Wilderness Company Update | Q3

This is the first of these updates for a while. I had been on a roll during the first half of this year writing something every month but my diary has not been kind and I’ve fallen out of the habit in a big way. As the year has progressed I certainly haven’t had less to talk about but there have been so many different factors that meant my focus has been diverted away from the things that I WANT to do as MD in favour of things that I NEED to do.

Some of these shifts have been incredibly positive - it’s been really rewarding working with the team on the day-to-day management of some of our client relationships. However there have been some significant challenges this year - a sentiment felt not just by me but by the entire team. I’m not about to tempt fate and say that it’s been a rocky patch and it’s behind us but I want to take a moment (because I’ve actually GOT a moment) to reflect and share six of the most significant things from the past quarter.

STRONGER TOGETHER - INTERSPORT WOMEN’S CATEGORY CAMPAIGN

In the past year with Intersport we’ve been up mountains capturing the sunset, getting centred on the beach filming a Yoga class, crossed the globe for The 2020 Games and chosen sides for the Euros - all in pursuit of social-first campaign production for their channels across Europe.

When we were tasked with bringing together a Women’s campaign across Running, Training, Football and Sportstyle we saw an opportunity to bring not just the core message of the brand to life (You Never Sport Alone) but also a chance to celebrate empowerment, strength and diversity within women’s sport no matter the background or the ability level of the participants.

We are immensely proud to have worked so closely with the client and the vibrant, diverse and extraordinarily committed group of women - both in front and behind the camera - to produce Stronger Together. It has been a labour of love, not without its challenges and the end result is even sweeter for the path that it took to come together.

There’s a moment - right at the end - that I am so proud of. It’s the point where everyone comes together and we capture a candid moment of people meeting, talking, sharing their experience before they all unite and look into the camera. It’s just incredibly powerful and delivers the message of the campaign so precisely and so perfectly. I am blown away by the team that pulled it off. Watch the hero video HERE.

TEAM CHANGES AND THE ‘GREAT RESIGNATION’

We’re by no means the only business that has had to contend with a large proportion of our team moving on to new opportunities this year. Coming out of a global lockdown we’re all looking to make significant changes in our lives and it’s not surprising that people are keen for a new challenge or a different working environment and maybe more flexibility.?

But while it’s easy to understand it is really hard - not least when the job market has exploded and hiring has become increasingly difficult for everyone. We’re consciously working on ways to counter this struggle - when EVERYONE is hiring it helps to be able to write a job ad that promotes a supportive and open working culture and the fact that we are an agency committed to doing business for good. We’re in the process of becoming B-Corp certified and are focused on the wellbeing of our team and the quality of our output in order to make Wilderness a great place to work.

I am really proud and excited for the team members that are moving on (or are about to). They carry a Wilderness legacy with them and as they find new places to thrive we think of them as Wilderness Alumni. I’m also excited about what the influx of new talent will bring. There’s a flip side though. The reality is that hiring the right people is hard and it takes time - even when the job market isn’t going bananas. We had already been experiencing a period of growth so have had open vacancies in a tough market for some time.?

We’re making progress and have done a great job of hiring into some of these roles - bringing Charlotte, Alice, Gerry, Tia, Katie, Sam, Zach and Sarah into the agency has already had such a positive impact. I’m really excited about who’s next and what they’re going to bring to the agency.?

If you are looking for a new challenge or know someone that is keen to join a growing and talented team please get in touch: HERE

THE ‘GREAT RESIGNATION’ AND THE EXISTING TEAM

A narrative that isn’t spoken about when we discuss the difficulties in hiring is the impact on the members of the team that stay. It’s very easy to start hand-wringing about how hard it is to hire and plan for the future and not realise that you’ve lost sight of the team you’ve got handling the present.

We’ve got an incredibly impressive group of dedicated and passionate individuals who - taking the lead from our Founder/CEO - are all empowered to lead their careers and path to progression within Wilderness. A lot of our team have joined in the last year and have quickly become great examples of the agency that we’re becoming and the talent that we are attracting. Some have been here a lot longer and are seeing the agency structure change significantly before their eyes. We as a leadership team have a responsibility to outline what is possible at Wilderness and look to foster growth and nurture talent. Right now - as the dynamic shifts from week to week with new starters and leavers we’re seeing people rise to the challenge in really interesting and exciting ways.

