When did you set up Media Bounty and what do you do?
Westartedin2008withthreefoundingpartnerswhoarestillthe
boardandwe’vemorphedfromabespokePRcompanytobeinga
brand entertainment agency, effectively a modern ad agency. We
do video, audiovisual content and social media for a bunch of big brands and then get the content seen across various platforms by the right person at the right time.
We all came out of a business that went bust so there was a
decisiontobemadeastowhetherwegoandgetjobsorwhether
three crucial people in that business go and set up themselves. Over a pint and several glasses of wine we decided we could probably do thisbetterthanit’sbeingdoneatthemoment.Wehadanaccountant
that we knew, he introduced us to a lawyer and we set up the URLs andstartedtradingveryquickly,withacoupleofclientswe’dknown
for a long time. So we already had an element of revenue.
Because it was 2008 and banks were not lending money, we all went for personal loans. I went and said I needed money for a new car, my colleague said she needed money for home improvements, and my other partner and founder went to the Bank of Mum and Dad. So we had three months of cash from this and, obviously, if it had all gone wrong we would be in a lot of bother – but fortunately itwentright!
You’vegottodowhatittakes,ifyouhavenootherroute.Wewent
tofriendswhohadmoremoneythanwedid;weinvestigatedgetting
abusinessloanbuttheclimatewasn’tthere,soifwehadn’ttaken
apersonalriskitcouldn’thavehappened.
Because it had come from somewhere you knew it was viable; it wasn’t a complete unknown.
Yes,butIdon’tthinkmanypeoplesetupabusinessthattheydon’t
thinkisviable;it’sgottobeacalculatedriskasopposedto‘fuck
it,Idon’tknowwhat’sgoingtohappen’–otherwiseyourunoutof
money very quickly.
So were your co-founders colleagues, friends or both?
Colleagues in the previous business. One was a university friend whom I had recruited into the previous business, and Emma I had worked with for the best part of six years. So I knew them both well.
Do you feel that your roles complement each other and it all works, or did it take a bit of developing over the years?
It’stakensomesortingoutovertheyears.Weranbycommitteeat
first and, sometimes, when you run something with no structure at board level you run the risk of inertia, because the person who says no is de facto running the company.
When you say there was no structure, what exactly do you mean?
It was three directors on an even keel. So there was a consultant that approached us and he came in and did a lot of personality profiles, interviewed us all to then make a pretty strong recommendation as to how we should structure ourselves.
So have you picked someone to be in charge?
Yes
And that’s you?
Yes
And has that worked? It’s a tricky transition!
It has but it took time. People need to think about that as early as possible, i.e. how something is structured, because if you do it halfway through there are always going to be challenges because there’shistory.IwoulddothatearlierifIwastodoitagain.
So what are your official roles now?
I’m MD, Matt is client services director and Emma is a hybrid of
insights director, HR director and operations director.
Would you recommend, if someone is setting up with their mates, getting a consultant in to do that because it’s an objective opinion?
Yes,definitely.Whenyousetupyou’vegottoparkyouregosatthe
door and say ‘what is the best make-up of the characters in the business?’Becauseitcouldendupasacompetitionbetweenyou.
Objectiveadvicefromsomebodywhohasbeeninbusinessforafew
yearsandsocangivegoodadvice–that’sagoodstartingposition.
Weonlydidjobdescriptionsthreeyearsagoandifwehaddonethat
earlier it would have been a clearer way of working.
What was your vision at the beginning?
Naively, we did what we knew, so we had run a lot of media competitions and radio interviews and the naive vision was ‘this willprobablywork,wewillprobablybeabletosellitinfiveyears’.
Wearenowsevenandahalfyearsin,havechangedthebusiness
immensely and are now in a good position to work with big brands atahigherlevelbecausewe’reofferingamuchmorestrategicand
creative package rather than a tactical, short-term ‘solve a problem here and now’. It’s more about the whole business or brand and
communicating that to the target audience.
Unlessyou’vegotapieceoftech,ittakestimetogettoexit–the
FBs, Twitters, Snapchats are very few and far between where they sellveryquicklyandmakelotsofmoney.Whenyou’reinyourlate
twentiesandquitenaiveaboutbusinessyouthinkit’sgoingtobe
easy–anditain’t.You’vegottofindyourfeet.
Do you still aim to sell in the future or will you stay with the company?
Possibly.I’mopen-mindedaboutit–it’sajudgementcallifandwhen
thathappens.We’restillintheprocessoftryingtogrowthebusiness
butI’dbelyingifIsaidthatifagoodofferwasputonthetableI
wouldn’tconsiderit.Ican’tseethathappeningforthenextfewyears.
Talk about your team now – who else is there in the office?
There’saseniorteamoffive:headofstrategy,twoaccountdirectors,
HOD in charge of audiovisual, and head of media. There's also a client services team and we're now 23 people. Building that senior team has been critical. Once you start growing you can’t manage
everybody so you need senior people whom you trust but who do partsofthejobbetterthanyoudo,soyou’vegotthatmixofskills
thatfreesuppeoplelikemetoworkonthebusinessratherthanjust
inthebusiness.Ifyoudon’thavepeopleyoutrustthatdoagreatjob
andgiveashitthenit’sverydifficulttoworkonthebusiness–you
endupspendingallyourtimeworkinginthebusiness.I’mtryingto
grow the business and see the bigger picture as opposed to being constantly at the coalface.
Did you have job descriptions for all those people or was it more organic?
Bitofboth.Wemadequitealotofmistakes.Mainlywehiredthe
right people and those people are still there but we also hired the wrong people, too, and had to part company. Part of growing a businessisthatsomeofityou’llgetrightandsomeofityou’llscrew
up–it’saboutlearningfromthescrew-upssoyoudon’tdoitagain.
