In this edition of the Creativepool Company Spotlight, we’re thrilled to shine a light on Founder Creative, a dynamic agency that has made waves in the sports and gaming sectors. Led by Co-Founder and Head of Creative, Tom Gent, the Manchester-based company has rapidly carved out a reputation for delivering high-quality, innovative campaigns that punch well above their weight.

From collaborating with global giants like EA Sports and Supercell to crafting unforgettable moments for iconic brands, Founder Creative is proving that big ideas and agile, bespoke approaches can make a profound impact. Let's dive into the story of their success, resilience, and the creative spirit that drives them forward.

How was your company born and where are you based?

The idea for the company came back in November 2019 and started officially in February 2020. I had a sense that the ideas I had could be of value to brands, and with my experience in production it felt like something I’d regret not trying if I didn’t go for it – particularly after being a part of agencies and large companies for all my career.

Having previously been pitched to by global agencies in my brand side roles, I wanted to back myself and prove that we could deliver creative concepts that were of the same quality, for a fraction of the price, whilst then delivering the production side of things under one roof. The idea being more our client’s budget goes on screen, and we have ultimate control over the end product.

After many years in London and living and working abroad, we’re now proudly back home with our main office in Manchester.

What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?

The competitive nature of the sports sector.. Even though you may think you have work that could raise the bar for a brand, they often already have an established working relationship with somebody, so it can be a challenge to get your foot in the door.

We’ve been fortunate enough that when we’ve had the opportunity, the work has delivered and we’ve managed to establish some brilliant relationships directly with global brands, so we certainly punch above our weight - but that’s the entire business model.

Which was the first huge success that you can remember?

Having the opportunity to pitch to EA and work with their eSports department.  It was our first major job as Founder, so it was a massive moment to partner with such a successful global brand.  We threw everything at it to ensure it was a success, and that was our launchpad. 

What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?

We’ve been given the opportunity to partner once again with EA Sports FC Mobile to shoot at 20 partner clubs around the globe. It’s a brilliant opportunity for us to showcase what we can do with the biggest sports stars in the world. 

It comes off the back of our recent commercial work with Erling Haaland x Clash of Clans for Supercell, which has propelled us to the next level given the global success of the campaign.

We’re currently in conversation with several new and exciting brands that we hope to partner with into 2025.

Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?

At Founder we have a core team that we then expand and contract depending on workload. This allows us to remain profitable and nimble depending on the state of the market, bringing best value to the clients we’re working with. There aren’t huge overheads in the background so we minimise wasting time and money.

Our business model is about getting the right people in for each job. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all model, and so we bring in experts in each field depending on the needs of each individual job.

As the Head of Creative, I’ll lead the creative thinking and pitching process before we then crew up with that bespoke team as quickly as possible. We’ve found this offers a unique approach to each brief and has yielded some brilliant results.

I believe it works so well as our core team have been lucky enough to work on sports and gaming events and campaigns all over the globe on both brand and agency side. That coupled with our black book of trusted contacts that we’ve built up over the past 20 years has given us a great platform for success. 

How does your team remain inspired and motivated?

We have a core team of incredibly motivated people who love sport and gaming. It can be hard to find people that love your business as much as you do, but I think we’ve done that. We have people who are absolutely sports mad and incredibly passionate. For me, it’s a bit of a dream come true that people have the same passion as I do, want to deliver the best work possible and will run through brick walls for us.

It’s also meant to be fun and we try and keep it that way.  It’s not lost on us that it is such a privilege to work with amazing brands and your sporting heroes. We also try and allow flexibility in the team. We have lots of remote working, and we don’t micro manage. There is trust and respect, and as long as the great work keeps getting done, then everybody is happy.

How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.)

We have a New Business Director on board nowadays, however because of the global brands we work with, it’s provided a great portfolio for other people and brands to look at us and then get in touch. We’ve been fortunate enough to be approached numerous times based off the work we’ve done for other brands, businesses and clients.

From that we’ve built relationships with other brands and clients in various roles who have introduced us to others in a range of positions. We’ve had great success by word of mouth and showing people our work, but we are of course proactive in our approach. Having said that, we are very targeted in who we work with.

