Even the best marketing agencies can fall into the trap of running before they can walk when it comes to evolving their brand.
At CWA, we have always been a busy, client-led agency, yet COVID-19 changed our makeup. We adapted quickly, received new opportunities with open arms, and are now doing things that we hadn’t even touched two years ago like we’ve been doing it all our lives.
Our fast approaching 60th birthday has encouraged us to re-evaluate – to re-visit what makes us great, what we need to do to be even better and examine the value we deliver to our client. Not just now, but well into the future.
Too eager for our own good?
It’s clear that we’re a full-service, global agency. But in all honesty, we all got a little overexcited when it came to looking at our brand. We thought we knew exactly who we were. What we were good at. What our clients like so much about us. Our creative team started whipping up designs for a new website, our video team produced some atmospheric reels and the powerful prose started flowing from our comms people.
But something didn’t click. Common consensus couldn’t be reached. The reality was, we ALL had differing views on CWA and what this means for our clients. We made a rookie mistake: we didn’t speak to all our people or clients – we made assumptions.
Stop!
It was time to start practising what we preached. We needed to understand ‘our core.’
So, we took a step back. We organised a handful of external and internal workshops with everyone associated with CWA to truly dig deep into our skills, drivers and culture.
The elements were all there, the dots just needed connecting with a bit of insight and strategy applied. We clarified what drives our people and what our clients look for.
It was clear that our clients needed an agency that can help them see what’s coming around the corner – meeting deadlines and developing great creative were givens. We needed to bring our creativity together with our business and financial expertise to have a real impact.
To continuously expand our knowledge, skills and expertise to deliver what we call ‘best-in-class intelligent marketing’ to achieve those results and so much more.
Where we are now
When looking at our brand, it became clear that what made us tick, our culture, went beyond our skills. Feedback told us that all our people wanted to keep doing a great job – we just needed direction to channel our enthusiasm! To get everyone on the same page.
We established three culture pillars to give us a new-found sense of direction that is in keeping with the changing demands of our clients. Today, we are putting these into practice in everything that we do:
- Client first
- Creative with substance
- Collaboration, not ego
Our long-term goals for CWA are exciting and bold. These pillars will become a mantra to inspire all of us here to work towards our greater goals both personally and for the benefit of our colleagues and clients.
Where we’re going
Change is tough, no matter how used to it you are but we’re clear we need to take all our people on this journey with us. Everyone has strong personal development plans in place, so our value proposition isn’t just a line on our website: we will keep delivering best-in-class, intelligent marketing. We want to be recognised for the work we do and the people that do it. In turn, we want to keep our amazing people, and attract the right future talent.
All of this will bring even more benefits for our clients, new and existing – providing even more proactive thinking at every level, effectively becoming an extension of your company. We know we are good at this already. But we want to keep improving; we want your business to keep improving.
So yes, you will see we have a beautiful new website, but this evolution goes far beyond a new look. It is a website we’re proud of and one that truly represents us and our ambition to do even greater work.
We can’t wait to take you all on this journey with us.