A lot of it has been organic because four out of the five senior people have been with us for more than two years and have been promoted into these more senior positions, so they know the business well.
Who are your main clients – and what is the spread of clients?
We used to over-rely on one or two clients; the spread is now a
lotbetter.We’vemovedfrombeingproject-basedtohavinglonger- term relationships with some of our key clients. Clients include SCA
(Bodyform, Plenty, Tena), Velvet, Colgate, Palmolive, Direct Line, Boots, Siemens, Celetrens who distribute drinks brands, Luxado in Italy.
Did you make a conscious decision that the business was more stable with a spread of clients?
If you’re complacent then you’re much more at risk than if you’re
aware of it and work hard to grow other opportunities. If that client hadwalkedoutthreeorfouryearsagowe’dhaveprobablybeenbust
orwe’dhavehadtoreallydownscalequickly,whereasnowwe’reina
positionwhereifwelostabigclientwe’dbefine.Thatallowsyouto
loselesshair.It’sabalanceaboutmakingsuretherelationshipsare
with the right stakeholders within the businesses as well, because thosepeoplecanchangeandaffectthecompany’srelationtothe
business.Weneedtoknowhowthepoliticsofbigbusinessworks
and how their external and internal structures work.
Ourturnoverisallclient-based.Noinvestors.We’veputalotof
profitbackintothebusinesstomakesurewe’vealwayshadabuffer
cashreserve.We’vebeenveryluckyinthatwedidthatquiteearly
andwe’veneverhadasituationwherewe’resaying:‘howthehell
arewegoingtopaypeople?’
What advice would you give in terms of retaining money in the business over the years when you’re not getting a huge amount of turnover?
Between three and six months of admin cash or on your balance sheet tocoveryourrunrate;easilydigestiblemanagementaccountsso
youunderstandasquicklyaspossiblewhetheryou’reoverspending
somewhere;arobustforecastandbudgetsoyouunderstandwhat’s
comingdownthetrack.Thisiseasytosayinhindsightandwe’ve
doneitaswe’vegonealong–butifIwastodoitagainthosearethe
thingsI’dputinstraightaway.Allabouthavingtherightinformation
to be able to make the right decisions.
What is the culture of your company?
The culture is a bunch of people who are fun to work with and really care.It’snotjustajob.Oneofourvaluesiswegiveashitabout
people we work with and clients we work with. We have a charity
partner.It’squiteflatintermsofideasandwheretheycomefrom.
Wedon’thavea‘creative’department.There’snocreativedirector
so nobody has that ultimate responsibility. We run open creative
sessions,inanego-freeenvironment,wherenoidea’sabadidea.
Then we go back to present to the client three or four ideas from a brainstormof25.Ifcreativityisalways‘owned’byonedepartment
thenyoudon’tencouragecreativityelsewhere.
How has the digital space changed since you’ve set up?
It’snowchangedtothepointwhereplatformisbecomingirrelevant.
If you produce good content that is then optimised for platforms, that’sthetrick.Themobileiswherepeoplenowconsumealotof
content–acertaindemographicdon’twatchtraditionalbroadcast
TVanymore,sowhetheryou’remakingTVfilmorshort-formadsit’s
about the quality of the content, then getting it distributed to people asopposedtohopingthat,forexample,C4willjustcommissionit.
Ratherthanoneortwogatekeepers,it’samuchbroaderidea.It’s
very consumer-first – are they on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, etc.soyoucanhaveasuiteofassetsthatarenotjustcutdowns
but thought about in terms of story – beginning, middle and end – for that platform? Mobile, social networks on those devices, increasingly Snapchat; video is exploding and continues to do so
because it has been the best way of delivering messages since the fifties when TV came out.
Who is your charity partner?
It’sanorganisationcalledWorldLandTrust.Wedidsomeconsultancy
for them, but for every piece of work we do, we fund the purchase of one or more acres of threatened habitat. They work with local NGOs globally.ItspatronsareDavidAttenboroughandChrisPackham.It’s
about making sure we’re not just using the planet as a resource.
Theyobviouslyhadtovetusandmakesurewe’reaviablebusiness,
becauseyourlogoisontheirsite,etc.Overyearswe’vegiventens
of thousands of pounds to them.
What lessons have you learned running a business for several years?
Budgettogetheras early as possible; makesure you’reon topof
expendituretoallowquickgrowth;themantraforanybusinessis
surround yourself with successful people. Starting out, what you don’tknowisalotmorethanwhatyoudoknowandyoucanavoid
making mistakes by talking to people who have done it before. If you thinkyouknowitallyou’llscrewitupprettyquickly.Don’tbeafraid
tomakemistakesandtrynewthings.Ifyoustartabusinessyou’re
taking a risk. The market does not stand still – change your offer as you go along.
What does the future hold for Media Bounty and is it a positive future for start-ups?
Wewillbeproducingmoreandmorecontent,buttherightcontent
– not just content for the sake of it. The spirit of collaboration is
very good at the moment. Bigger businesses are more monolithic andthey’reveryprotectivewhereaswe’vegrownupabitoverthe
lastsevenyears.Now,ifwedon’tdosomething,we’llrecommend
partners to fill the gaps – a collaboration between two companies providing a solution rather than a one-stop shop claiming to do everything. You’ve got to understand the market but I think it’s a
good time to set up and then collaborate with the right people.
Collaboration is a much more positive culture. We’ve tried
to do too much before focusing on what we’re good at and then
collaborating. If you work with businesses in a non-competitive way then everyone learns a lot.