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 Tony Foggett, CEO of Code Computerlove.

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

TF: I’ve always loved the Ian Brown quote “It’s not where from, it’s where you’re at” but I don’t think you can ignore Manchester’s enormous contribution to the modern world when considering what it might stand for. With that in mind I’d go for: Straightforwardness, collaboration, innovation and industriousness.

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

TF: Yes, although I don’t much like the concept of a business having values or a city for that matter, I assume Exon had a set of values sat on a wall somewhere. At Code we like to talk about what we value in our best people and these certainly echo the above.

Also inherent in Code’s culture though, is an emphasis on learning and adaptation; I don’t think Cities are very good at this although in fairness Manchester has reinvented itself over the years and kept its offer fresh and invigorated.

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

TF: I don’t think so. I’ve heard us described as ‘a London agency in Manchester’, which I assume was meant as a compliment, but I think that’s probably a comment on our scale, capability and quality of output. Our creative output is influenced by the audiences it’s intended for based on insight and planning.

TH: What makes your agency offer different?

TF: I suppose what makes clients’ experience of working with Code different is the way we’re continually adapting to the ever changing consumer and the technological landscape. We’re not necessarily set unlike the more traditional agencies and can be more agile to these advances.
We believe our that performance is intrinsically linked with our ability to learn and adapt so we have designed our agency to be good at change, understanding and adapting to consumer need and behaviour while taking advantage of the evolving technological landscape.
Our view is that rather than try to generate “demand”, brands need to concentrate on “value creation”.
Our offer is focused on using digital to add value for the consumer throughout the customer lifecycle, supporting a better, more integrated, customer experience whatever the platforms or device.

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

TF: For the same reason they would consider sourcing work from London agencies I assume. I don’t think distance is an inhibitor really nowadays it’s not like you need to run over with the proofs for sign off any more. I’d like to say that agencies up here challenge the norm, bring something different; I’m not sure that’s Manchester or just the personality of our agency. I suppose in some cases there may also be cost benefits associated with production in the North West, salaries and space is certainly cheaper up here – so these are cost savings that we can pass on to our clients.

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

TF: Ultimately we want ambitious brands and businesses that want a better performance from their digital spend.

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

TF: Of course I’d say all of it, but most recently we’ve done some fantastic visual work for Greenpeace and Chester Zoo. From a results point of view our innovations for FirstTransPennine Express has helped the business generate a 100% uplift in online sales, and in terms of the size and scale of the project our work for Oxfam has been phenomenal – helping the organisation completely overhaul its digital capabilities improving efficiencies and creating a CMS system that allows it to better manage the vast number of research documents used by the organisation.

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

TF: MCFC, I would say MUFC but I’m a blue so I’m bias, but MCFC seems to be waking up to enormous potential for digital to build value for their supporters across the entire life cycle as well as actually enhancing the experience of consuming their product. I just wish they’d get the queues at the bars sorted out (actually they have just introduced mobile card payment which proves my point).

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

TF: The guys behind MCFC at the moment – Richard Ayers.

TH: What business would you most like to win?

TF: Lego. It’s just brilliant!

TH: Thanks Tony!

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