This is Flow - The team.
The secret to long term success in an agency might be described as something of a balancing act, seeking a Goldilocks point, neither too hot nor too cold, not growing too fast nor too slow.
Jimmy Hyett, whose agency This is Flow celebrates its 10th anniversary this week, has seen steady growth since he opened shop as a one person operation.
The name of the agency, This is Flow, is a hint at the strategy.
Flow state is where the right amount of challenge is mixed with the right amount of skill. Hyett said that when you get in that zone (flow state) you’re more productive and energised and efficient and effective and you can grow. Flow is a state of growth.’
Hyett learned on his feet, doing everything himself.
“It was just me for the first two and a half years of the business,” he told AdNews.
“And I was doing media, creative, everything, tax, accounting, all the bits and pieces. A team of one.
“It wasn’t until year three that I hired my first staff and that's when we were actually able to step into it.
“But the foundation was laid. Everything was set up in the right way, all the spots and dots and the intricacies were there and proven and done and set up.
“So when we were ready to grow, we were growing at the right pace.”
And along the way, This is Flow has won the big awards, including AdNews Media Agency of the Year two years in a row.
Hyett sees many in the industry who run too fast before they learn to walk.
“When we hit COVID we actually started winning business, which bucked the industry trend,” he said. “And that allowed us to grow. We were hiring, when everyone was firing.”
And the momentum picked up.
“That then provided the fuel, the depth. As you build out more people you get more clients. You have the ability to add more capacity.
“And then start your leadership team and it all starts to build, to snowball into more talent, which drives more clients. And more clients bring tools, more staff. More staff has more capabilities and then that just leads to more clients.
“We grew at a really beautiful pace with small clients at the start. Then we got bigger and the brands got bigger. Now we're set up to handle any level of client, which is fantastic.”
But the philosophy of growing not too fast, not too slow remains.
This is Flow Yeah still turns down more pitches than it takes on.
“We've been very selective with our clients in terms of looking for the right type of clients who are doing the right type of work with the right type of growth for us,” Hyett said.
“You see too often a client with a big piece of business and then internally it fractures the business.”
Culture, that much debated piece of agency life, has been big for This is Flow.
The agency had at one stage introduced profit sharing for staff but this wasn’t practical when the business grew. The profit pie was being cut so small it wasn’t attractive anymore.
So the agency introduced a nine day fortnight with the same pay for ten days.
But the culture was probably set in the very early days when hiring was aimed at people who were excited about the business and wanted it to succeed.
“The decisions in hiring we made early on were for passion, someone keen to get their hands dirty and really create something.
“And you then find that pride, that passion, that real collective spirit of ‘we're creating something together’.
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve had a big shift in culture. We needed to shift, because going from a startup to a scale up over four or five years was a big change.”
Many told Hyett he would lose culture as the agency grew.
“That's always been in the back of my mind but I think it's a myth that it's impossible to hold on to your culture as you grow," he said.
“We've put heaps of work into maintaining that, not just with events and parties. We've got a full culture calendar.
“Everyone's still connected by that passion point of loving what they do and loving media. We’ve got diversity and thinking but we’ve still got that glue that keeps people together.”
At what point does the agency get too big?
“It's not about what number do we want to get to, it's growing at the right rate,” he said.
“Consistent growth is better than immediate growth. For 10 years, we've grown every year and been profitable as a business.
“It's the right growth, not fast growth. And with the right growth, you could grow to 100-150 people, if needed to.
“It's just magic making sure that we've got everything set up, that we're not putting pressure on our existing team and clients, because that's the most important piece.”
Over the last two years, This is Flow has been building its own adtech.
“As an indie, it's really powerful and there's not many indies that have this level of technology and capabilities built in in house.
“We're buying media globally now through our tech. And everything that we're doing moving forward is around the sophistication of technology.”
And Hyett sees the local market as busy, with continuous pitching.
“We haven't seen a drop off in pitching in the last two years,” he said.
“It's been a constant flow. The market itself is in a really interesting stage. Everyone feels that they need to do more, but a lot of clients and agencies don't know how to do more.
“And it's moving so fast, AI automation, data, technology… and there’s risks around everything.
“It feels like a scramble of clients trying to find the right partners and the right solutions.
“People are trying to work out how to play catch up, and that's the main thing. You shouldn't be chasing the growth. You should be in this state of growth.
“And even for us, making sure that for the last 18 months of building this technology in house, there's still the process of getting it up to speed and really onboarding and making sure it's all done right, because the more technology you put in, the faster things move.”
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