Fall off the Wall: The Shapeshifting Indie
Fall Off The Wall (FOTW) is an independent creative and production agency, the story behind which starts 21 years ago with two mates who, led by their love for design, embarked on creating a studio of their own. Co-founders Robin Bryne and Jamie Smith – managing director and creative director – met at Barnfield college in Luton back in 1994 while doing an art and design course. After their friendship blossomed and they completed a couple of graphic design university degrees, more than a decade later they discussed setting up FOTW together. “We simply were passionate about good design and production, and we wanted to offer our version of what that looked like.”
And really, what did that look like twenty years ago? At the dawn of the ‘online renaissance’, as Robin and Jamie remember it, with many ‘dot com’ start-ups becoming overnight successes, print was still alive and well. So, FOTW at its roots began concentrating on creating websites and print material for small and medium-sized businesses. Initially targeting local businesses, Jamie and Robin quickly found themselves and their work woven into their surrounding micro culture, and established relationships with the Princess Trust Foundation, Luton Borough Council and Luton University, along with local colleges. This entanglement with local culture and communities has stayed atop of the core value list for the company. It not only helps them give back to the communities they come from, but also not lose sight of where they came from and what FOTW is actually established on.
Today, most brands the company works with are understandably focused on growth, so over the years FOTW found itself within the broadcast sector and proceeded to extend its services to a creative production agency, offering animation and filming. “We’ve seen technology being at the forefront of the industry, consumer targeting has become far more intuitive and scientific, and creativity has become more engaging and personable,” Jamie says. “Over the years, TV has been about the elite brands and huge budgets, but as the tech has advanced and smaller agencies begin offering more value, the industry has seen a lot more small and medium enterprises and start-ups capitalise on this media channel, as broadcasters and media agencies are now offering a shared risk solution to advertising on TV.” So, this became the main media channel for brands to achieve those rapidly expanding growth ambitions.
From this, FOTW set itself up to move with the times, and has consistently invested in new technology, methodologies, best practices and talent, which in turn allowed them to offer high-end production at good value to both trusted and new clients. Robin adds, “We have also realised that we are a specialist team that has a core value around creative production, so we now partner with other agencies with their own specialisms such as brand and performance.”
Production has indeed been at the core of what FOTW do, less twenty years ago and infinitely more today. Over time, the company has developed a creative team that complements the production side and now the two work side by side. “Over the years we learned that a good idea is only as good as how it’s been executed, so that’s why it’s so important that we can come up with great ideas, while also being able to deliver them for our clients.” As an independent company with a niche skill set, FOTW’s control over the narrative is paramount for delivering their own vision. And while they’ve dealt with a plethora of challenges over the years, Robin and Jamie explain that growing the company parallel to the clients’ demands is what kept them at the top. This is where collaboration comes to the aid - FOTW are not the only indie in the UK and partnering with others who are specialists at what they do has proven paramount time and time again. “Coming together and working with a ‘one team’ approach creates a win-win for our clients,” Jamie and Robin say.
While tapping into their strengths as a hybrid creative-production agency and never taking their finger off the pulse has helped so far, it seems tech development is gearing up for another huge jump. As Robin reminds us, “technology is never going to stand still, like most businesses.” So, both him and Jamie are ready to ‘future-proof’ FOTW whatever that might take - both internally and externally - to offer better and more advanced systems and streamline day-to-day working. Like many others, they have also been investing time and resources into exploring AI and have even started implementing some systems into their processes for business development. “This is something that will continue, ensuring that we improve on quality as we go.”
Today, FOTW prides itself on being a ‘process-driven agency’; its three-step process has been tried and tested over many years and for them guarantees smooth and efficient management of clients’ projects and campaigns. “What we do is we welcome regular touch points with our clients and their stakeholders, so that they can be a part of the creative journey and we do not move forward until each production stage is approved by all decision makers,” says Jamie. “At briefing, we support with solutions and challenge requests, to make sure we are getting the best from the budget. It is paramount to us to offer value across everything that we do, balancing a well-oiled process against being flexible and nimble, as most agencies need to be these days.”
The kind of support and creative-collaboration that FOTW offers its clients has proven to book some of the best jobs around, from recording Will Arnett to filming with the X-men cast. “This meant that we got to work in collaboration with other bigger London and US agencies, working up new pipeline processes and working across different time zones, ensuring we still deliver top-quality work, on time and on budget.” When thinking about a recent example, their latest MrQ ad springs to mind for both Jamie and Robin - a collaboration with Armoury in a four-day long Bulgaria shoot.
Putting all of this in perspective really allows you to understand the gymnastics FOTW goes through to keep on top of tech, clients, data and expectations. As Robin and Jamie put it, small independent agencies outside of London navigating through some stressful and tricky times leaves them slightly thrown off their comfort zones each time, but regardless of that they always step up and deliver. “This is purely testament to our team and partners that we’ve worked with over the years.”
In terms of projects that shot them into the big leagues, Robin and Jamie are immensely proud of the 5’’ sponsorship piece for Sky Betting & Gaming all the way back in 2007. With a budget of £5000 they had a slot between the darts - “Basically, it was a test to see if this could work and help to get new acquisitions. Luckily for us, the sponsorship was a success and from there we started working on their TV ads, mainly Sky Bet direct response television (DRTV) ad offers.” From there, they went on to work on brands across the group - Casino, Vegas, Bingo, Super 6, Poker and Fantasy Football. Since then, they’ve relished a 15-year-long partnership working on the account and still taking care of it today.
In 2015, they started working with Sky more broadly which began outlining FOTW’s most rapid period of growth, beginning with their work with Sky Broadband on a small DRTV commercial and with close to no time, and developing into working across most of Sky’s brands. In fact, FOTW were part of the team that helped launch Sky Mobile including creating and delivering Sky Mobile’s TV ad campaign for their Apple iPhone releases.
Looking back on the partnership, both Jamie and Robin are categorical on its importance. “It was key for us, because we were able to prove to ourselves that just because we were outside of London, we could still act and deliver high-end work that our client expects from bigger London agencies. This is what put us on the map with other brands in the UK who had similar marketing requirements to deliver adverts that drive the required response.”
When the agency began their work with Sky, they became known for DRTV and slowly but surely, below-the-line (BTL) advertising became their niche. However today, above-the-line (ATL)doesn’t get left behind, as Robin and Jamie remind us - “Plus, brands want consistency through both BTL and ATL, so we have to work with ATL agencies to help support from a production level, building key brand assets that will go from brand into trade communications.” As the media landscape becomes more fluid than ever, brands work on enabling their work with agencies that can offer more and are able to take an idea through to ‘all screens’, which has become an area of expansion for FOTW for that reason, with their partnered services.
An agile, ever-changing and independent creature, FOTW is looking towards an even brighter future. Robin and Jamie share that they’re looking into remodelling the agency, how it works collaboratively with brands and the internal marketing, creative and insight teams. “We have always been led by data for our creative work and using new technologies, we’re looking to offer a new way of delivering content on a test-and-learn approach to channels in a way that brands only get paid for what they use.”
They add, “The combination of using the right tech and putting creativity and storytelling on a pedestal whilst using tools like AI to our advantage will also help speed up our workflows, bringing interesting dimensions to our ideas, concept art and motion design.”
