Brave Agency Celebrates Its 22nd Birthday

At Brave, a leading Cambridgeshire-based digital, marketing and creative agency, we are capping off 2022 by celebrating 22 years in business. At this point, we employ 24 members of staff and have been working with an encyclopedia of clients from SMEs through to enterprise-level businesses in delivering digital growth services. The team at Brave helps companies activate their brand and dominate their markets online, gaining market share from the competition through their expertise in digital marketing and web development. At 22, the company is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Working with clients across retail, entertainment, hospitality, automotive and many more sectors, this past year has been one of our busiest years to date. Through it all, the agency’s strength has come from diving headfirst into any challenges their clients throw at us with a core belief that overcoming hurdles make us stronger.

“Being Brave means having the courage to view unique and complex challenges from many different perspectives and never accept that anything is impossible,” our founder Tony Conte explains. “We’re living in a ‘brave new world’ where marketing is so different to fifteen or even five years ago. It’s so different when it comes to connections in a world where brands are shaped by customers, quality overshadows volume and interaction at a personal level beats mass marketing – the scattergun approach has been retired.

“Our passion for helping brands grow remains at our core – when our clients succeed, so do we.”

Tony can still be found motivating and pushing the team, working alongside clients and planning for the future of the agency. “Since day one, my passion is and has always been to deliver best-in-class digital services. It’s what shapes us into people-people,” he goes on to say. “We believe that frequent communication is critical and it makes all the difference between success and failure when taking on any project. We are a results-based agency and by understanding clients, their business and their market we can then understand how to get the right results they want”.

What motivates our team is the variety of clients stretching across many industries they work with, making every day feel different. The characters in the team are just as unique as the clients which also creates a great working environment. Matt, one of our SEO Specialists, says, “Not only do we get to experience a great team dynamic but our customers feel a part of that team too”.

Brave boasts impressive client success stories and the team that makes us up are motivated to create more in the future. “Since working at Brave, I never realised how much an agency side role fast-tracks your knowledge,” says Jamie, Brave’s Content Manager. “The work is always challenging and enjoyable, and there are always new things to learn every day. I’ve loved the banter within the team, how helpful everyone is, and generally just how awesome the company and people are – it feels like a family.”

We tackle projects holistically, working with clients from the planning stage through to designing, building and post-launch optimisation. Elliot, Brave’s Design Manager, commented, “I love working in the design department at Brave because we get a wide variety of clients and projects to work on, from animation to branding and of course eCommerce websites. We are always working on something different and never pigeonholed into creating run-of-the-mill online shops.”

Speaking about how Brave adds value to clients’ needs, Tony said that “we love to create and build brands, but the real thrill for us is to see our brands perform and grow. Our whole business ethos is centred around a performance-related brand and digital marketing. This always starts with the brand, but we are also thinking about the customer journey and how best to showcase the brand at each stage of the customer decision-making lifecycle. How do we engage with new prospects and what touchpoints do we need? How do we nurture these relationships through the decision-making process? How do we then convert and at what cost per acquisition? Not every agency has the ambitions we have for our clients. Not every client has ambitions, but this is where we want to align ourselves and we love working with clients who have those same beliefs to grow.”

When we began, businesses were slow to realise the importance of an online presence. But even for those who refused to embrace online originally, the COVID-19 pandemic put things into stark perspective. Covid might not necessarily change the future of digital marketing agencies, but it has boosted existing trends as businesses started catching up much more aggressively. The Brave team have been successful at adapting to these changes during the pandemic but is vying to continue the upward trend.

So, has Tony achieved what he wanted when he started Brave Agency 22 years ago? “Yes. I am very proud of what we’ve created, though it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fast. With the help of key members of staff along the way, we’ve done it our own way and taken our time to develop into the agency we are today. Our first office was shared but looking back, it wasn’t the right business decision to pay for a fancy office at that stage. We concentrated on our work, portfolio, clients, teams and service. By doing that, we have organically grown as an agency with pedigree and experience.”

Asking what the next steps are for Brave, Tony answered candidly. “Staying more than just one step ahead all that is digital, listening to and delivering for clients and, last but not least, keeping staff motivated and inclusive of what’s going on around them even if they’re working remotely.”

Written byNathan Evans

Content Writer at Brave Agency

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