Mi Liberty

How would you sum up 2009 for your agency?

2009 was a strong year for Mi liberty both financially and creatively. Despite the global economic downturn, the agency continued to win business and grow its team. The continued integration of the PR business with the digital marketing division – which was the result of a merger in 2007 – proved to be the right strategic focus putting us in the right place at the right time.

What was the high point of 2009 for your agency?

Winning back Qualcomm’s PR business in the UK was a real high point. Mi liberty pitched against most of the B2B tech agency community to be re-appointed to handle all of Qualcomm’s business in June 2009.

What was the low point of 2009 for your agency?

Mi liberty has an integrated marketing solution in that we offer PR and marketing capabilities which work hard together to deliver strong results. The PR business has been established since 1998 and has a strong brand in the telecommunications and technology arena. The plan has always been to bring the two sides of the business together and if there was anything of a low point, it was the delays in citing the two businesses in one place. We now enjoy the same office location in Chelsea and our vision of bringing a holistic capability to our clients and prospects is now a reality. I hate delays, I’m someone who wants to make positive moves quickly and effectively.

Please give an overview of your staffing through 2009, including significant hires and internal promotions.

Staffing levels increased over the year to support new client wins. We created a Group Director position to lead the account teams and define structure and processes designed to position Mi liberty for growth. The agency has a strong ethic of promoting from within. Two of our senior account managers were promoted during the year to AD positions. Further significant hires have been made from the technology industry to continue our depth of technical and industry knowledge. Mi liberty became the founder member of Mi liberty Worldwide, a network of like-minded affiliate partner agencies to support global media outreach.

What was your best client/account win of 2009 and why?

I’ve alluded to the recapture of the Qualcomm account, but we also celebrated moving our business into a number of vertical technology sectors such as finance, digital music and web security. Napster and Websense brought kudos to the agency because of the brand names in their own fields of expertise, but more than that, showed Mi liberty as an agency that can span the technology spectrum – we’re not just all about mobile technology and the strength of the pitch teams who won these accounts were testiment to that.

What were your three best campaigns of 2009?

Qualcomm
Qualcomm’s iQ media innovation experience held in London in November 2009. Devised to showcase Qualcomm’s technology innovation in action. Attracted over 40 media resulting in nearly 100 pieces of coverage across Europe business, trade and consumer titles.

Napster
In 2009, Mi liberty re-launched Napster to the UK press. Over 15 briefings were secured with all Napster’s top tier press including BBC breakfast news, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Sun and The Telegraph. Over 40 pieces of coverage were generated including a broadcast piece with the BBC which was re-run throughout the day on BBC TV and Radio.

Websense
Websense’s issues hijacking programme. Mi liberty devised a programme to proactively generate issues based news stories for Websense. 38 proactive issues hijacks were developed and pitched to the press between June and November. In just 6 months the campaign secured over 220 pieces of coverage, 61% of which appeared in Websense’s tier A media.

How did the recession affect your performance in 2009 and what trends did you notice throughout the year – e.g. clients taking longer to sign off budgets etc?

The economic climate played its part in a variety of ways, mainly in our own fiscal prudence to ensure the agency remains viable for the long term. We retained the majority of our clients and experienced very little budget cutting although we also operate in a very flexible way with our clients so we are open to adapting to budget pressures. Our ethos dictates that we become a partner with clients, part of their own team, not a supplier and I believe this was a contributing factor to our ability to remain retained by our partners with budgets intact. We’ve worked hard at building relationships and those have stood us in good stead over the years. Our business has always benefitted from recommendation and despite the recession, we continued to reap rewards from those in the industry who continually support and champion Mi liberty.

Of which achievement in 2009 are you most proud?

As an agency with a technology focus, we’re always thinking innovatively and we couldn’t do that without a creatively led team who really understand and care about our client base. I’m most impressed that we maintained our client relationships, grew the business steadily and recognised the talent of the individuals we employ and their part in that. At a time when many agencies met financial difficulties or ceased to trade, Mi liberty remained stable and profitable.

Describe your agency in five words

The consumer agency for business.

How have you embraced social media in 2009?

Mi liberty believes that social media is part of the overall agency offering. We don’t have a specialist digital agency because we think social media activity belongs within the Mi liberty brand, it’s just another set of PR and marketing channels to deliver messages and influence attitudes. We’ve certainly been able to kick-start campaigns with our mix of digital services and 2010 will see us become even more integrated in this respect where applicable.

What are your plans for 2010?

We’ve seen signs of recovery and continued new business leads from our contacts and reputation in the industry. On the back of this strong position, Mi liberty is an agency that still has room to grow. We’re a great boutique agency in every sense of the word. We will likely continue to win against the big brand agencies. 2010 is the year that we will really see our joined up digital thinking come into its own. We’re aggressively hiring, we’re offering our people some great benefits and career opportunities and we’re well positioned to continue our winning streak. Future growth will come organically, but we’re considering a number of growth options, including merger/partnership activity – oh and a rebrand to boot!

If your agency were an animal, what animal would it be and why?

The Arctic Fox – hardy, adaptive, intelligent, calm and beautiful