20 Years of Purpose with Medialab’s Founders

This year marks Medialab’s 20th birthday and so throughout the year, we will be acknowledging this landmark with various moments of celebration each month. The one constant across that period has been the presence of the three founders Marcus Orme (CEO), Alex Kirk (Managing Director) and Ben Ennis (Chief Operating Officer). In a specially adapted version of A Day in The Life, we sat down with the trio to reflect on how the day-to-day has evolved across two decades of innovation, as well as their ambitions for the next 20 years.

When you consider that three people have been working together every day for over 25 years, it’s safe to say they’ve seen immense change in that time. Medialab (originally set up as ‘ListLab’ to reflect their-then data & mailing list focus) pre-dates Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and iPhones. Even day-to-day use of the internet was in its infancy. Our three founders were also somewhat raw.

Marcus remembers learning how to use a fax machine and would anxiously sit next to it waiting for the media orders to flow through.

“I sent my first ever email when I joined Listlab in 1998” Ben recalls.

Alex nearly didn’t get involved at all, due to an initial misunderstanding of the nature of our industry. “A friend of mine told me he’d heard about a job in ‘list brokerage’, a similar company to the one he was at. I remember when he first started, I thought he was a ‘Lift Broker’ so when he told me about the role at Listlab, I thought “I’ve just graduated in Business & Marketing – why would I want to work in elevators?”.

The business was surely in safe hands…

“Our Monday Morning Meetings used to involve the whole company and did so for many years until it became unwieldly. Weekends were also livelier, so stirring people from their slumber was quite a challenge. I’d bribe everyone with a McDonald’s breakfast each Monday which helped – although not great for getting into my suits” says Marcus.

“We were fortunate to have been owned previously by a business with an entrepreneurial approach which also aligned with our way of thinking. This encouraged us to think bigger and take the performance-driven heritage of Listlab, and scale it into a leading independent media agency. That said, we’ve achieved so much more than I imagined” says Marcus. “I also liked the idea of being a bit disruptive within the industry but in a positive way – we knew there was definitely a desire from clients for a more data driven approach, where they were put first, and every penny of their budget was scrutinised for their benefit”.

Ben recalls, “I think it helped that we weren’t constrained by a notion of what we should do so just did what came naturally – this shaped what became our values as we did what we felt was right.

We also soon learned to bring in experts. For a short time at the beginning, Alex was essentially our IT department! But he always gave the impression he knew what he was doing…”

For Alex, it was a case of doing more of the same but better than everyone else. “We’d built a good reputation in previous years with clients and people always at the forefront. Our vision was always to prioritise trust, transparency, and collaboration—creating a place where people work with a shared purpose and where they felt they could make a real contribution to what we were doing. That hasn’t changed and to this day, we share as much as we can with the team so they feel part of it and can see how what they do positively impacts Medialab”.

Branching out from a direct mail list buying and sales business was a key part of the vision.

All three agreed that, pivotal to this was bringing in Will Davis, now Chief Data Officer. Joining in 2006, Will has been present for 19 of those years and was integral to the vision and to what was possible. “He brought a sharp, mathematical brain to set up Medialab’s approach to media planning and buying – but also came with an ambition to match ours” recalls Marcus. “He gave us the ability to measure and evidence performance through data which meant we had the credibility to challenge and work collaboratively with clients, and they trusted us to do so as a result”.

When the conversation moves onto the main changes in day-to-day routine, not surprisingly, technology is key. It’s strange to think that a lot of the digital businesses that have transformed our daily lives were just establishing themselves at around the same time. Medialab’s Purchase Order system used to be A4 notebooks that had hand-written entries for each media order received, still kept in the cupboard for nostalgia. Marcus remembers asking his brother to write a programme in Excel to digitise it which was game changing. All documents and media orders were sent and received by fax.

“If a media sales order had been signed off over the phone, we’d all huddle round the fax machine waiting for it to come through before high fiving, like Jerry Maguire waiting for his contracts!”.

Another big change has been in the decision-making process. In the early days, they were all involved in the more granular detail of Medialab’s operations and decision making. As Marcus and Alex clarify, it was both a strength and a weakness as the business continued to grow. “It all came from the right place, and we probably needed it back then, but we’ve become a lot better at identifying our lanes and generally sticking to them. We’ve become much better at delegating” adds Ben.

When talking about significant moments that have impacted the business, the founders collectively agree that while Covid was initially daunting, it brought out the best in Medialab whereby everything that had been built previously was rigorously tested.

“They say that the truest test of your business is in times of adversity, and I was so proud of how we responded in 2020” says Marcus.

So much of what Medialab now do came from that period – the way we communicate internally, LiveLabs, Collablabs, Media TED’s and of course hybrid working. As Alex recalls “I strongly believe that being independent and the agility that gave us was a huge factor – we were able to make quick decisions, for better or worse, and make things happen – all with the right intentions and in line with our values”.