To give some examples - and embarrass some people:

• Emma is going to be heading up the team that we’re building in Cape Town. Emma is an awesome designer who has done incredible things with clients like HBO, Magic Light and most recently Intersport. What we’re excited about in the coming months is her continuing to produce fantastic creative work while leading a multidisciplinary team based in South Africa who can service clients across all divisions of the agency.?
• Zahra has been trying unsuccessfully for years to convince us that her sweet exterior hides a heart of true darkness. She’s had far more success bringing a level-headed research and data-analysis approach to brand strategies across the agency. I’m working with Zahra right now to build on this success and develop a team around her that will benefit from her expertise and guidance.
• Kat has also been standing out for her proactive and consistently forward thinking approach. A brilliant creative who has been leading the charge on some of our biggest and most demanding projects to date. She has been working tirelessly on Southern Comfort in recent weeks and it is incredible to see her confidence grow alongside her skills as she brings complex and exciting campaigns to life.?
• Saf needs a mention as our incredible Head of Business in London. So much has shifted in the last 12 months but Saf has weathered it all with a cool head and without losing focus for a second. She is a brilliant leader and as she grows and establishes herself within the senior team at Wilderness I am excited to see how far she will grow and how far she will take the agency.

I am really excited to continue working with our new starters and our legacy team to carry on growing the agency beyond the vision that Tom set out when it was just us two sat in a cafe in Soho 7 years ago.

SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES IN AREAS OF PASSION

I’ve mentioned before - a lot - about our work as an agency with Brixton Finishing School and The Industry Club. Something I am personally passionate about - and it’s shared by everyone at Wilderness - is diversifying the voices that get things done in the creative industries. Basically we will never get anywhere if the only people that ever get to say or do anything look and sound like me.

Over the summer I took part in my second year as a team mentor for BFS and got to work with some remarkably talented young people. The level of talent that passes through the BFS course is absolutely staggering and I find it so inspiring to sit in sessions alongside the other mentors and see the students not only take on the concepts that we’re talking about but synthesise them into bigger, better and more interesting ideas.?

The group that I worked with this year came out of the gate strong, winning a brief that had been set by the team at KFC. The brand were so impressed that the students were invited - outside of BFS - to pitch their idea to the full KFC team. It’s the sort of opportunity that dusty old marketers like me dream about and it’s exactly what the guys are on the course for - to showcase their talents in front of exciting clients, make a lasting impression and increase their chances of getting a job in the industry.

Our partnership with The Industry Club has continued to be hugely rewarding for everyone at Wilderness and one of our apprentices from the scheme - Ayesha - was recently recognised at the BAME Apprentice Network Awards. As an agency we were awarded the Creative, Media, and Marketing Employer of the year which is a fantastic recognition of the work we’ve been doing to bring diverse voices into the agency. It’s all testament to the drive and focus of Tilly Morgan - our Director of People - and an achievement that we’re going to continue building upon. We’re continuing to work with TIC running workshops and learning sessions with an engaged and brilliant group of learners and the value to the agency cannot be understated.

WILDERNESS MIXED WITH SOUTHERN COMFORT

In the past few months we’ve begun working in partnership with award-winning PR agency The Academy and the brilliant team at Hi-Spirits managing the UK social accounts for leading spirit brand Southern Comfort. We’ve been growing and engaging the community of fans on Instagram, working with The Academy across the influencer approach and producing social content running multiple shoots for the brand’s biggest campaigns of the year.

Things got VERY colourful with a Pride shoot in our office/studio where we brought the LGBTQIA+ flag to life pairing each colour with a signature Southern Comfort serve. The wider campaign included an epic boat party that sailed down the Thames on the morning of Pride with influencers, competition winners and ticket holders enjoying New Orleans inspired food, Southern Comfort slushie cocktails and music & entertainment from Sink The Pink Djs and voguing crews.

We’re right now in the middle of the Halloween campaign for which we turned our studio into an extremely fabulous night spot in collaboration with the makeup brand In Your Dreams. Our aim with the campaign is to help people take their Halloween up a notch with SoCo-Black cocktails and looks inspired by the spicy taste. We’re gearing up for a New Orleans inspired Halloween party - so expect voodoo, neon, beads and OUTRAGEOUS costumes as par for the course.

THE TYPES OF BRIEFS WE’RE RECEIVING

Something that has been particularly noticeable over the past 18 months - apart from the fact that being on zoom all day makes you a complete zombie - is that the briefs that are coming in from brands are shifting in a really interesting way. In the past the conversations we would most frequently have would be about how we could handle a brand’s media spend, produce them some award-winning social content or manage their social channels. We still get those requests but we’re also seeing more and more clients ask for insights, audits and wider overarching strategies that in-house teams can then deliver.

We already work with a number of our clients in this way and it’s a fantastic opportunity to establish an ongoing and valuable partnership. We love helping teams dig into the specifics of what they want to get out of social and to navigate ways to achieve their goals. We have developed routes for partners including: what metrics for success they should track; how they stack up against competitors; auditing paid processes and efficiency of spend; and working as a group to develop content pillars and creative best practices.

Being asked to deliver a clear-eyed assessment of a brand’s social presences and offer a range of solutions, ideas and new processes in order to optimise performance is an incredibly rewarding challenge. If this is something that you would be interested in hearing more about drop me a line.