Expert of the Month - Sammy Mansourpour - Agency UK
VIDEO: 50:38
Welcome to May’s GYDA Member Hub Expert of the month. This month Robert interviews Sammy Mansourpour of Agency UK. AUK are an integrated brand communications agency based in Bath. They are privately owned and proudly independent, helping businesses grow by creating more meaningful brand experiences.
What makes AUK unique?
Embracing conflict
Creative for creating brand success
Strange times and how AUK are addressing the crisis
Client base and projects – what’s going on
New business pipeline – pitches during lock-down
Growing through a recession
Predictions for post lock-down business
What will the new normal look like
Remote working and coming out of it
To small to be big and being to big to be small – agency sizes
Business Development
Pausing the business
What does the Financial Director look like in AUK?
Being excited about the future
Running a virtual agency
Sammy’s top tips for running an agency
Transcription:
Robert Craven 00:07
What makes you different?
Sammy Mansourpour 00:10
Well, we're in our people, basically, as a service agency, the only thing we have to sell is our people and our expertise. And invariably, that is what makes us unique. People buy from us because they want to work with the people. And they want to know that the people in this agency are hands-on with their business, and they get access to that senior level, experience and talent. So we are only as good as the people we have, the people we find, the people we keep, and the experience that we instill with them, which is one of the reasons that we actually work across multiple sectors to keep that experience alive.
Robert Craven 00:49
I'm going to push you again on that, because that's what anyone, any agency that I went to, would say, they'd say, Oh, our people are our most valuable asset, look at our look at our ping pong tables, and our and our maps and people working from home and stuff. So there is, there's something more than that, Sammy, because in time you've created a successful award winning agency. So is it about how you make the people work together? Is it the people you select? Is it this kind of culture piece? What's what makes what, you know, I go back to the question, Why should I buy from you when I can buy from someone else?
Sammy Mansourpour 01:32
I think all of those, I think all of those are valid, you know, obviously valid and critical to how well people function together as a team. I mean, we do a number of things at the agency, we embrace conflict, because only through continually conflicting ideas and creativity, are we able to actually come to a solution, that's, that's going to be viable, that's going to be commercially viable for our clients. So yes, that's absolutely something that's instilled in the culture here. It's that, that freedom to be vocal from every member of the team, regardless of levels of seniority, it inherently means we've got a flat structure, compared to a lot of bigger firms, and certainly bigger agencies as well. But that flatter structure means that everyone, I think here understands very clearly what it is they can influence in terms of decision making and the responsibility that they can take for the work and the client work that we do. That's what helps us to become a creative agency and instill a creative culture. However, what I've also noticed is that the culture evolves the culture, a lot of people talk about culture being set from the top down. And I think that's possibly true to a point, certainly from a startup perspective in those first early years. And there are aspects of your culture that propagate over time. But there's any lifecycle of a business. From infancy through to teen through to adulthood, the business culture evolves, as well. And you will hope as you go through that, that maturing, that you take the good parts and the bad parts behind. And that's where the experience comes in. So culture is extremely important. A commitment to creativity is hugely important. We've got more analysts and data, folk, journalists and social media, people and technical people in this building than we do. Creative people, I suppose, as you would turn copywriters, and art directors and designers and photographers and videographers and the light. But the truth is that everybody has a duty and a commitment to being creative and to fueling that creative fire, because creativity makes the difference. Data will point you in the right direction. But creativity will make the difference for brands. And we wholeheartedly believe that. And I think when you compare where a lot of agencies and particularly digital agencies have gone, they've gone down the systemic route, they've gone down the data route. Those are platforms. They are not the things that are going to help brands make a difference and disrupt markets. Ideas, do that. And that's what we're about.