What a time to be alive. Change, disruption, upheaval everywhere you look. Tectonic plates crashing about and smashing up the foundations that underpin the industry as we knew it. Century-old brands swept away, the citadels of the agency landscape crumbling before our eyes.
Fertile conditions for the entrepreneurially minded, perhaps. Lots of chatter about this being the age of the independents, and rightly so. For it will be us (collectively) who push the boundaries, go to the edges and find new ways and new models to monetise the mercurial and unique creativity that the talent in this industry offers to business and brands.
And amongst it all, ARK Agency, which I founded with the irrepressibly optimistic Mike Wilton, is suddenly celebrating its first anniversary.
Here’s what it feels like to be on the bridge of an independent creative start-up amongst maelstrom…
Loving the freedom: to say yes. To say no. To say yes then say no when things aren’t what they seemed at first.
Loving the serendipity. Never knowing where, or what, a conversation or an exchange or a meeting, or an introduction might lead.
Loving the faith. From the founders and marketing teams trusting us with their ideas and dreams, and their problems, and their money. Faith in the value of creativity before and beyond advertising execution. Faith from the extraordinary talent that has chosen to join our crew.
Loving seeing our talent realise that we want them to be creative. All of them, all of the time, regardless of their background, seniority, or discipline. No swim lanes, no lifeguards. Creative thinking coming from everyone in all they do. It’s the thing that our clients and their organisations need from us, that they can’t get elsewhere.
Loving meeting the hardy souls who have been out in the open water and building brilliant businesses far longer than we have, and who are kind enough to share their experiences and learnings. Thank you for your generosity, your insight and your inspiration.
Loving the hustle. The energy that comes with it. That comes from it. It’s infectious.
Loving the entrepreneurialism. It’s rarer than it should be in our little corner of the business world, but it’s a mighty force when you find good people who also get off on it.
Loving the fact that some of the crew ran an ultra marathon this morning as part of their side-hustle. Jog on.
Loving Soho, and our little corner of it.
Loving seeing and feeling the impact of the work and the results it creates. This work works.
Loving the roller-coaster. The high of the highs are unmatched and unparalleled when it’s yours, regardless of whatever you have seen or done before.
Also.
Hating the roller-coaster. The low of the lows hit different when it’s yours. The ability to hold a steady line remains a work in progress.
Hating the ghosting. If you asked for a proposal, or some work, or took time and resource from a small business, please do respond to messages. Have something about yourself.
Hating great things slipping through our fingers for the wrong reasons that we can’t control. Oh that would have been so good. Never mind, on to the next.
As for the future, I’m neither clever enough nor stupid enough to offer predictions for our industry, other than that there are more headwinds and storms ahead for us all. Two things I do know are that brands will need more creativity from more people more often across our skill sets to deserve and demand the attention they need from their audiences for the stories they want to tell. And that clients will want grown-up creatively minded people in the room pushing the boundaries of the creative economy for them.
And I know, as we set out into our second year, that there is no ship I’d rather be on, and no crew I’d rather be making waves with than my partners and team at ARK Agency. In the words of Lt. Dan, “You call that a storm? Blow, bi£@h blow.”
Mat Goff is a founder of Ark Agency and a former CEO of adam&eveDDB.
