Anyone will tell you times are tough at the moment. For Promise agency, not so much, seeing as they saw 24% growth in revenue over the past financial year. It was also a year that saw a move to new offices, team expansion and winning two gold Loeries on their retail business.
CEO and co-founder James Moffatt lets us in on the key to their success - it's all in how they meet their brand promise, time and again...
1. Tell us how the agency got started and explain the agency name...Moffatt: We started 10 years ago at our dining room table in Parkhurst, JHB, with no clients or start-up capital. We started off with relatively small and inexperienced clients and the first part of the process with them was to develop a brand promise. In most cases we needed to educate the clients on what a 'brand promise' means, and why it was important to have a consistent and relevant brand promise. We thought the best way to start the conversation was with our name. The name also alludes to our commitment to our clients and our business ethics.
2. What's the basic work flow or creative process in the agency? Moffatt: All our work is executed from effective integrated strategies and our level of craft is exceptional. Everyone at Promise touches every client's business in some way or another. Obviously traffic continues to play a crucial role with workflow. Aligning the digital development process with production for TV, for example, remain daily considerations.
3. Tell us about key account wins this year and exciting new developments in the team that have enhanced your overall skillset...Moffatt: In the past year we have won additional business from SAB-Miller, Ellies, Busby, Edgars Mobile, Jet Cellular, Japan Tobacco International and Virgin Mobile. Overall growth during the past year has been 24% and our digital division has grown by 80%, which we are thrilled with. Our social media team is now well established and we have further upskilled our in-house front and back-end development team. We've invested further in strategy and now have three strategists.
4. What makes you stand out from the rest? Moffatt: Notwithstanding the massive efforts we've put into integration, it's now become a natural process for us and we no longer even consider it a competitive advantage as it's expected of any competent agency. What sets us apart is our culture and the people we have invested in at Promise. We are an owner-managed agency and for us, business is personal. The bedrock of Promise is that we've always invested in the future to ensure that we remain strategically relevant to our clients. We've also centred a lot of our efforts on people development, and this will never change.
5. What's next for your agency? Moffatt: We will continue to focus on building Promise Digital and also aim to build our African client base in 2015/16.
6. What trends do you see as the biggest still to come in 2015? Moffatt: I believe we will start to see traditional ATL broadcasters rapidly lose market share, as they will soon have to contend with high-speed FTTH and competitors such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go and Apple TV.
If the last ten years are anything to go by, their business future certainly sounds promising.
For more on Promise, visit their website, their press office or their Twitter feed.
