Paul Earnden, the former director and board member of digital agency Prodo, has joined us to take on the newly-created position of strategy director for our growing property business.
Having expanded into the property market two years ago, following a decade and half in automotive, we welcome Paul at an exciting time for the business, with new technology soon to be launched.
Paul is tasked with developing and driving forward the company’s proposition across a number of property markets, including estate agencies and mortgage providers, helping our clients to acquire new clients in meaningful volumes.
“Paul brings a deep understanding of digital, marketing and product development,” commented TLA CEO Anton Hanley. “His experience of working with external service providers off-shore and on- to deliver technical solutions make him a great fit for where TLA is heading as a business.
“Paul will be responsible for researching and setting the strategy for the property vertical, leveraging our proprietary advertising technology to provide clients the highest quality of in-market leads available.”
Paul joins us after five years with Chester-based Prodo, where he led on strategy and sat on the agency’s board of directors. His remit there was to set the strategic direction for all clients from a customer acquisition and digital transformation perspective. These included the New York Times, RBS, Emirates Old Trafford and several clients in property and financial services markets.
Speaking of his new challenge, Paul said: “In the current era of digital disruption, I’m incredibly excited to be joining TLA. I am highly impressed with the technology offering and how TLA’s platform can be leveraged by brands looking to acquire customers in the property space.
“I’m looking forward to joining a well-established, 17-year-old tech company and growing the property business into a major part of TLA.”
Ever wondered who are the people behind the technology and campaigns TLA produces? In a new series, we’re grabbing five minutes with members of the team to shine more light on who they are and what inspires them.
First up is Dan Potter, who joined the business in 2015 and manages our paid media campaigns. Here’s what we learned in our five-minute catch-up.
Hi Dan. Let’s start with an important one. Which sports teams do you follow?
Unfortunately, I’m a lifelong-suffering Evertonian (thanks Dad). I’ve also got into American football over the last couple of years and follow the New Orleans Saints (the least Everton-esque team I could find).
What TV series or film should we be watching?
I feel like it’d be too obvious to say Game of Thrones here, but… Game of Thrones.
If you had two weeks off, where would you go?
Japan. Absolutely no doubt. I’ve always been fascinated by the unique cocktail of ultra-modern technology, rich culture and traditions, and crazily beautiful natural landscapes. Plus the sushi, obviously.
Want to join Dan in the PPC team? Why not get in touch and apply today!
Which TED talks (or equivalent) have you seen that you recommend we watch?
I’m going to cheat here because it’s not a TED talk, but I’d highly recommend giving ‘Cambridge Analytica – The Power of Big Data and Psychographics’ from the 2016 Concordia summit a watch. It’s a fascinating yet terrifying insight into how big data was leveraged alongside laser-targeted ad messaging to influence the Trump US election. It’ll make you never want to use the internet again.
Which websites do you visit daily?
I can’t remember the last time I went 24 hours without going on Instagram or YouTube. Workwise, PPC Hero post a lot of useful content and industry news daily. I’m also a big fan of Copyhackers, they teach you how to use the power of words to influence our highly susceptible human brains and drive action.
Which entrepreneurs do you admire and why?
I’m a big fan of Elon Musk. He’s not your typical entrepreneur that spotted a gap in the market or found a way to monetise their passion. He’s someone that’s driven by a genuine desire to change the world. He’s totally self-made, a massive risk taker and relentless in chasing his goals to an obsessive degree. Pretty much the poster boy for innovation and pushing boundaries.
And finally, what aspect of your work are you most passionate about?
I love the opportunity to be creative – and with digital marketing you’re able to actually see the direct tangible results of what you do. It’s super satisfying when some outside of the box thinking comes off.
If you’ve got a question for the TLA team or want to know more about what makes us tick, why not get in touch?
Welcome to The Lead Agency’s Book Club, a newly-introduced office library, that is part of our ongoing commitment to support and encourage self-improvement throughout the business.
Our growing collection of titles on business, leadership, tech, marketing and more has been introduced to help people learn and grow both in and outside of their roles.
So, what’s currently sitting on the bookshelf? Find out with our regular 5-minute summaries from the team – starting with our head of studio Neil Cosgrove…
1. Hi Neil. What have you been reading?
Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.
2. What was the book about?
Goggins should have been a statistic, the odds stacked against him to amount to anything in his life. Come from a rough childhood, to growing to 300 pounds in the Air Force, then loosing 110 pounds in 3 months to become a decorated Navy Seal, ultra-distance endurance athlete and world 24h pull up bar record holder (4,030).
3. What were the key takeaways for you?
Master your mind.
Most people only use 40% of their capability!
Take control of your life – you are the only one who can affect your future.
4. Who do you think would enjoy reading it?
Anybody who enjoys inspiring, motivational stories.
What have you read lately? Let us know what has inspired you and we’ll add it to the TLA library.
The Lead Agency has been included in the Financial Times’ listing of the 1,000 fastest-growing companies in Europe for the second consecutive year.
With the help of data specialist Statista, the FT 1000 ranks fast-growing businesses from across the continent based on compound annual growth rate in revenue over a four-year period (2014-2017).
With a growth rate of 80.4%, we are delighted to have climbed from 363rd on the list in 2018 to 306th for 2019, placing as the 46th highest-placed UK business.
Placing in the FT 1000 for the second successive year is a tremendous achievement for everyone associated with the company, demonstrating our continued growth and success. But it wouldn’t be achievable without the consistently exceptional quality achieved by the TLA team and the continued support, trust and commitment of our clients and partners. We thank you all for helping us to continue our journey and allowing us to be a part of yours.
Top of this year’s ranking is financial services firm Blue Motor Group, which achieved a compound annual growth rate of 701.4%, followed by last year’s number one Deliveroo, which grew by 441.2%. The 1,000th placed company, German business Atheneum Partners, had a growth rate of 37.7%.
