In this episode of Word on The Street, we talk to CEO and Founder of FireWorx, Daniel Smith. Those in the industry may already know of Daniel as FireWorx is now recognised as one of the UK’s top 10 independent marketing communications agencies by The Drum for the work the agency does in helping their clients grow faster.

Their unique focus is on ‘Feeling & Response’ using compelling strategy and purposeful creative then measuring and optimising marketing to improve results. It’s a formula that has won Dan and his team much praise. As you might expect from a Top 10 agency, Dan has some great stories of pitching and winning some pretty big briefs within the agency world and he also shares how he has taken some risky decisions along the way too! In this episode there is also a really interesting conversation about how agencies need to create their own brand, rather than basing their entire story around work they have done for other brands – that section is food for thought for all agency owners!

In this episode we discuss:

• Attracting new business

• Approaching big brands

• What to expect when approaching bigger brands

• Live Spider/Dead Spider

• Challenges of managing your own marketing

• Why agencies need to standout

Links & References

Katie Street: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/

Daniel Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/fireworx/

Series 5 of Word on the Street is sponsored by Tanba, The Agency New Business Academy is a brand-new initiative aimed at equipping agencies of all sizes with the knowledge, content, partnerships and opportunities needed to accelerate agency growth by optimising their new business ‘engine’. Tanba is an on-demand and affordable solution for agencies looking to upskill their team via training courses, content and insights delivered by our panel of industry experts, leaders, and partners.

The academy is all about empowering agency teams to get noticed, attract opportunities, increase conversion rates, and reduce the costs associated with the sales process. Visit https://tanba.io/ to find out more and start empowering your agency.

“We have an approach called, live spider/dead spider” – Daniel Smith [12:07]

“We sent a campaign out with a Mr. Potato Head and we sent out the individual parts” – Daniel Smith [14:21]

“Being present, I think that is so important” – Katie Street [15:39]

“Persistence is key with a lot of this” – Daniel Smith [16:32]

“They know that it’s not that easy, yet they employ a new biz director or an agency and they go, I want live briefs that are ready now” – Katie Street [17:29]

“It might take you a year and a half to reap any rewards” – Katie Street [18:39]

“You can get lucky breaks, I’ve had lucky breaks” – Daniel Smith [19:02]

“A larger client, just by the nature of it, is typically going to take much, much longer to win” – Daniel Smith [20:51]

“What agencies should, or any business has got to do, is really find things that are useful for you” – Katie Street [28:17]

“Find things that are easy for you to do and replicate, and do regularly” – Katie Street [29:59]

“I think it’s important for any company to understand, who their customer is, what their wants and needs are, and how your service or product offering aligns to those” – Daniel Smith [33:42]

“I think the biggest issue that agencies probably have, if I’m honest and we did a lot of this, they should be a lot, lot better at standing out than they are” – Daniel Smith [35:21]

“I don’t have a single case study on my website” – Katie Street [37:04]

“Over the years I have spent way, way too long holding back on stuff” – Daniel Smith [38:53]

“I’ve always been a big fan of doing the parts of the job that you love” – Katie Street [43:54]

“If you’re running an agency, we found last year was really hard because a lot of clients were holding back the cash. Marketing was one of the first things that the brakes got put on” – Daniel Smith [48:37]