When I registered my brand-spanking-new, creative comms agency with Companies House, it was terrifying. I’d walked away from a familiar world of stability and not-insignificant payslips, to step into the unknown. I went straight to the nearest pub for a calming glass of red and felt the excitement and anticipation bubbling up inside as a huge smile spread across my face. Every entrepreneur has a story, a reason they decided to jump in feet first. This is mine.

When I first started working in creative agencies, craft mattered. Output mattered. The CLIENT mattered. I became more and more senior in the big comms agencies, buzzing with the thrill of excelling at something I loved, cared about, and which felt like home.

Then something changed. My time with clients was slowly replaced with board meetings, internal workshops and naval gazing. It was soul destroying. I would sit in meetings blinking back burning tears of anger and frustration. I felt isolated for being passionate, exhausted by fighting the client’s corner, belittled by pointless politics.

I was stuck in a vicious loop that went something like this… Wow client with stunning pitches. Win business. Celebrate. Struggle to deliver on promises because of agency bureaucracy, indifference and inefficiency. Tear hair out. Spend 60% of week smoothing over fractious relationships. Repeat. I couldn’t see a future that met my passion for creativity, playfulness and transparency, and it really scared me.

So I started my own agency. Bretom.

And yes. It’s tough! Starting up your own business is lonely. It’s exhausting. It’s emotional. People judge you. It’s financial suicide. Two months after I jumped ship, I was told my flat needed £10k worth of damp-proofing work and I just sat there thinking ‘what the hell am I doing?’

But, and it’s a HUGE ‘but’, this is the right thing to do. In a world where the resourcing giants are increasingly swallowing up the independent players (Penna, Work Group and ThirtyThree to name recent examples), brands need an alternative.

So here’s my 7-point, unashamedly personal manifesto on what a creative comms agency SHOULD feel like:

1. An agency should listen

Brilliant campaigns happen when an agency hears and understands a brand’s goals, including a deep understanding of the wider company agenda, and the market context. We make no assumptions, but gather all the information needed to tell a brand’s story creatively and effectively to the audiences that matter.

2. An agency should care

The success of every single client and every single project or campaign has to matter; otherwise complacency and mediocrity creep in. Success happens when relationships are strong and clients are viewed as individuals, with a unique work-style and deserving a tailored approach. The quality of the work can be nothing less than outstanding – ultimately, it’s my agency and my reputation on the line.

3. An agency should drive change

‘Intelligent comms’ is not about getting bums on seats or website click throughs. It’s about attracting the right people to an organisation, ensuring talent remains engaged, and maximising their lifecycle with that organisation. The outcome of agency work should be tangible and measurable, with accountability for change shared between agency and brand.

4. An agency should be transparent

This is a big one. Transparency equals trust, which equals long-term business. I believe in commercial transparency (i.e full clarity on investment and expectations upfront) and operational transparency (i.e client-delivery communities formed by the best people for the job, not just the best available people).

5. An agency should be lean

To deliver impactful, creative, memorable work, you need an experienced, passionate, committed team of professionals dedicated to the growth of your business. You don’t need a big office with scores of people waiting around for the phones to ring.

6. An agency should have fun

Life’s too short to be bored. An agency should bring playfulness, excitement, innovation and laughter to the client teams they work with. The output of projects should make you smile with pride, as should the journey you go on to get there.

7. An agency should be a school for creativity

Giving everyone the freedom to work in a way that suits them as individuals, leads to a stronger, more effective collective. We are building a culture of creativity, learning and development to attract the best and brightest talent to Bretom. Not just from other creative agencies, but from a breadth of specialisms, as we break down traditional creative/commercial silos and encourage cross-pollination of skills.

So that’s what we’re doing at Bretom.

And it’s wonderful.

Are we still learning? Absolutely, and we’ll never stop. Are we winning? We think so! Our client roster already contains enviable names from blue chips to start-ups. Are we absolutely determined to change the agency landscape? We certainly are. Come and play.