Synergist MD Keith White talks planning for digital growth
With a buoyant mood returning to the digital industry, agencies are gearing up for growth. But behind agencies' outward glamour, they need to ensure they are in the right shape behind the scenes to manage their ambitions – and workload.
The Drum caught up with Keith White, managing director and founder of Synergist the agency job costing and project management system company, to talk about the mood among agencies and how they are planning to drive their businesses forward.
What are you picking up about the overall mood from agencies just now? Do you sense a confidence returning to the industry?
Yes, there’s increasing confidence about, but it’s not gung-ho or reckless. There’s caution built-in. It’s all about making smart decisions along the way.
Earlier this week we were talking to Gareth Moore, chief operating officer of Creative Jar. That's a 46-strong digital agency that has doubled in size over the last two or three years. He said this:
"Confidence never left the digital industry. Digital agencies that adapt and have the right tools survive.
"It’s easy to set up an agency, undercut your peers and win work. Then when your turnover grows above the £1m mark, and someone asks you your EBIT number, and you spend weeks working it out on a spreadsheet, you realise the enormity of the task ahead of you. You have to engage with the right people and the right tools. Get that right, then you have the confidence. Clients like confidence."
What are digital agencies asking you for today and what trends are you seeing within digital at the moment?
It’s exciting to see digital agencies growing the way so many of them are now. We’re seeing lots of examples of that.
This time around it’s clearer than ever that successful growth today has to be lean growth. That’s the future now. When things are going well, it’s crucial to get the most out of the resources you have at each step of the way. It’s too much of a risk otherwise. So it’s great to see some really smart digital agencies being driven and ambitious, yet being totally in control of capacity planning and work in progress and so on. Their potential is enormous.
Another trend is that digital agencies are realising it’s very smart to empower the people they have so that they can shine and grow with you. You simply can’t grow cohesively enough if you’re depending on external recruitment all the time. Obviously you have to give everyone access to the information they need to do their job at speed. Empowerment makes a huge difference today.
Another angle is that clients continue to find more ways to be demanding. Clients want more than proof of effectiveness. They also want proof that their complex project is in safe hands. They want more transparency, clearer processes, more information, better justifications and so on. Agencies tell us that if you can satisfy them with these, the relationship with clients becomes more of a partnership.
Why were you so keen to support the Dadi Awards again this year?
Well, for a start, it’s a very good place to party! A grand reunion of the top people in digital. A celebration of achievement and hard work and creativity and all that. It took us a while to recover from last year’s event and – voila! – it’s here again...
But we’re very proud to support this industry. The UK’s digital sector is a city of talent. Who’s to say what it can achieve over the year to come?
You guys love your infographics! Are they killing off the case study?
Ha! We do like infographics. It’s obvious why, though. They work well.
I think it’s reached the point where busy people feel their spirits sink when they’re confronted with a couple of pages of text to read at work. But if you present information in a more visual way you’ve got a chance of getting their attention and holding it to the end. It works for us anyway.
Plus it enables you to experiment with new sorts of content. In our infographics we give the agency being showcased a chance to show off more of their personality, plus showcase some of their work and present new ideas. A recent one had the MD of an agency explaining how Dieter Rams’ famous Ten Principles for Good Design has influenced the running of their entire agency. Really interesting. You just wouldn’t have the opportunity to see that sort of thing in a conventional case study approach. There’s room for both approaches side by side, of course. But for the general reader we’ve now got nine or 10infographic-style agency user stories on our site. We even enjoy making them, which probably helps. Best of all, the stats show they work. But then, that’s digital transparency for you...
Synergist is headline sponsor of this year's Dadi Awards