2021 Financial Mail AdFocus profile
Grid, a proudly SA company, has grown significantly in the past year, not just in revenue and profit but also geographical reach, new sectors, its BEE status and clients, moving seamlessly into a medium-sized business that works on a wide range of projects in a variety of sectors.
The agency has grown its footprint into Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Germany, Switzerland and Russia, achieving both organic growth as well as new local and international clients. Growth, says joint CEO Adam Byars, is not for its own sake but is driven by purpose. “We look for growth that enables us to keep building meaning through a variety of clients who share the same commitment to make it mean something.”
This purpose, he says, has never been more relevant than it is now. “In these unprecedented times, people are looking to connect meaningfully and to find kindred spirits. Comfort zones are a thing of the past. But despite all this change, one thing stays the same: the need to keep evolving to stay relevant. Which is why we keep moving forward, shun boxes and — for the love of all that is creative — make it mean something.”
As the focus inevitably turns to finding a new normal, founder and chair Nathan Reddy says there’s never been anything normal about the world of advertising. “It’s always been in a state of flux,” he says. “The difference this time is that it’s a little more frenzied and change a lot more urgent.”
Grid is used to disruption. It’s in it ’s DNA. The past 18 months have been hellishly tough for both individuals and businesses, says Reddy. “We did what we always do to create a safe place for creativity and meaning to thrive: we evolved, we reinvented and we stayed true to our purpose. Normal has never been good enough for us, which is why we’ve always used change as a catalyst for reinvention.”
Grid has long embraced multi-disciplined experiences and people. “Diversity allows us to approach the world with an open mind,” says joint CEO David Cohen. The team consists of poets, artists, videographers, financial ninjas, editors, 3D animators, data analysts, entrepreneurs and more.
When the Covid lockdown was announced, the agency worked quickly to ensure its people received the support they needed. A guardian programme was implemented, allocating one exco member to each broader team. These guardians were always available for both work-related and personal matters. “Understanding that all employees are individuals, and some have more familiarity with remote working than others, we ensured all employees had access to support and guidance.”
A committee was appointed to drive initiatives such as yoga and meditation, a midweek braai, recipe-sharing, children’s games, and blasting stories about our people and our initiatives to the world, says Cohen.
Connecting to each team member personally as well as keeping the team connected as a whole was key to keeping the company culture alive. “Our culture is such a crucial part of who we are,” he says. “We know we shine brighter when we shine together.”
Even before Covid, Grid was evolving and rethinking its processes to ensure it’s robust and resilient enough to weather any storm, while retaining the ability to deliver great creative work and grow from both a talent and operational perspective. These deliberations have resulted in a business model that is robust, agile, creatively driven and technology-enabled. In the past year, Grid has extended and bolstered its offering, focusing on new services and efficiencies, including an enhanced view of customer journeys and user experience; an expanded digital and social offering; more focused platform thinking to align its brands to a single brand purpose; automation and scalability through the integration of new software, processes and a new planning process to maximise workflow efficiencies.
As opposed to a single big idea, the business has been offering platform thinking for some time already. This extends beyond traditional advertising to building a sustainable multiplatform experience.
“Brand building in the 21st century is all about collective consistency across platforms and mediums,” says Reddy. “We don’t separate disciplines when creating for this new world. Our competitive advantage lies being a design-led agency, where craft and storytelling still play a vital role in building up to our organisation’s higher purpose.”
Underpinning this is an operating model the agency calls “Investment Creative”. This is essentially an index to determine real value, meaning, growth and delivery which provides Grid with the ability to create a set of distinctive assets that is fit for purpose across various mediums and platforms. “This allows us to continually remain in beta and to invest in the creative product to deliver specific measurable returns,” says Reddy.
The final part of its process is technology to enable better ideas, execution and scalability, say Byars. “While we embrace technology as another invaluable tool in our arsenal, this is not at the expense of losing our unique offering, which is creativity. We use technology to empower rather than define us.”
Its aim is to scale ideas with immediacy, leveraging new tools, technology and skills to deliver an idea across multiple platforms and channels, ensuring brand impact and consistency. “This means our clients get the benefit of work that is culturally relevant and scalable across platforms,” says Byars. “For us, innovation is about how quickly an idea can reach as many people as possible without costing an arm and a leg.”
The business is also innovating with new commercial models. Clients are acknowledging that the age of billing per hour is no longer a viable option. The group introduced hybrid commercial models for clients that can be equity-based, coupled with hours, to deliver parts of the value chain, as well as a value-based model which is specific to development and IP. This approach means Grid has a vested interest in the success of its clients’ businesses.
As the agency goes through yet another period of growth, it is aware it needs to rebuild who it is while trying to create a new, sustainable economic model for a new world order. “Driven by our purpose, we continually adapt and evolve to meet the challenges of our new world, all the while ensuring we remain relevant,” says Cohen.