Bringing the team together is so important to


us, as is keeping communication lines fully open. Discovery, planning and briefing is obviously important, along with the right team and individuals to have the right level of involvement within their specialist areas, and working creatively isn’t as easy when people are not together. Fortunately, we have a very professional, trusted and talented team and they get it – they made it work.


How did you respond to your client partners’ needs? Cygnus works with client partners in a wide range of sectors and with businesses of all shapes and sizes – IT, food and beverage, education, automotive – each sector had their own challenges but we were ready to listen and understand them. So, for instance, we work with the Open University


and remote learning is obviously something that doesn’t stop, especially now. Although we had to work on and adjust communication lines and perhaps tweak a tone of voice, we worked closely with their team to deliver creative and digital assets to retain their progressive marketing. Charities were hard hit and we work side-by-side with the Milton


Keynes Hospital Charity – it was important to keep their profi le in the public eye when fundraising and donations are so important. Working on the ‘Be Seen in Green’ campaign was very diff erent from a normal year of events. We certainly took a digital fi rst approach to retain the awareness and outreach. Another example is VW Group, whose dealerships closed overnight but then when they reopened there was a lot of pent-up sales opportunities and they had to be in a position to respond. Others found that there was a demand for their service or product,


but there were supply chain or retail outlet issues. AutoGlym, a car care brand, for instance, pivoted to progress further ecommerce solutions as the high streets struggled with footfall. Our one clear objective was to listen to each client partners’


individual needs and situations to understand how we could support them in moving their business forward. We were able to suggest other possibilities and solutions to allow them to stand out, be seen and be heard. We were also able to lean on things we were already doing for other client partners to reposition their brand and transform their marketing.


That can’t have been easy, what lessons have you learned? I think the good thing was that we got to understand our client partners a little bit more. We have a talented team and because we are all creative we are solution driven. Whatever we face, we can react to. Whether it was brand awareness, planning digital outreach or driving footfall to a website, we were able to listen, develop and deploy. What was also refreshing was how businesses took time to step


back and listen to what others were saying. Other agencies and client partners in other businesses in the MK community seemed to spend a little more time giving something back and helping each other out. If we could off er one another advice and experience on how to get through all this, we did. This is something I’ve always been keen to do, however the


ALL THINGS BUSINESS


pandemic has led me to having conversations I wouldn’t otherwise have had.


What do you see


when you look to the future? One of the core things is opportunities. While we are all currently fi ghting our own fi res, we also have to remember that we will come out of this and we need to be in a position to move forward as a brand and business, ready to win new business and evolve as we emerge.


I’m also concerned about the potential waste of talent within the area. We host regular thought leadership events, called CURIOUS, which involve industry leading speakers joining us in a conversation to add marketing and technology insight and value to our students and business community. Our next event, in December, will be entitled ‘A Changing Landscape’ and we want to be at the heart of those conversations and changes. For young people it’s tough get opportunities for


internships and work experience. It’s important that we don’t lose sight of that. We have partnered with Milton Keynes College for


the past four years on the Horizion initiative, providing a pool of enthusiastic local students with the chance to take on a brief, walk through the creative process and deliver a tangible piece of course work that forms part of their overall course delivery. Along with the new university on the MK horizon,


we need to make sure we help inform and support to develop the very best talent. Young, raw, talent is obviously the future and we all need ensure the opportunities are available for them to shine.


Discover more about Cygnus at www.cygnus.co.uk or call 01908 067999


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