This week, we spoke to Richard Morris, Partner at independent creative company Whistlejacket. He spoke about the humble beginnings of the agency just under 10 years ago, its recent pivot to a hybrid working model and how us creative humans MUST triumph over the machines.
How was your company born and where are you based?
Matty Tong and I started Whistlejacket in 2014. We’d both worked together in advertising many moons before. Since then, I’d moved into branding and design, Matty had worked in strategy, Direct Marketing, broadcast, even launched her own fashion portal.
We both wanted to get back to tackling client’s biggest challenges – having top table conversations about what kept the board awake at night, then using creativity to solves those challenges. And thus Whistlejacket was born.
We’re based in Battersea. It’s up and coming you know….
What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?
We wanted to get our hands dirty – to spend time with clients, understanding their business, working with the designers to deliver great creative solutions. And now we do that - which is brilliant, it’s what we love. But you can’t do that and keep the new business funnel filling up. So balancing our time is always the biggest challenge out there.
Which was the first huge success that you can remember?
Within 3 months of starting we won Crew Clothing – a repositioning for the company (plus a small change to their name), complete identity redesign, then roll out of experiential design systems across three different types of store format, and then beyond into their national estate. It’s still the core design for their whole network of shops today. Loved doing that.
What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?
We’ve grown by targeting sectors and growing specialisms in them. We now have expert practices in higher education, third sector/charity, place branding, Public Sector marketing Net Zero and Sustainability. So the next 12 months will see us targeting two new sectors – you’ll pardon us if we keep our powder dry on what they are for now.
Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?
Everyone searches for that secret sauce don’t they? I’m not sure any agency in the world can claim to have a unique approach. But we do have 4 agency values – Intelligent, Aesthetic, Resourceful and Articulate.
We test all our work against that to make sure it reflects what we want to deliver. And we’re also very collaborative – everyone sticks their nose into everyone’s else’s work. And nobody minds.
How does your team remain inspired and motivated?
Every project led agency like ours keeps itself on its toes with the need to keep delivering – and improving every time. And there is a real momentum in the agency right now which gives everyone a bigger canvas to work on – we’re riding that tiger.
How has COVID-19 affected your company?
We were all fully enabled to work from home before the pandemic – we offer staff fully flexible hours and unlimited holiday – so we motored on through lockdown.
We do now work hybrid – we encourage staff to come in 3 days a week and work from home on the other two – it’s a good balance of quiet time to get on with projects, and office time to exchange ideas, news and gossip.
Which agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
I’ve got lots of time for agencies that put ideas above channel – people like Moving Brands who I think do extraordinary work. I’d love it if one day we were mentioned in the same conversation as them.
What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow?
Find clients who want the sort of work that you want to deliver. Because then it’s not work anymore. Sounds easy. It’s not.
How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.)
We do lots of tenders, proposals, submissions – it’s a never-ending circle of life. We call ourselves knotty problem solvers – the knottier the better – so we look for clients with problems to unpick. Of course it would be lovely if Apple or Google came calling – but it’s unlikely, because… they don’t have a problem. We go out of our way to find clients with a real brand challenge – and then solve it.
We asked our very first client - I won’t say who, it’s more fun to guess – to define their knotty problem. Right off the bat, they said ‘we need people to stop thinking we’re the Evil Empire’. Now that was a brief….
What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry?
Humans triumph over the machines.
Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend?
Paul Feldwick’s – ‘The anatomy of Humbug’ and ‘Why does the Pedlar Sing?”. Les Binet and Sarah Carter – “How Not to Plan’. And Philippa Roberts and Jane Cunningham’s “Brandsplaining’.
They won’t help you design better. But they’ll make you better company.
