A personal thank you & update

As MD of Forever, you’ll expect the normality of wearing your heart on your sleeve and working countless hours, days and months to get an agency off the ground, especially when it’s in the ‘digital-thriving’ city that is Manchester.

I would stick my neck out there and say Forever are competing in Manchester’s most competitive industry… digital, with rumours of 200 digital agencies in the city centre alone.

As a city, we’ve been lucky enough to have been charmed by the likes of Peel Holdings and Media City, along with top developers who have transformed some of Manchester’s most iconic buildings into start-up hubs for tech, creative and media- based companies.

We’re also mixing with the big boys with the likes of Havas and McCann having huge teams based in Manchester, so I think my statement is pretty justified.

For those who don’t know, four years ago I was forced to go freelance after being dismissed from an undisclosed PR agency here in our beautiful city, mainly down to being a bit too passionate for my own good. Looking back, Forever may have never been created without that event taking place. Proving a point was why Forever was formed.

We set our mission to forge a new way in which clients think, enlisting our ‘digital first’ approach for our client’s marketing strategy.  Three years on and we now work with 10-15 fantastic clients who all believe in our ethos.

So, to the point of this blog! Well, after a small website update on our side and a quick update of the portfolio, it’s to say a massive thank you to our clients, who range from independent property agencies all the way to international PLC’s and restaurant chains.

I personally think there are too many agencies who constantly market who they work with, rather than what they actually do for the client themselves.

Our approach is to grow and retain. Our new business strategy can be a little slow at times, but that’s not without reason – we are proud of the time we take.

We’re proud that we go above and beyond for our current clients and never forget who helped us along the way.

Reflecting on last year, Forever has come a seriously long way in a short space of time. I think a highlight for me personally was the team thinking I’ve gone bonkers for turning down the opportunity to pitch for an undisclosed Premier League football club.

The fact is that we don’t pitch unless the brief matches our capabilities.  We consider many options prior to agreeing to even tender for a client and the list is topped by this question… ‘Will the service we provide to our current clients suffer’ If the answer to this question is yes, then there is nothing further to consider. I’ve seen agencies come and go over the past eight years of my agency experience, mainly for taking on too much work at once.

I like to think that myself and Daniel have made this agency what it is today through our hard work and humble values. The team has taken some time to gel together, not everyone fits into our culture.  People have come and gone and mistakes have been made. Thankfully, the dedication of Adele, Arthur and the rest of the team have enabled our success to date.

Our promise is to continue to build our reputation on merit and merit alone.

We’re here to partner with our clients, not sell their brand as ours.

All the best in 2017, to what we think will be a fantastic year for ourselves and our clients.