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Southpaw: Masters of the Unorthodox

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By Michael Feeley, Founder and chief exec

June 19, 2015 | 5 min read

The Drum Network’s Michael Feeley meets Tom Poynter, chief executive of Southpaw, to discuss the strategic changes he has been driving at the full service agency and the positive influence of Japanese owner Hakuhodo on Southpaw’s plans for growth...

In 2012, after 17 years of working in London for leading agencies including Publicis, LBi and Iris London (where he was joint chief executive), Tom Poynter decided it was time for him and his family to get out of the city.

“Career-wise,” says Poynter, “I was on the hunt for my next big challenge. So, I couldn’t believe it when I stumbled across a full service agency two miles away from our new house in Tunbridge Wells.”

The agency in question was then known as Nexus/H and after a year of planning his landing with the previous group managing director, who had owned the agency for 25 years, Poynter took over the business in February 2013.

“From the moment I walked through the front door, I could see the talent and the direction the business could take, but I also knew that it needed a transformational change in business strategy in order to achieve those ambitions.”

Having decided to rebrand, the new name developed organically: “The management team all had challenger and progressive personality traits and wanted to work for brands that were classic challengers themselves. That’s what led us to the new name, Southpaw – the fighter who takes the unorthodox approach, delivering brave thinking for our clients.”

Eastern wisdom

Before the new strategy and branding could be introduced, Poynter needed to gain the approval of Southpaw’s owner, Japanese advertising and media network Hakuhodo. He said: “I had worked with Japanese brands before but never a parent company and, to be honest, I probably underestimated the cultural differences at first. It was very different to anything I had experienced before; either the American brashness of Interpublic Group or the pedestrian culture of the French at Publicis.

“I soon learned the importance of harmony among individuals and the role of ‘hourensou’, where layers of management are constantly communicating, reporting and consulting with each other. It was also my first real experience of the ‘ringi’: the idea of getting stakeholder buy-in before getting to the board meeting. This mitigates any risk of nasty surprises and ensured the board meeting about the rebranding was a formality rather than a debate.”

With the ‘ringi’ complete, the rebrand received board approval on Christmas Day 2013 (a working day in Tokyo) and was unveiled to the market four months later. Poynter believes that the Southpaw management team has since made great strides in learning how best to integrate and work alongside its Japanese parent company.

“Our working styles and cultures are very different and I think that is important, but you need to find some commonality when working on global and integrated new business opportunities. I am very clear with the board of Hakuhodo that we operate as our own brand and behave like an independent, but with the back-up of the genuine scale, resources and technology coming from our parent. We both work hard at making this ideal a reality.”

ChampionIng the challengers

Since the relaunch last year, Poynter feels that the Southpaw team has learned a lot about how to attract and retain new clients in the contemporary marketplace.

“We’ve matured significantly in terms of our new business efforts. We spent a full year prospecting hard, listening to feedback on our credentials, being more precise on the categories we wish to develop into, as well as working with partners like The Drum, Future Factory and other intermediaries to help us improve our game.”

The result has been a number of high profile new client wins over the past 12 months: TaylorMade Adidas, Japan Airlines, Gallo Wines, St Tropez, The Sanctuary and Lidl to name a few. According to Poynter, these are all exactly the type of challenger brand that Southpaw likes to work with and can help the most.

“It all sounds upbeat and progressive when you say you only focus on challenger brands, but for me it goes a lot deeper than our marketing messages. We really strive to be business partners with our clients – being part of the business planning cycles, setting the strategy with our clients, really understanding their P&L and where marketing can be a genuine contributor to the revenue or profit of their brand, challenging them on risk and where they are prepared to invest in the unknown.”

Southpaw opened its first London office earlier this year in response to client demand, delivering content services for clients including Honda, SABMiller and PZ Cussons.

“The new London office was a real achievement and came to fruition much quicker than I had hoped for, but the client demand was there so we went for it. We have a team of directors, producers, writers and content developers in place in the capital. We also have an editorial team who then seed and amplify that content through organic and paid channels. It is early days but we are already seeing some brilliant work being produced.”

This article originally appeared in the 10 June 2015 print edition of The Drum.

If you would like to find out more about The Drum Network and how it can help support you and your growing agency, visit thedrum.com/network.

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