In conversation with...

Simon Richards, Founder & Creative Director RichardsDee

In uncertain times, it is more important than ever to share experience, insights and advice with your peers so we can all learn from one another. With this in mind, we are having conversations with members across various sectors to understand how they and their teams have adapted their strategies throughout the pandemic, what they have learned from it, and how they prepare to return to the new normal.

For this week’s instalment in the series we’ve chatted to Simon Richards, Founder & Creative Director RichardsDee

If you are a member who would like to feature in the In Conversation with series please send an email to editor@mii.ie

MII: Hi Simon, how have the last 12-15 months impacted and shaped your business?

The impact has enabled us to focus on clients and sectors who need to continue to build their brand story and brand value, where some other sectors have had to pull back. Those operating in international markets or providing services that are a daily necessity have been very active. We have seen less impact on projects with our larger clients and this has also helped us deliver deeper strategic services.

How have the last 12-15 months changed how you work with clients?

Creative brand workshops have been one of the biggest areas we have had to change over the past few years. Replicating the experience of our brand discovery workshops through Miro, Webex or Teams is extremely hard. We have adapted to new technologies, but we are delighted to be back in the studio and already clients are keen to get their teams immersed in their brand through team workshops.

What work are you most proud of from the last year?

We have continued to grow, evolved our work and developed deeper partnerships with clients. We are very proud to have launched large scale branding projects for Kerry, helped Energia strengthen it’s brand, deliver creative and meaningful work for Marketing Institute Ireland and support BASF Ag in the USA on their brand challenges and customer segmentation, we also repositioned House of HR, a 2bn multinational challenger. To deliver these projects in this climate is a great testament to the ambition and hard work of our team and the flexibility and drive of our clients. Not to mention the inspiring Creative Against Covid initiative the Celine and the team drove forward last year. It’s been a very busy 15 months!

How has your team adapted to the new way of working?

We have had successes and challenges, I think most of our team have adapted well to the new ways of working, but the younger members of the team have missed the culture, guidance and influence of working in a team environment. Technology has been a great saviour over this period and if we had gone through this ten years ago then we all would have struggled. We have always been progressive in technology and had adopted remote working scenarios for some years and this helped us adapt quickly.

What changes will you keep in place going into the future?

To support the culture and wellbeing of the company we have always had a weekly and monthly company share and learn session, but on top of this we introduced two weekly catch-ups, a share and learn weekly sessions, photo competitions and weekly yoga – which we shall all continue to do. Going forward we will support more working from home by moving to a hybrid model of 3 days in and 2 at home, and a goal to finish on Fridays at two.

What brands or businesses do you admire most when you reflect on the last 12-15 months?

Brand that I have admired over the past have been Microsoft, for becoming indispensible, connecting the tools, improving the experience we are now are utilising and loosing its geeky and staid image – I think what Satya Nadella has done at Microsoft is quite interesting and always evolving. It has also been a great time for smaller brand and startups to embrace online and become a viable alternative to mainstream and stagnant brands. The push and need to do things differently, to be brave and standout has never been more important.