We have been shortlisted for Best Lead Generation Campaign at this year’s Performance Marketing Awards (PMAs).
The recognition arrives for our successful campaign on behalf of Ford, working closely with the automotive giant’s media partners Mindshare and GTB.
We were appointed to created a five-month lead generation campaign in August last year with the aim of generating high-quality, in-market leads for its full range of vehicles.
We reached and engaged car buyers in high volumes as they researched their new car purchase and qualified each one digitally and offline to identify the right buyers for Ford.
The campaign generated strong metrics across lead volume, marketing opt-ins and conversion rates (based on follow-up survey data), helping Ford achieve its targets and catching the eye of the PMA judges.
Henry Mitchell, account director at GTB, said: “We set The Lead Agency an ambitious target for the number of leads we required over a five-month period in order to ensure our investment in the lead generation channel would be worthwhile and hit ambitious year end lead targets. The team’s commitment to our goal, flexibility to meet our requirements and support throughout the campaign has been excellent.”
We’re immensely proud of the campaign and pleased to have been nominated at the PMAs. We’ll discover our fate at the ceremony taking place on 30 April at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.
TLA is funding two members of its management team to study for a Masters Degree Apprenticeship at Liverpool John Moores University.
Head of Studio Neil Cosgrove and Head of Data Insight Antony Neill are enrolled on the MBA Scale-ups Masters-level Degree Apprenticeship – a part-time, two-year, course designed in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute to help businesses grow.
The course focuses on the key areas a business needs to identify their scale-up potential, exploring proven management and leadership development strategies.
Speaking about the course, Neil said: “I’m really grateful to The Lead Agency for giving me the opportunity to study for an MBA. It’s exciting to be starting this journey, which is taking me out of my comfort zone and giving me a fresh perspective of business theories and best practice. I believe it will be a big benefit, not only to me but also to the business.”
Antony added: “One of the great things about TLA is its commitment to continuous improvement. Whether it’s individually or collectively, we’re all focused on growing our skills, knowledge and experience so that we can keep making progress. Studying for an MBA on business scale-ups is a great opportunity for me and I’m looking forward to bringing the things I learn back into the business.”
After successfully completing a trilogy of endurance challenges, we’re extremely excited to announce that we’ve surpassed our £10k fundraising target for NSPCC!
A huge thank you must to all those who generously donated in aid of such an important cause. The donations will support the NSPCC as it fights to put an end to child abuse in the UK.
The challenges
Having set our ambitious £10k goal at the start of the year, we teamed up with friends of the business to take on a series of difficult challenges.
The first was the Virgin Money London Marathon in April, which Anton Hanley and Ed Whelan completed in soaring temperatures – a brilliant achievement and one that got our fundraising started.
In July, following the marathon, five members of team TLA took on the immense Man vs Lakes, otherwise known as ‘The Rat Race’. This 28 mile race through the Lake District, involved running and kayaking, complete with a 4,200ft ascent.
To top off our fundraising efforts, a team of 14 got on their bikes for the London to Paris cycle at the start of September. The 165-mile, three-day adventure began at the Marble Arch and concluded at the Arc De Triomph.
Our CEO Anton Hanley said: “We believe it’s important to give something back, and the NSPCC’s fight to end child abuse in the UK is a cause we are proud to support.
The challenges we’ve undertaken this year have pushed us to our limits at times, but we had great fun doing them. The whole team put in hours of training to prepare and rallied the support of their friends and family to help us reach our £10,000 milestone. We’re immensely grateful for the support and commitment from everyone involved.”
NSPCC senior development manager Rachel Walker commented on our fundraising mission: “The team at The Lead Agency are absolutely awe-inspiring in their determination to raise vital funds for the NSPCC.
“The money they have raised will help us to be there for more children who have experienced abuse and neglect.”
Our company values are important to us here at The Lead Agency, which is why we’ve created our first culture book for all members of team TLA.
The book outlines who we are, our mission, our vision and our values – all of which help to shape the culture of the business.
Everyone in the business has been handed their own copy, and all new starters are provided with one when they join the team.
It provides new starters with an insight into what it means to be a part of TLA, what’s expected of them and what they can expect from their time here.
It forms part of a thorough onboarding process that helps people to get settled in their new surroundings, understand how their role contributes to the goals of the business and what we believe is the right way to do things.
The book features images of some of the real faces behind the business, along with inspirational characters such as Steve Jobs, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan.
The book was a collaborative effort between the TLA team and Liverpool-based Wordscapes.
One of our values is to ‘go beyond limits and expectations’, which is summed up well by our latest series of charity challenges in aid of the NSPCC. Read more about our cycling trip from London to Paris.
This time, however, it was 13 miles on foot around the city of Manchester and we had four TLA teammates taking part: Abel, Anton, Neil and Phil.
The running club (from left to right): Anton, Phil, Neil and Abel.
They did it! All four of our runners completed the race in fantastic times:
Abel – 1:52:02
Anton – 1:49:47
Neil – 1:17:38
Phil – 2:07:09
They coped brilliantly and, while there are some stiff limbs and sore feet around the office this morning, they assure us it was worth it. Well done to the fab four – we’re feeling proud!
If you’re able to make a donation, however small, it will be greatly appreciated by not only everyone taking part in our three challenges but the whole team at The Lead Agency.
For those who have done so already, thank you so much. We’re making a difference!
Hi Dan. Let’s start with an important one. Which sports teams do you follow?
Head of Studio Neil Cosgrove and Head of Data Insight Antony Neill are enrolled on the MBA Scale-ups Masters-level Degree Apprenticeship – a part-time, two-year, course designed in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute to help businesses grow.
