Our half term report for 2019

2. ONCE
UPON
A
TIME

3. The Academy is a PR agency founded by
Mitch Kaye and Dan Glover, two friends
who had already built one of the most
creatively-awarded PR companies in the
country, but were convinced they could
design a better one. They thought long
and hard about what their new agency
should be called, but then won three
new clients before they even launched
(UEFA, News UK and Krispy Kreme
doughnuts if you’re interested) so
quickly decided on The Academy
– an institution that sets the highest
standards in it a particular field, but
also a place of learning – rolled their
sleeves up, and got to work.

4. Our mission is pretty simple: to bring
the brightest minds together to create
work that gets noticed, solves a problem
and passes into popular culture. Every
mind is bright and capable of solving PR
problems, but the collective is stronger.
A bit like Plato’s Academy in Ancient
Greece. Or the Avengers.

5. Create outstanding work
•
For like-minded clients
•
Staying human
3 FOUNDING PRINCIPLES

6. SO,
HOW
WE
DOING?

7. OUTSTANDING WORK
H1 HIGHLIGHTS
FROM A-Z

8. ALTON
TOWERS
RESORT

9. AMAZON
(DEVICES)

10. AMAZON
(DIGITAL)

11. AMAZON
(RETAIL)

12. BEAR GRYLLS
ADVENTURE

13. DISNEY
JUNIOR

14. DISNEY
PRINCESS

15. DOMINO’S

16. HOTPOINT

17. intu

18. KÄRCHER

19. LUCOZADE
SPORT

20. MASTERCARD

21. MORRISONS

22. PHARMACY2U

23. THE
JOCKEY
CLUB

24. UBISOFT

25. WWE

26. XERO

27. ZIZZI

28. AWARDS
CIM Retail Award finalist
PR Moment Awards x 8 finalists
SABRE Awards Agency of the Year finalist
PR Week Awards x 6 finalists

29. AWARDS

30. LIKE-MINDED CLIENTS

31. THE SEASON SO FAR: P16, W11 (70%)
REDACTED REDACTED

32. 7 x news stories
4 x features
2 x interviews
1 x podcast

33. OUR NUMBERS
2014 = £600k
2015 = £1.1m
2016 = £3m
2017 = £3.75m
2018 = £4.1m
2019 = £4.4m

34. DETAIL REDACTED

35. OUR PEOPLE

36. DETAIL REDACTED

38. Learning
•
Learn Something New Fund
•
Moving the PR World Forward
•
Wellbeing

39. How to have difficult conversations
•
Money, Money, Money (Jason Shelley)
•
Making Money (Dan Green)
•
L&L: Greg Demetriou, The FA
•
L&L: Simon Morris, Amazon
•
L&L: Rania Robinson, Quiet Storm
Creative Training
•
L&L: Photography
•
L&L: Handling Talent
•
L&L: Press Releases
•
L&L: Features
•
L&L: Google Drive
•
L&L: James Lovell, Ministry of Fun

40. How to recruit
•
How to win a pitch
•
L&L: Don Henshall (Farrow & Ball)
•
L&L: Victoria Fox, AAR
•
L&L: Rachel Bell, Chairperson
More Creative Training
•
L&L: Danny Rogers, PR Week
•
L&L: Jason Gonsalves, The Face
•
More Creative Outings
•
Creative Disco…

41. £200

43. Yoga
Meditation
Nutrition
Massages
More meditation
Dance like Beyonce
Mental health

44. We live in Ocean & Air
The Mail Rail
Taste London
Olafur Eliasson
Tim Walker

45. SCHOOL REPORTS
A

46. 8/10
Dan Glover, co-founder and creative director, The Academy
Six months that have flown by.
Some of our best work to date with record award shortlists
and happy clients across the board. Personal highlights
include fulfilling lifelong ambitions of working with design
legend Margaret Calvert (for Disney) and sports photographer
extraordinaire Andy Hooper (for Lucozade Sport).
Our new business conversion rate is genuinely unmatched by
anyone in the industry, but it still hurts to lose and not
converting The Hundred pitch was a blow.
Clients clearly recognise and rate what we do, which is
leading to us taking bigger brand roles and moving into the
worlds of advertising our PR campaigns. If only we could get
them to pay considerably more for it; something Mitch we all
need to work on in 2020.
I’m biased, obvs, but I do genuinely believe we are the best
agency in the country producing work that is noticed, solves
a problem and passes into popular culture, but that has real
creative integrity. And finally, I look around and see
brilliant people who are blossoming into exceptional PRs,
which makes me feel proud and excited about the future.

47. Mitch Kaye, co-founder and CEO, The Academy
How are we doing at half time?
Well we are in tough environment with a lot of uncertainty,
and a country in limbo. This is leading to client budgets
being cut, with a general sense of things being on hold.
But not here. High standards and hard work are keeping our
clients happy, and we are now able to offer them more than
just PR. Which means we are bucking the trend, growing with
our clients, and adding some new ones along the way.
I’m proud that we’ve been short-listed for more Agency of the
Year awards this year, but frustrated that we haven’t won one
yet, because I think we do the best work, and have the best
team of people under our roof.
We set up The Academy as a place to learn, and while we need
to do better on formal training, it’s clear that people are
grabbing the opportunity and growing every day.
Our numbers are strong, which means our jobs are safe, and we
have the ability to give great perks, buy the drinks, and
reward effort and achievement. We need to stay this way, keep
improving, and stay human too.
8/10