Following our recent feature City Brand Leaders – Manchester, we interviewed a select group of leaders from Manchester’s top agencies to help focus on the Manchester brand and consider their own agency vision.

Creativebrief Founder & Chairman Tom Holmes talks to Andrew Stothert, CEO of Brand Vista.

TH: Andrew, what does the Manchester brand stand for?

AS: The Manchester brand represents a number of things to me but above everything is a restless energy that keeps the city buzzing even in difficult times. This has been fed by the City fathers vision of creating a European city and instilling a real pride in the place.

It has iconic football (not my game but it is great for maintain the presence of the city globally) and a real spirit of “must do” that tends to ignore the north south divide and just get on with it, it is a brand that does not feel the world owes it a living it knows it is a dog eat dog world out there and it must fight to get its share of the action. This, for us, feeds the entrepreneurial spirit of the place and defines why it has such a strong creative community, in all its guises.

TH: Are the city’s brand values reflected in your own agency culture?

AS: I am not sure that we have built our culture around the city values or feel the need to reflect them, we have our own very clear values that work for us in whatever market or culture we are operating in.

We have become an international company working in the US, Asia Pacific and around Europe, so to that degree we are part of a European/international city and proud to be doing it for the City (but more for ourselves).

We avoid being the “professional Northerners” as this is too old hat and is more of a defensive position that doesn’t play well with clients.

TH: Does being based in Manchester influence your creative output? If so how?

AS: Given we don’t have any creative output this is a difficult one to answer and I would not feel qualified to comment on the output of the creative agencies in the City.

TH: What makes your agency offer different?

AS: We are The Brand Alignment Company and have existed for the past 12 years by helping our clients build brilliant business through the process of brand alignment. We are not aware of anyone else who does this.<

TH: Why should clients consider sourcing work from Manchester agencies?

TH: What sort of clients do you particularly want to attract?

AS: We work with a wide range of clients in many sectors but the one thing that binds them together is there need to deliver brilliant customer experiences throughout their business through the energy of their people, the effectiveness of the way they work, how they innovate to add values and keep their brands fresh and relevant and how they understand their customers’ needs and unmet needs. They also all share clear and well articulated vision for where they are taking their brands. So any client that feels they need the same help and energy would be wonderful to work with. We are not into fmcg or product brands as what we do is focused on experiential ones.

TH: What work have you recently done makes you really proud?

AS: Can’t really answer this one as most of our stuff is business sensitive and anyway it is ultimately our clients and their people that deliver our work and not ourselves, we support, help, facilitate, push, nag, plan, map, excite, inspire them to do the hard work and make it stick. We then help them see the progress they make and have a few celebrations when milestones are hit (we like that bit a lot!!)

TH: What local brands do you most admire and why?

AS: Depends how you define local really – but we are loving Pets at Home for their focus and honesty as a brand – the brand is also very well aligned to their vision.

ASDA keep on innovating to keep fresh and relevant whilst still delivering their everyday value promise – only goes to show you can value engineer brands for today’s customers and not drop the ball.

Any restaurant by the Living Ventures Group – they just do it so well and their attention to detail and alignment to their brands is an example to all and they never stand still.

TH: Are there any local marketers who have inspired you?

AS: The obvious one is my father, who was my boss at A.G Barr (the Irn-Bru company) and who taught me many good lessons – especially the one about being polite and genuinely loving your customers because they spot when you are not sincere and managing the brands manners not just its balance sheet.

Other than that I would say a chap called Nick Varney who worked as Marketing Director at Alton Towers back in the 90’s, he has gone on to change an industry and lead the Merlin Entertainments business into a global company, that is still growing in the hard world we live in. His vision for brands and pursuit of excellence in thinking and execution is legendary, and we continue to be inspired by him and his team working across the globe with them. One of his great sayings, and he has many, is that “the truth is always in the product” something many marketers and creative people would do well to remember..

TH: What business would you most like to win?

AS: After a Lottery win for myself and the team …any business that really wants to deliver the customer experience that they know they should but need help in really nailing the delivery and getting their people really pumped up and loving their own brand.

TH: Thanks Andrew!

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