We want to work with say a dozen premium brands that we love and that we feel we can deliver great work for. We don’t want 50 clients. We want a small core group we can deliver a bespoke service to and that we enjoy working with.

Can you share a defining moment in your company's journey that shaped its identity or direction?

I’d have to say our work launching Erling Haaland into Clash of Clans was a defining moment in our recent history.  It’s not only sports brands who want to work with sporting icons - they now bridge the worlds of gaming, fashion and lifestyle.  If a brand is interested in collaborating with sporting talent, our experience of their world simply makes the project work smoothly and means we can bring a really exciting creative to life. 

From that campaign.  We’ve had some real interest from other big brands due to the global success of the ad.

What measures do you take to ensure diversity and inclusion are prioritised within your company?

One way we’re looking to bring in new talent from a range or different socio-economic and culturally diverse backgrounds is through an internship and talent scheme we are set to launch. In the creative industry you often see a lot of the same sorts of people, which is something we are very conscious of. Even as a small business, we are looking to make a difference to bring through the best talent the North has to offer.

Can you describe a project that challenged your team creatively and how you overcame any obstacles?

Our McLaren F1 Team project was certainly one that focused the team. We were  approached five weeks before the shoot date and the creative was still to be refined. The team had a Japanese artist designing a bespoke livery for the car during the Japanese Grand Prix, so it was a great project to be a part of. We worked alongside The&Partnership, Vuse and Mclaren to ensure we hit the right notes within Japanese culture and delivered something authentic. The film became the most successful Driven By Change project ever. 

Our director, who we brought in specifically for that project, understood Japanese fashion and art which really helped given the short time frame we had. Making sure we hit those cultural notes in a timely fashion was crucial, and was further ‘proof of concept’ that bringing in experts in a certain field pays dividends, especially when the stakes are so high.

Can you share a memorable client success story that exemplifies your company's approach and impact?

The EA Sports FC Mobile Team of the Year campaign was aimed predominantly at the Asian and South American markets. With that focus, we had the opportunity to shoot with two footballing superstars for those regions as Brand Ambassadors - Heung-Min Son and Vinicius Junior. Both players were injured, it was raining on both shoot and time was incredibly short. 

It was very a challenging project due to these uncontrollable issues , but we managed to overcome the problems and deliver a piece of work we were incredibly proud of and the client was equally pleased with. The film reached 27 million organic views and became the best performing asset for EA FC Mobile ever.

It really exemplifies our core values: we always find a solution, we’re always collaborative and we always deliver on time.

In what ways do you invest in the professional development and growth of your team members?

We make sure everybody has a voice, feeding in their perspective and unique ideas. We try to hand people the reins and let them run with those ideas.

Young people are close the to brands and technology, and their insight is invaluable. Empowering the team is key to our success.

Being thrown in the deep end early on was transformative in my career, so I find giving that opportunity to the rest of the team with support from, and an open door to the senior team, is extremely valuable.

How do you approach sustainability and ethical practices within your company's operations and projects?

We take it extremely seriously with having as little waste on our sets as possible. Whenever we are shooting, we try and have non-disposable plastics on sets, with things like reusable bottles for all our clients and staff. The main business vehicles are electric, and our branded merchandise is focused on everything being reusable. Bottles, coffee cups, bags and more - all to try and help minimise the environmental impact.

It’s more expensive for a smaller company like ours but it’s important to our values. So, we really try to do the little things that can make a large difference.

Can you discuss a time when your company had to pivot or innovate in response to unforeseen challenges, and what lessons did you learn from that experience?

During an F1 project, shooting with the F1 car itself was integral to the script. We learned a matter of days before the shoot that we wouldn’t have access to the car after all, and would have to completely change the creative to then create a cohesive script that included a car that was completely CG. We worked with a VFX House whose team in Australia led the project and development of the CG action. 

We delivered the film which the client were delighted with, but it did test us to our limits and was a good lesson in terms of throwing whatever resources are necessary at a project to get it over the line. It’s something we pride ourselves on, and it’s testament to the team that we’ve always delivered no matter what challenges we’ve faced.

Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend?

Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers is an inspirational book for me. It outlines how different people have achieved success in a variety of interesting and innovative ways.  It’s key takeaway for me was that sometimes success can be entirely circumstantial.  That’s inspired me in terms of wanting to create those opportunities for others.