Separate to that, Ben talks about GDPR and the impact on the business being hugely influential.

“For a business so entrenched in third party data, the prospect of GDPR was going to be significant. We need to pivot from data-heavy direct mail to innovative strategies and to be more digitally focussed”. 

It also had a significant impact on Ben’s role personally. “I can blame GDPR for being what put me on the road to being more operationally focussed for Medialab. There was a conference on this new regulation, and I knew one of us had to be there. Once I’d attended that, GDPR had its claws into me and so I started championing that as well as other regulation and governance areas. I was never much fun at parties after that…”

Marcus and Alex both smirk when they recall telling Ben they were both ‘busy that day’ when he asked who could attend. They couldn’t remember doing what, but they were definitely ‘busy’

Having focussed on change, we also talked about what has remained constant. Unanimously, they all say, ‘people first’ and the importance of building a culture based on great talent, doing the right thing and having fun.

“It all centred around building relationships which is still true today. Even as a small business, it just seemed natural and obvious that if we got to know our clients well and understood what they wanted, it made everything else so much easier.

Alex recalls Medialab’s infamous client parties which always took place during the annual highlight of the industry calendar, the International Direct Marketing Fair (IDMF). “It was aways about getting clients and suppliers together in a room, no sales message but just having fun and saying ‘thanks’. We still do that today and clients really appreciate it”.

Client entertainment trips to Tottenham Hotspur on a Saturday were also a regular occurrence. Nothing to do with Marcus’ allegiance to Spurs, mind.

Marcus fondly remembers travelling to the US each year for their equivalent of the IDMF. Work hard/play hard seemed to be the motto but thoroughly worth it. “If you back that up with great service and results for clients, it sticks. We did our very first Board Meeting on one of those trips – the three of us sitting on the grass in the Olympic Park in Atlanta. Things were more informal back then – not sure if Stewart (Easterbrook, now Chairman) would allow that nowadays!”

Bringing in brilliant talent has remained a constant. The founders discuss always wanting to bring in people who were better than them, and that still stands.

“The team we have built is exceptional. We’ve added some seriously talented people both at Board level and within the team to help build up the business. When our Chairman, Stewart Easterbrook, joined in 2017, he always said his first impressions of Medialab was that we had something different and that the team always talked with a ‘client first’ approach. Working alongside the team, I am continuously blown away with their ideas and hunger to do well. Some have been with us for 5-10 years+ who are the bedrock of the business and have contributed hugely. That’s why I’m so excited about what’s to come” says Marcus.

Finally, the idea of having fun remains important to all three of them.

“Enjoying each other’s company in the workplace has always been crucial to feeling motivated and doing good work. In the early days, we’d have a tick board on the wall marked against certain monthly targets to incentivise everyone. If we achieved three ticks, we’d all go away for a weekend abroad. It was a bit old school, but it worked as that’s where the culture of ‘team’, doing the right thing and trust was built.”.

Coming together as a team still exists in the form of company weekend-away trips, summer socials and ad-hoc events that appeal to a more diverse team and are hugely important in retaining that culture. What have now become socials at the end of each Thursday originally begun with Marcus wheeling a trolley round the office offering end of Friday refreshments. As Alex remembers, “He ordered this terrible contraption that was like a hospital gurney, but it did bring everyone together at the end of the week”.

Marcus and Alex also acknowledge that Spurs being terrible has also remained fairly constant in the last 20 years, but they didn’t dwell on that for too long.

Once they get over the shock that they will all be approaching, or be in, their seventies by then, it seems this is too far to look ahead given the pace of change, but they all agree that AI will have a similarly significant impact to that of the internet.

“Just as we reminisce now as to how much has changed, I think we’ll be doing the same again in relation to AI – just in 3-5 years, not 20”, Marcus comments.

The importance of staying rooted in the people-first ethos but also continuing to put clients first is also critical to the future.

“Being able to do that will mean we can continue to grow while not losing what makes it a special place to work” says Alex.

Ben adds that. “We have a lot more that we’d like to do and some brilliant plans for the future but hearing members of the team talk so passionately about what they do and seeing how much they care for their work, their clients and each other is the most meaningful. I think at the heart of it, if we can retain this with our ambition to be the best, I’ll be happy.”

One other notable constant about Medialab in the last 20 years has of course been the three founders. They acknowledge that they are all quite different but that also is what makes them a good team. They also admit that having a team of three, and then four when Will joined, has definitely helped bounce ideas off each other, sense check decisions and also made the journey more fun.

Their continued role in the day to day and also the management of key client relationships is unusual, but they believe is key to Medialab’s success.

The final word is left to Marcus.

“In many ways, we operate today as we always have done, namely without compromise to those core values we started out with, building a great team, prioritising relationships and the needs of the client. We’ve all loved the journey we’ve been on and really proud to be associated with Medialab and the wonderful people we work with”.

See you in 2045.

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