One Year of No Holding Back with un-held’s Tim Harvey
Tim Harvey has no notion of holding back, it’s not in his nature to do so. Having worked across the UK in account management, new business and growth roles, Tim knows his way around getting things done and getting recognised.
The former global chief growth officer at BBH’s newest adventure has seen him spend a year championing smaller creative businesses from around the world, and helping them unlock their true potential.
In June of last year, he launched his consultancy, un-held and it has since grown to offer independents a variety of different services designed for their business and growth needs.
Tim describes the company as ‘an un-holding co to help independent creative businesses scale without a sale’, although it is important to note that he isn’t anti-holding company, but rather pro-indie.
Tim caught up with LBB’s Casey Martin to speak on the company's first year, what trends he’s seen in the Australian market and what the future of un-held looks like.
LBB> The first year of un-held was spent working away to make it into what it is today. Can you talk us through the ups and downs of the first year?
Tim> I wouldn’t have changed my first official year of business. Not because there haven’t been both ups and downs, but because that’s how businesses are best built. The reality of a business like mine is that my ups and downs are very much dictated by, and a reflection of, the ups and downs of my clients. The other reality is that my value is only as good as my understanding of the market ups and downs – and so what can feel choppy at first ultimately helps me help my clients ride the wave. In this respect, my “downs” are simply learnings. Here are three that my clients and I have both experienced this past year:
Leeeeeeeead times: I’m seeing so many businesses lose their size advantage through speed of decision. I feel it in the decisions some agencies make, and they feel it in the decisions that their clients make. The competitive advantage of indies is that they can move quickly – so take advantage of it!
Moving goal posts: Preparing for and setting up against specific objectives and goals, but seeing the goal posts move late in the day. Unavoidable in certain situations but frustrating all the same, and certainly reflective of agency to brand engagements too.
Ghosting: I used to think Halloween was just once a year, but I’ve experienced so much ghosting throughout the year (as have my clients) I’m starting to think otherwise, and without any real sense of why. If you’re gonna ghost, be a Casper please. I love a “no” far more than a no reply.
Having said all of this, we’re an industry in, what seems like, a constant state of flux, which being a small business you prepare for by operating through a constant state of flex. It’s the only way.
The ups are easy, it’s the people. Establishing a truly global business, network and client base. Waking up to meet NY at the end of day before working back across multiple time zones has its challenges, but working with some of the most talented (and varied) businesses in the industry is not just a privilege but a lot of fun. Cannes was also a real highlight to spend time with clients face to face and also wildly re-energising. I've been lucky enough to work with agency folks I want to spend time with. Thank you to everyone who’s made it so enjoyable.
LBB> You’re a creative consultancy, what does that mean to you and to the industry?
Tim> To me, it’s a framing to deliver my core offering; to the industry (and my clients) it’s the process to help them consistently and effectively deliver theirs.
I’ll let you in on a secret. I don’t love the word consultancy BUT it’s a helpful shortcut and it fits nicely within the un-holding co construct: consultancy, counsel, community and concierge (more on that later).
I don’t love it because it often gets lost in theory, whereas the real value I offer is in practice. In understanding what truly differentiates an agency business, and building strategies and processes around that to drive growth. Similarly, it’s the same for brands, helping understand what they need and ensuring we can deliver an effective agency ecosystem to deliver that.
LBB> You’ve noted that you’re not ‘anti-holding company but pro-indie’, can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
Tim> Yep.
I’ve always believed that as an industry we should be able to deliver two things brilliantly through our world class strategic and creative product: profitability and positivity (and more often than not, one fuels the other).
Of course the irony is that we’re so bloody cynical as an industry that we lose a lot of our super power when talking about ourselves because we love to criticise with a negative tone. I don't want to add to that. The business is called un-held, and we’re firmly positioned as an un-holding company but that doesn’t mean we have an enemy in holding cos, we simply have a competitor and a clear challenge.
The model is to replicate a lot of the benefits of a hold-co but for smaller businesses, it would be remiss of us, therefore, to oppose them. Finally, the only reason I can do what I do now is because of the incredible learning from my time within the likes of Leo Burnett and BBH (Publicis Groupe), where I met a lot of lifetime friends (and my wife).
I’ve always said that we want to wave the indie flag first and foremost, having said that, a flagpole is an excellent device if we want to poke the holding bear, but only ever in jest.
LBB> You wrote an article in 2022 about the need for the Australian industry (and those outside of it) to recognise themselves as a huge creative player. You stated, “We’ve re-written the rules of what great creativity looks like and how you get to it.” What does that mean and how can Aussies start to believe in themselves a bit more?
