What we do for a living is hard. Comms is genuinely hard. It’s also wildly fun and rarely goes according to plan so it feels like a real gift to be able to say that 2023 got off to a bumper start for Cirkle, as wins bedded in and teams grew – driving a slew of briefs, queries, pitches and proposals. We climbed the ranks across league tables and welcomed loads of new colleagues. As an agency, Cirkle has been in transition for the last couple of years having undergone acquisition and as we enter 2024, we really do feel good and ready for our own #SundayReset. But before we look forward, we need to look back – why? Because you asked us to.

If I could choose a buzzword for our 2023, it would have to be ‘resilience’. Personal, professional, creative, and strategic – 2023 was a year of facing straight into the storm and coming out of it feeling more sure of the strength of our roots and the courage of our talent. Like the rest of the industry, we went into the year with the ongoing threat of ‘Cost of Living’ looming for our clients but also for our people. As the briefs on ‘value’ came in, so did the pressure of proving our own in an increasingly challenging environment. It became clear that we needed to stay strong in our roots but be prepared to flex in the breeze – more of the same wasn’t going to get us where we wanted to be.

I can’t help but be reminded of a quote that I plastered across my notebooks in my uni days, so all I can do is apologise for sharing it here: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anaïs Nin

Cirkle’s willingness and hunger to evolve in 2023 alongside the dedication of the team to that evolution has paid off in spades. We were named SABRE EMEA Creative Consultancy Of The Year, took home some incredible awards, and welcomed some fantastic new clients – but this sort of change always comes with challenges. Growth can be uncomfortable at its best and terrifying at its worst – but thanks to a resilient, bold and hyped up team, we stepped off the ledge and landed on our feet.

But let me be very clear, we’re not even close to done. We’re just getting started. As we move into 2024, Cirkle will focus on three key areas when it comes to strengthening our agency culture, our understanding of culture, and the culture of creative. 

Building a ‘Yes and’ culture 

When Cirkle became part of Accordience we made a pledge to retain our culture and in 2024 we are doubling down on this. Being a safe space for the teams to flex their thinking, their creativity, and their initiative is baked into Cirkle’s DNA and we are dedicated to ensuring that continues. We’ve all worked in environments that were governed by fear or competition – but we truly believe in being ‘yes and’ instead of ‘no but’. As we continue to grow, bringing in team members and leaders who live by this rule is extremely important to the agency. There’s no negotiation on collaboration. 

Pushing back against assumptive thinking 

If we think it, it must be true, right? Wrong. Cirkle has always been insight driven but moving into 2024, we’re looking at working within group to increase our access to a diverse selection of tools to help us uncover the insights and conversations that will mean the most to our target audiences. We love bringing the teams together for insight groups, creative counsels and quickfire solution sessions but we also want cold, hard facts. In 2024 Cirkle will be going hard on data driven strategic thinking – helping to increase client confidence in the ideas that will truly push the boat out. 

Getting creative about creative thinking 

We all know that a great idea can come from anywhere (could there be a more over-used creative statement in agency life!?) but we’ve looked at the creative process and we’re doing a little rewrite as we aim to pull the team more and more into creative, helping them get in touch with the mad genius within. Whether it is running improv sessions, breaking into creative pairs, or getting out on the street for impromptu focus groups – we’re demystifying creative at Cirkle.

We’ve never really be an ‘ivory tower’ agency and with more than 60% of Gen Z defining themselves as creators in their own right, we need to widen the net. It was amazing to be named Creative Consultancy of the Year but that was this year – and we need to make sure we keep the momentum going so creative is getting a lot of love in 2024.

Ultimately, we’re ending the year with a focus on agility, insight and creative while we work hard to maintain the strength of our culture. NBD.