Creative Brief - Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Nile
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Following our recent feature City Brand Leaders – Edinburgh, we decided to do a Q&A with a select group of Edinburgh’s leading agency CEOs to help focus on the Edinburgh brand and consider their own agency vision. Here, Tom Holmes, creativebrief Founder & Chairman talks to Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile, Experience and Service Design.
Transcript of Creative Brief - Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Nile
2/18/13 Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile | creativebrief blog
www.creativebrief.com/blog/2013/01/25/edinburgh-agency-focus-sarah-ronald-founder-and-managing-director-of-nile/ 1/4
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Edinburgh Agency Focus – Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Directorof Nile25/01/2013 By Ben Somerset How in City Focus
Following our recent feature City Brand Leaders – Edinburgh, we decided to do a Q&A with a select group of Edinburgh’sleading agency CEOs to help focus on the Edinburgh brand and consider their own agency vision.
Here, Tom Holmes, creativebrief Founder & Chairman talks to Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile,Experience and Service Design
Sarah Ronald, Managing Director, Nile Experience & Service Design, 1315 Circus Lane, Edinburgh, EH3 6SU.
Photograph by Wojtek Kutyla www.wojtekkutyla.com
As Founder and Managing Director of Nile, Experience and Service Design, Sarah works with leading brands andcompanies to create blueprints for successful digital service experiences. She has over 10 years’ experience from thetechnology, mobile, financial and government sectors.
In addition to her responsibilities at Nile, Sarah is an Executive board member for the British Interactive Media Association(BIMA) and cochair for the Service Design Network in the UK. She has also served on boards for HeriotWatt Universityand Bunnyfoot User Experience Group.
TH: What does the Edinburgh brand stand for?
SR: Depends who you ask, but if your looking from an outside perspective: tourists would probably say it majors on picturepostcard city streets, people with a sort of elegant and gentile charm imbued with the warmth of whisky, that it has a strongsense of and pride in it’s history. Those who come for the fringe would say it comes alive with counter culture and a
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2/18/13 Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile | creativebrief blog
www.creativebrief.com/blog/2013/01/25/edinburgh-agency-focus-sarah-ronald-founder-and-managing-director-of-nile/ 2/4
provocative and self assured sense of humour. I think they’re both probably right Edinburgh has many faces rather than abrand per se.
TH: How do you think Edinburgh should position itself?
SR: Working in the digital industry I think we need focus more on the exciting mix of alternative culture and resourceful andinnovative industry in Edinburgh. London has such a strong pull that people don’t realise what great talent we have up hereor the feeling of being part of scene that you don’t get in large town.
TH: Are the city’s brand values reflected in your own agency culture?
SR: Not consciously but we’re a product of the town so yes, we have pretty traditional values when it comes to quality anddependability… but we like to push boundaries and provoke different thinking.
TH: Does being based in Edinburgh influence your creative output? If so, how?
SR: Again not consciously or conspicuously but we are very active locally via BIMA (British Interactive Media Association)so we’re influenced by local talent. As an agency we have people based in London and Edinburgh and people at theagency come from UK, US and Brazil. Their talent exists regardless of the location they are in. I think having a nice walk towork and being in a beautiful city certainly helps though.
TH: What makes your agency offer different?
SR: Wherever possible we don’t take the easy way out! We work in human centred way to get a deep understanding ofboth customers and clients, so we can ‘engineer’ systemic service solutions. Too often agencies take a sticking plasterapproach, a new ad campaign here, and brand refresh or website there very few are prepared to grasp the nettle and helpclients change the way the do things for the better and for the longterm.
TH: Why should clients consider sourcing work from Edinburgh agencies?
SR: I think clients should source work from good agencies, regardless of location.
TH: What sort of clients do you want to attract?
SR: Ambitious ones, ones that have sense of vision or a feeling that thing could be done differently, ones who want to bethe best at what they do and that see the value in a longer term partnership with their agencies.
TH: What work have you done recently makes you really proud?
SR: We recently won a BIMA innovation award for the RBS Mobile banking app and Get Cash service, which we sharedwith our project partners Sapient Nitro and Monetise. We’re proud of that, it’s a great example of how we can usetechnology to make people’s lifes (in this case access to money) that little bit easier.
http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/onlinebanking/g2/mobilebanking.ashx
TH: What Scottish brands do you most admire and why?
SR: I love Irn Bru, their ads are great and they don’t take themselves too seriously.
2/18/13 Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile | creativebrief blog
www.creativebrief.com/blog/2013/01/25/edinburgh-agency-focus-sarah-ronald-founder-and-managing-director-of-nile/ 3/4
TH: Are there any local marketers who have inspired you?
SR: Yes, if Robbie Burns can be considered local. His early marketing efforts still make a huge impact world wide.
Scotland’s national poet and inspirational local marketer Robert Burns
TH: What business would you most like to win?
SR: We’re an experience service design agency, so our aim is to improve the way business and consumers interact at afundamental level. We want to have a big impact, so we’d love to get our teeth into a meaty service problem like helpingmaking transport more integrated in Edinburgh, or transforming financial services companies so they benefit theircustomers in the longterm & make sustainable profits.
TH: Thanks Sarah.
About the Editor
Tom Holmes, creativebrief
As Founder & Chairman, Tom launched creativebrief in 2002 with the intention of revolutionising agency search andselection.
For many companies, marketing success depends largely on the quality of agencies and media partners a brand engages.However, finding the right one can prove difficult and time consuming, as the marketplace is complex and constantlychanging.
www.creativebrief.com is now the leading provider of agency intelligence to senior marketers and makes the marketinglandscape more accessible, transparent and navigable, providing brands with the critical intelligence required to makeaccurate and informed decisions.
2/18/13 Edinburgh Agency Focus - Sarah Ronald, Founder and Managing Director of Nile | creativebrief blog
www.creativebrief.com/blog/2013/01/25/edinburgh-agency-focus-sarah-ronald-founder-and-managing-director-of-nile/ 4/4
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Tom’s role now focuses on evangelising about creativebrief and raising the profile of the business across all our coreaudiences of leading brands, senior agency executives and government. A major part of this sees Tom drive our MarketLeader Interview initiative which puts the spotlight on what it means to be a leader in marketing today.
Prior to creativebrief, Tom spent over 20 years working with some of the world’s leading agencies and brands in UK andinternationally, including Account Management roles at WCRS and Saatchi & Saatchi, Board Director of The Lowe Groupand Executive Vice President of Grey Worldwide.
Tom’s Linkedin profile
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