Fresh from signing a partnership with Malta-based agency BRND WGN, Chris Sykes, CEO and founder of the digital agency Volume, says that Malta has talent to spare.
You run one of the UK’s top 10 independent digital agencies. How did you get there?
I started in 1993 and was fortunate enough to land a great client soon after. That client was Dell.
The company was a much smaller entity back then but it grew rapidly and we effectively hung onto their coattails.
Our growth echoed Dell’s and as a result we developed processes and disciplines that supported their requirements and met their challenges. That DNA is what effectively drives us today and is how we can work with and support large-scale global businesses. Dell was also an early advocate and adopter of the internet and Volume started to develop its first websites and web applications in 1997. Dell gave us early credibility and we soon attracted other large IT clients such as Oracle, Zebra Technologies, Plantronics, Motorola and more recently Google.
How is Volume different from other agencies?
Volume is a hybrid, half digital marketing agency, half technology company.
We have a very large technological footprint and capability, which enables us to deliver process improvement and efficiencies to our clients via bespoke-built applications.
This means we can deliver solutions that are 100 per cent fit for purpose, delivering more value and return on investment than packaged applications.
We can deploy our solutions far more quickly and cost-effectively. Our clients are mostly in the marketing, training and sales functions of big businesses, so we understand their requirements and challenges, as the other half of our business is developing marketing and training content, while executing and managing campaigns and communications.
Many agencies around the world are owned by larger groups and networks. What are the benefits of being an independent agency?
We are masters of our own destiny and although you could say our destiny is in our clients’ hands, this ensures we maintain the highest standards of service and delivery. We also have a very flat management structure and hierarchy, so we can take decisions very quickly. All the senior managers at Volume are accessible and involved with client relationships so we can respond to a requirement or challenge very quickly. We work to a very agile business model.
Wearable technology is incredibly exciting, as we will no longer be dependent on using a separate physical device. We will become the device
How has the industry changed over the past two decades and how has Volume responded to these changes?
Change in our industry is perpetual. It’s the speed and scale of change that’s been different these past two decades.
Our technology and innovation resources are spread across three teams, two of which are in the UK and the third in Sri Lanka. This means we have a great pool of technological talent constantly looking at better ways to engage, interact and communicate with our clients’ customers. We bring emerging and relevant technology to our clients to help them gain an early edge. We’ve always tried to stay ahead of the curve, which means our clients have more robust and scalable olutions once something becomes mainstream.
What industry trends are exciting you today and what changes are you anticipating?
Content consumption will continue to drive innovation, as we – consumers of information – are more empowered through choice. For instance, why buy a whole album when I only really like a couple of tracks? Now I can just download and pay for those tracks I want. This is the same for what news I want to read, films I want to watch or games I want to play. In the future, most of the content and information we get will be our choice, on demand. Technology is improving the experience all the time.
Wearable technology is incredibly exciting, as we will no longer be dependent on using a separate physical device. We will become the device.
One of Volume’s key strengths is its technological prowess. What business solutions has Volume developed over the years?
Training solutions and e-learning are our speciality. We develop the training content and build the learning management systems that deliver and manage the training. As companies become physically smaller, employing less people and encouraging employees to work predominantly from home, training and retraining staff becomes even more important to maintaining productivity and business growth. Our learning management systems not only deliver the training to the individual but they also help companies assess the quality and effectiveness of the training and the impact that has on an employee or partner – their sales readiness, performance and professional development.
In what ways can Maltese companies strengthen their brands by bridging creativity with technology?
For such a small country, Malta has great potential. In the global market, Malta is in an ideal geography with well-educated and commercially astute business people, as well as a developing infrastructure. Bridging creativity with technology will allow Malta to access global opportunities. The quality of resource in Malta can be utilised anywhere in the world.
With the right set of collaboration and communications technologies you can become integrated without dependence on location. It’s about accessing a talent pool and that’s why we’ve partnered with BRND WGN. They are now an extension of our agency and vice versa.
Many agencies view marketing as a creative art while clients often focus on the bottom line. How do you deal with this conflict?
Good creative art always shines through and will have a bottom line impact that is both tangible and intangible – tangible in terms of creating sales and revenue uplift and intangible in terms of raising awareness or brand perception which may have a longer term effect.
Creativity doesn’t mean a bigger cost. You have to look at creativity as a product delivered by experts. And like anything else, there are good products and bad products. My advice to clients is to choose an agency that has good creative talent.
That can show how they apply creativity to everything they do and have a portfolio that demonstrates this.
You mentioned Volume’s partnership with Malta-based agency BRND WGN. What does this partnership mean for both agencies?
Our collective vision is to create a new generation agency that isn’t hindered by legacy or business model. Volume and BRND WGN share that vision and are culturally very similar, even though our clients are very different. Combining our collective experience is very exciting for us and our clients, as it brings a new dimension to our collective thinking.
We are working to become virtually integrated, operating as a single entity from two locations and more as we plan to grow. We don’t have the type of management hierarchy of large agency groups and therefore can respond and scale far more quickly. We are also developing a smarter working ethos based on the principle that work is something you do, not a place you go.
What can BRND WGN offer Volume as part of this partnership?
BRND WGN can provide a pool of talent and new thinking to our core clients. Like any agency, we have to be fresh, innovative and current. Our clients, although large global businesses, want to be sure they are taking full advantage and gaining value from all the new and emerging communication and interaction channels. By bringing BRND WGN into the mix, we can make sure we have the ideas, scale and capability to deliver great work and solutions for the direct benefit of our collective clients.