embraced progressive leadership, so come with plenty of lived experience.
I’m co-founder of Reinventing Work, a global community and playground for people interested in decentralised, purposeful and self-organised ways of working. So far we’ve gathered in over 25 cities across five continents, including in Bristol (where it began) London, Berlin, Melbourne, Montreal and New York. I’ve delivered online sessions to thousands, spoken about new ways of working at The University of Oxford, and facilitated at Meaning Fringe. I’ve also appeared on the wonderful Leadermorphosis podcast and the University of the West of England’s MSc Occupational Psychology programme discussing the future of work.
My website: https://www.marco.work.
You know the world has changed significantly and that agencies need to change too. Agencies have to meet the new standards that will impact more and more as we move into 2021. We’re sure that you’ll have made some changes to your business – but will they be enough to drive the success you’re looking for?
When it comes to your own business, identifying and implementing the changes that will really make a difference isn’t easy. There’s a need to know what’s really going on, to rethink your approach and be brave about it. And that’s much easier to achieve when armed with new insights and prompted to look at things differently. Our Future Positive guide will provide an understanding of what it takes to achieve agency success when there are new standards at play. It covers all the fundamentals relating to clients, talent and how to create value – and provides critical advice on many different actions you should consider.
We know that clients’ structures, knowledge and expectations are changing significantly, so agencies can no longer rely on historical relationships. Nor on their past approaches to winning new business. We know that top talent is also demanding more choice, flexibility and meaning, making it more challenging than ever to attract and retain good people. We know that high profitability is now an obligation not an option, and that value depends on many factors beyond the simple financials. So there’s a lot to think about and a lot to be positive about too, so take a look.
The Future Positive guide will encourage you to think bigger or do better in different ways in whatever areas are most critical for you. For example, how to sharpen your strategy, improve profitability, strengthen client relationships, win more business, optimise your team’s performance, create a winning culture. And we’re always here to talk so get in touch. We’ll share what we know and explain how other agencies have turned these current challenges into new opportunities.
Want to grow your agency but don’t know how? Has growth plateaued? Are you struggling to find more of the right type of client? Are you trying to build an awesome team and are finding it tough to find the right people? Or perhaps your agency is growing but you’d like a refresher, tips and advice on how to accelerate your growth?
If any of these questions resonate then why not join a bunch of highly motivated agency owners and Janusz Stabik, a coach and mentor to agencies across the globe and lead coach for Google across numerous agency growth programs to help find the answer.
Audience: Agency owner/founders
What’s holding you back from running the agency you want to run? What do the high performers do differently from the rest? How good is your agency?
Janusz will take you through the strategy, benchmarks, tips and templates you’ll need to run an efficient and effective agency to accelerate your growth in 2021. You’ll meet other agency owners and gain fresh perspectives, you’ll feel the weight lift from your shoulders, you’ll be energised and excited about the future and you’ll have gained clarity on how to get there.
By the end of the workshop you will:
Audience: Owner founder + Directors
Running and growing agency depends entirely on recruiting and retaining good people who do great work. You work hard to attract great employees, you want the best! But what does the “best” really mean? Good cultural fit? Good at their job? Experienced? Passionate about their work? All of this?
If any of the following rings true, this workshop is for you:
At the end of this workshop you will:
Audience: Agency owner founders, sales/marketing teams, account managers/client service execs
The average agency loses 20% of its revenue every single year through client churn. The sobering fact is, this is the average and it’s not uncommon for churn to be closer to 45% (a HUGE hole to fill). This results in unhappy teams, unhappy clients, lost marketing spend, lost time, lost effort, lost money – no wonder growth is so difficult?
What if:
Sound like a pipe dream? It’s not and it’s eminently achievable.
At the end of this workshop you will:
Join this workshop to find out how to kick-start your growth by focusing on your most important asset – your existing customers.
You can book for each individual session via the links above or, for the most value, book all three sessions as a package by emailing [email protected].
Individual sessions are £45+VAT per session for BCI members or £70+VAT for non-members.
Book all 4 sessions for £100+VAT (BCI Members) or £160+VAT (non-members).
Janusz is a coach and mentor to agency leaders across the globe through his coaching practice and consultancy, Digital Agency Coach, where he helps helping agency owners to run better businesses, lead better teams, make more money and have fun doing so. He’s an ex-agency owner, a trusted speaker for Forbes, head coach at the GYDA Initiative and a lead coach for Google across multiple agency growth programmes throughout EMEA.
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