Let’s get moving

Companies may know what they are trying to communicate but knowing how to put that message across can be a minefield. The Business Moment talks to Ben Shelbourn, founder of Peterborough-based agency FWD Creative about some of the creative challenges they face and their plans going forward

What’s the story behind FWD and what exactly do you do?
FWD is a creative communications company I founded in 1999 and was borne out of my own experiences of working in marketing, design, advertising and brand consultancies over the years. On a personal level, it was all about independence, being independent from partners, shareholders and banks and to essentially be free to build a creative resource, a pool of talented individuals able to cover a multitude of disciplines so that clients no longer had to juggle between separate agencies. Essentially we’re about creating an appeal and speed of delivery for our clients – getting to market quicker, knitting complex things together and delivering everything efficiently to. When we’re working on an integrated campaign that involves on line or on page, film or digital adverts then we’d not only create the campaign we’d deliver it as well.

So in effect you are offering a complete solution to your clients?
That’s right. I could see that technology and the Internet would have a profound impact on the creative industries and that we’d begin to see the merging together of graphic and web design, advertising, film and video production. Long gone are the days when everyone was only focussed on a particular area so we have specialists in their field but who come together as a team to take ideas and translate them across all media platforms. We’re not just about great graphic design or responsive websites we’re just as much about film, video, photography and animation and that makes us different

So it’s all about discovering the right messages and getting them out there?
Every business has to discover its own voice so it can engage, educate, entertain and inform their audience. The pace of new messages is unrelenting and so any message has to resonate with today’s media savvy consumer. It’s all about what I call ‘moving content’, content that not only physically moves but content that is designed to move more people around to your way of thinking.

So it’s all about discovering the right messages and getting them out there?
Every business has to discover its own voice so it can engage, educate, entertain and inform their audience. The pace of new messages is unrelenting and so any message has to resonate with today’s media savvy consumer. It’s all about what I call ‘moving content’, content that not only physically moves but content that is designed to move more people around to your way of thinking.

What sort of companies do you tend to work with?
My background in the technology, energy and financial sectors has lead to a number of US owned companies working with us in their European markets. We tend to work with marketing professionals or directors – people with decision-making powers and who have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. They may not know how best to achieve it but they will know what they want and where they want to get to. It’s simply up to us to come up with the ideas and the tools to get the job done.

And what is your favourite type of project to work on?
The wider the brief the better as it offers us the ability to think laterally. Some projects can be quite complex and with many things to consider but these are the ones that are often the best. But no matter the project we first look to establish the strategy and the messages we need to convey and when combined with the other elements we then begin to see a clearer picture of how best to get the messages across. We’re in the business of creating an appeal… [cont]