2019 has been a pivotal year for RocketMill. Not only did this independent total performance agency win the BAHBAs prestigious Company of the Year award, they celebrated a decade in business, expanded their team and launched key partnerships that have shaped a prosperous future.
Founded in 2009 by brothers Sam and Ben Garrity, RocketMill has come from very humble beginnings to standing today as one of the largest independent agencies in the UK, working with a host of like-minded, incredible brands. We’ve grown from partnering with mostly SMEs to blue chips including National Geographic, Dropbox and Kimberly-Clark.
Our secret to this success lies in our philosophy - to put our people first. As our CEO Sam Garrity states, ‘an agency is nothing more than its people. Their talent defines our success. Their behaviour defines our culture’.
That’s why we documented the behaviours of those that thrive here. Here’s a sample of some of those that we consistently exhibit to one another, our clients and their customers.
Trust and transparency
We know that if we inspire, educate, be transparent, trust, and share the spoils with our team, they will do the finest work of their career for our clients, and then together we prioritise the customer of our client.
As an agency, we share everything from the P&L to changes that might impact the way the company operates. The only thing we don’t know is what each other earn. No one works well in a fog and ultimately, trust is a product of these behaviours - building a sense that we’re in this together.
Become unrecognisable
People who thrive here evolve at pace resulting in growing professionally and being rewarded as a result. While RocketMill provides opportunity to spur people on to becoming unrecognisable, their energy, courage and curiosity in turn pushes the agency forward.
I was sat in SLT meetings hearing lots of positive things about our Paid Media Director, Mat. Sam praised his achievements and how he is consistently gunning it for us and our clients. This all led to the internal mantra ‘be more Mat’ when referring to working hard and getting results. It might have started as a joke but we meant it. So when a person and their work is outstanding, I make it my business. I put them front and centre.
Recording his story, drive and career path gave us collateral to enter Mat into Campaign and Media Weeks 30 under 30. He won. Great for him, great for our brand, and it creates a feel good factor within the agency.
Be humble
We believe your humility will create a hunger to improve. Though my role is Marketing Director, I see myself as more of an Investigative Journalist since I have to eke out the news from people due to their humility. Keeping my ear to the ground helps me unearth the award-winning news, trends and talent to create assets around, wrapping our list of target prospects in a bubble of relevant RocketMill content and leading to credibility, recognition, leads and sales.
Developing and lauding our staff in this way empowers them to take the spotlight and enables me to showcase the best of them.
Embrace simplicity
Stupid people make things complicated in order to confuse others, hoping that they appear smart in the process. Our people are intelligent. We have no need for complexity.
You only have to check out our RocketMill Moments video playlist on YouTube to see that we don’t fluff our words and that same no BS, honest approach is why our clients see us as an extension of their own team.
Be kind
Kindness to colleagues, clients, the person on the front desk, and our environment all make the day better for everyone and you see pockets of kindness throughout the day, every day at RocketMill.
If we don’t start to be more human in business by putting people and the planet first, both will suffer. So it’s a real joy for me to see one of our team, Travis express his passion in life and have this evolve into a key driver for the business.
Travis wants to raise awareness of climate change and had the idea to help evolve us into a business that is more sustainable. We listened and have funded this idea, growing it into a company-wide initiative, Planet First led by Travis, Catrin and Joe.
This sees us make more sustainable choices, get stuck into local events for the environment such as Brighton Beach Cleans and has proudly formed a new partnership with World Land Trust.
We’re thrilled to announce that, for every new client win, colleague hire or quarterly bonus achieved, RocketMill protects up to 10 acres through WLTs Protect an Acre programme. We aim to set an example for other agencies to follow by tying our business success with the protection of the planet.
Our people first approach unites our agency and has won us awards. This year alone RocketMill has been crowned one of Campaign’s 50 Best Places to Work, and reached the top 15 in The Drum’s Top 100 Independent Agency Census for the second year. RocketMill is now also named one of the Top 100 UK Agencies by Econsultancy; and this was our first time entering.
Profit is a result of all of this. It’s the result of doing everything else right. Because we believe that creating value for businesses starts with creating value for people.
Wishing you many more successful years to come from us all at RocketMill.
RocketMill Ltd
www.Rocketmill.co.uk
T: 01273 916 600