Tim> ‘I come from a brand down under.’ The piece identified the changing landscape and why Australia is so well primed to deliver global creativity and be fully recognised as a global hub: a post-pandemic world where you can work from anywhere and we’re largely operating from the future here (time zones not technologies), a post-pandemic world where the best talent demands to live in the best places (and we’re almost unbeatable on that front), a booming VC economy which has recently funded some incredible global exports (AfterPay, Atlassian, Canva), paving the way for global brands. And all of this underpinned by a market that regularly punches above its weight creatively.
The intent was (and still is) a rallying cry for more local businesses to step up to the global stage. We have the ingredients, the chefs, and the kitchens, we just need to start serving up some more global cuisine!
LBB> You currently offer consultancy and counsel, can you share moments from the first year that have shaped these three aspects of the business?
Tim> In respect of the model, I’m going to leave this to just some of the clients we’ve worked with and instead ask them to talk to how these have shaped their business over the first year of our relationship:
“un-held has been an invaluable resource and growth accelerator for our business. As our agency has grown, Tim Harvey has been a true partner, providing sharp and tailored counsel to help us diversify our business strategies & product offerings. His approach is the ideal blend of creativity and business acumen helping us find fresh and innovative opportunities for our creative agency.” - Atlantic New York
"For anyone who’s ever tackled agency positioning, you know the hidden challenges in a fragmented, commoditised industry. un-held guided us through the overwhelming task of finding the perfect differentiation, helping us focus on what truly sets us apart. They didn’t just help us embrace our agency truths; they helped us articulate them in a higher purpose that defines who we are and what we do. Thanks to un-held, our proposition became more than just words on a page—it became a way of working and showing up every day, woven into the fabric of our products and culture." - Tracey Faux Pattani, CEO, BSSP
“As a creative-led independent business, having counsel from un-held has been an incredibly valuable part of our growth journey. As creatives, we have all of this passion; all of these ideas; a vision about what we want to do, and how we want to do it - Tim has enabled us to take that energy and focus on where it matters to make it happen.” - Nic and Si, Founders, ABEL
“We were having a lot of trouble trying to work out how to translate the incredibly complex nature of the way our agency blends mathematics and media into an outward facing proposition that a new audience would just 'get'. We were completely stuck and brought Tim onboard to help us navigate this challenge. Tim was fantastic in his approach of completely immersing himself in our business to understand what made it tick not only from a product/outputs point of view but also the kind of people we were that drove our unique approach. We're incredibly happy with the final version of the proposition dubbed 'Mediamatics' and loved the way it flexes both externally and internally for our business.” - Shahram Ghaffurian, CEO, Magic
LBB> What are you most proud of?
Tim> From a model perspective, I’m most proud of drawing a line in the sand in terms of where we stand in the industry, but not limiting the pins on the map in terms of where we take that across the world.
From a service perspective, I’m proud to see the fruits of the model come to life across my client’s business, both in terms of people growth (we’ve literally helped shape appraisal systems through our proposition work), product growth (we’ve consulted on agency output, and shaped new product to change agency input), and profit growth (seeing clients use our proposition tool to better sell their services).
From a family perspective, I’m proud to still make the time to take and pick up my daughter from daycare religiously. That’s real business growth and success.
LBB> How will you continue to expand un-held? What does the future hold?
Tim> A timely question.
Firstly, un-held was never designed to expand itself, but to help expand the businesses it serves. We sit under amazing independent businesses, and so our expansion simply enables them to rise.
Year one has focused on this, largely working behind closed doors with agency partners.
Year two and beyond will also enable this through creating one front door for brands to access a multitude of indies across the world. One front door to breadth of depth of solution, with no minimum spend requirement, no maximum idea potential, and no overheads at the center, under our agency search and rescue platform, Concierge.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t another agency search service. Our intent is not to run pitches, help brands find AORs or set up competitive processes, there are some excellent intermediaries out there that we will leave this too. It’s very specifically search and rescue: solving imminent problems (or opportunities) through project based engagements for brands, via vetted un-held agency partners.
We do this in two ways: On the solve or Off the shelf
The former allows a brand to specify challenge, budget, and timeframe, before we select partners. The latter allows a brand to buy a specific product with a fixed set out of outputs, timings and price.
We will continue to add other services too, to complement our commitment to community, consultancy, counsel and concierge, but only if they begin with co…
Okay, plug over. Call me if you want to play.
