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The First Three Years: Q&A with Cat Turner and Bridey Lipscombe of Cult LDN

By Michael Feeley, Founder and chief exec

CULT

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The Drum Network article

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November 20, 2015 | 4 min read

Digital communications agency Cult LDN celebrates the third anniversary of its launch this week. The Drum Network spoke to co-founders Cat Turner and Bridey Lipscombe to find out more about the agency’s development so far…

Cult LDN's co-founders Cat Turner and Bridey-Rae Lipscombe.

What motivated you to create the agency in the first place?

From the beginning, we had a vision to create an agency that impacted the bottom line for our clients. We were tired of social campaigns being fluffy and lacking real substance, and believed we could deliver strategies that were not only innovative, but worked hard for businesses. Three years on, we've shown that this is possible with each and every piece of work really delivering for our clients.

What is the single biggest lesson about running an agency that you’ve learned so far?

It's a total cliché, but nevertheless true - from mistakes come the greatest successes. We now operate on a much faster level but particularly in being decisive, and from learning from our mistakes. This makes us very nimble. In the early days, we would agonise over our mishaps, but in truth this is the way in which you learn in business.

Has your strategy or the services you offer changed much over the three years?

Yes. We've evolved pretty fast from an agency focused on social strategy to one with a much wider content production offering for our clients. As the digital sector grows, we've very much adapted to the needs of our clients and the shifts in consumer consumption. An unexpected direction, however, it’s been really rewarding.

What aspect of running the business have you found most challenging?

Nurturing working culture is an ongoing challenge for us. We want to strike the right balance between hard work and creativity, personal development and business development. These don't always make the best bedfellows. And as our team grows in size, we strive to adapt to each new person as we welcome them into the Cult family. While this has been the most challenging aspect of business, it is also the most rewarding, as when we get the balance right, the magic really can happen which benefits the team, the business and our clients.

What have been the key deals and projects for the business to date?

The Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop, in January 2014, was our largest scale campaign at the time and it kicked off our notoriety as an agency. In 2014, we also launched CK fragrances on Tumblr and Snapchat and then Eau de Gaga on Twitter.

We were appointed as the retained social agency for Barbour and Barbour International in March of this year, and of Sally Hansen in July. Then, in September, we organised a worldwide first campaign, using ‘buy now’ on Twitter, for the Katy Parry Pop Up Tweet Shop.

What plans and ambitions do you have for the next three years?

We would love to continue to deliver brave, strategic campaigns for our clients, while forging ahead into new areas of digital. We love exploring the possibilities of connecting on and offline and enhancing social commerce. We can also see Cult developing the content production offering for clients - through smart technology and innovative ways of creating content for online consumption. We will also look to develop relationships with our clients and partners at a deeper level and strengthen our workflow and creative work across the board.

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