Hello dear reader,
Please forgive me: I’ve been doing quite a bit of job ad-type writing this morning, and feel the need to break into a unperfect storm of bullet pointed facts.
Let’s see how it goes shall we? You’re probably not even reading this bit now are you – you’ve already skipped the bullet points with yer fancy-fast internet browsy reading skillz.
- And….GO!
- Whatever it is, NixonMcInnes is different
- Some people think we are an ‘online PR agency’
- Some people think we are a web design and build agency
- We actually think we’re multi-disciplinary
- We have 5 practice areas: Strategy, Communications, Research, Design & Build and Culture
- The labels for each practice will evolve, but this is our plan for now…
- Practice areas combine and overlap – our clients benefit from both depth (an out and out PR expert, or a down ‘n’ dirty Brand professional, or a very clever technologist) *and* breadth
- Our Research practice is valued by our clients and by our own team – it’s amazing working from original and substantial insights
- It’s also blooming exciting – how Market Research is evolving and reconsidering itself in the light of the social web
- We don’t wait for traditional marketing services industries to reinvent themselves – we try to just get on with it
- So we’re looking for a proper clever, ambitious leader to join our Senior team and head up the research practice.
- Job ad here (and here, and here)
Here’s some other blurbage I wrote earlier:
Rise up and become part of the changing face of the market research and wider marketing services world!
This is a rare opportunity to join our unique multi-disciplinary consultancy working with some of the biggest, most significant brands in the world. Our Mission is to help these companies engage in more meaningful and useful ways with their customers by harnessing the rapidly evolving social web.
We are expanding and creating a new board-level role to build and head-up our Research Practice. The successful candidate will stretch themselves amongst our open, democratic company culture and smart diverse team based in Brighton the digital media hub of the UK.
The overall purpose of the role is to continue to build our unique and profitable professional research practice by:
- Leading the way in discovering how to blend digital social media and research.
- Selling in and then profitably delivering measurable business value to clients.
- Providing research insights that help clients understand their challenges and address them both tactically, and by building wider programmes that solve their problems.
- Nurturing and growing our relationships with a small number of clients.
To apply, read this bit and follow the instructions.
One other thing, out of respect for the people we meet and our colleagues we take hiring seriously and try to be really rigorous with our hiring. There will be effort on both sides – just to be clear from the off.
No agencies, thank you.
Will McInnes wrote this on 03.12.09 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Brighton, Recruitment box
As Will mentioned earlier, NixonMcInnes have hired a new helicopter commander which means that my reign as new boy (a title shared of course with the lovely Leesa), is soon to end. With this in mind, and armed with my shiny new profile shots (thanks Garage Studios), I wanted to record my thoughts on my first four months, and perhaps give our new starter an idea of what to expect. Read more…
Ross wrote this on 01.10.09 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Democracy, Employee engagement, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
Just a short note to say that we’ve filled the vacancy that was advertised as the Social Media Helicopter Commander role.
We feel it was our most rigorous hiring process yet, and there were some really excellent evolutions to how we hire, further emphasising our desire to give people opportunities to directly prove their skills, problem-solving approaches and characteristics rather than talk about them in a traditional interview stylee.
But there were things we learnt and can get much better at. And it was hard work for us and for the potential team mates that got involved in the assessments.
About 80% of our team were also involved directly in some way in the hiring (by directly, I mean more than saying hello or making the tea!), in keeping with our belief of the benefits and power of democratic business practices.
As is our way, our new team mate will introduce themselves sometime soon after they start :)
Until then all I can say is that their career has been working in PR in the media, technology and consumer sectors, and we’re delighted that they’ll be bringing those experiences and skills to bear in their work with NixonMcInnes’ clients.
We also met some seriously talented other interested and interesting people; people who made that final decision very very tough, and people we’re hoping we can work with soon.
Thank you to anyone who got involved or retweeted the original blurb.
Will McInnes wrote this on – 1 comment
It's filed in the Brighton, Democracy, Employee engagement, Recruitment box
We’re looking for a new team member. It’s a vital hire for the NixonMcInnes team.
To find out more and apply, find out more on the Wired Sussex advert.
Key excerpts:
The purpose of the role is to:
- Enable the biggest organisations in the UK to embrace and change with the digital age
- Profitably deliver measurable business value to clients by consistently solving their problems and helping them learn
- Nurture and grow our relationships with a small number of those major brand clients
‘A day in the life of this role’
Note: the particular ‘clients’ here are fictitious, but the scenarios themselves are lifted straight from real-life.
Amongst other things, let’s pretend you look after two major client relationships.
The first relationship is for a very large organisation that touches the lives of millions of the general public every week. The topic matter is interesting and important. The client has a reasonable budget allocated to social media through our agency. What you need to do is work out how to employ that budget to get significant impact and real measurable results against clear goals.
To do that you sit at an inter-agency meeting amongst a community of smart, established marketers of different flavours: media agency people, search marketers, PR people, advertising people. You need your own expertise and listening skills to gather the relevant information from this forum and as well as the communication skills and knowledge to create the context for a successful working relationship between NixonMcInnes and the client and their agencies. To do that you probably need to be smart, likeable, credible, normal, authentic, streetwise, creative and nice. For that meeting to be successful you need to be prepared, to make a valuable contribution and to come back to base and brief and influence colleagues such that they hit the ground running. You need to operate at the speed of a busy agency – somewhere between fast and very fast.
The other relationship is a client just starting out their journey with ‘social media’. They are an international car company. The key client and a few others see the light but there is a normal amount of scepticism internally. They need to change – people write stuff that matters about the brand, useful stuff, really relevant stuff, but no-one at the client’s end is really paying attention. Right now, when it comes to online buzz they don’t understand what to do or how to do it. They are unsure about how to measure ROI and where to start.
Your challenge is to help with this – all of it – to take them on that journey, to gently nurture, cajole and encourage the brand to develop better relationships with the people and communities online.
To do that, you need to:
- Figure out what the internal culture and politics are
- Decide how and where to start
- Plan the strategy and suggest how to execute it
- Understand how to sell it and how the client wants to buy it
- Collectively work out how to resource it and report on it
- Make it happen and then change tack and evolve as it becomes clearer what works and what doesn’t
To begin with they only want to buy in bits and pieces. You have to deliver and also sell-in the bigger relationship that enables us both to get the real results they seek. It’s a big job, this!
You may also need to train people at the client, to analyse performance information to spot trends and insights, to conjure up creative ideas that engage with the target audience and deliver the desired results for the client and the client’s bosses boss. It is fun, rewarding and hard work.
Skills Range: We are open-minded to the benefits that someone from a PR, online marketing, agency planning, market research, or other related discipline can bring.
Salary: 27,000 – 40,000 +
The NixonMcInnes way
We have a refreshing and unique company culture based on a number of guiding principles:
- Freedom: To work the hours that suit you; wear what you want; change and improve things.
- Transparency: Open book accounting so everyone knows what everyone else earns and how much profit is made; open communication and distaste for secrets.
- Participation: Flat company hierarchy; voting on key company decisions; regular guest seat at company board meetings.
- Personal development: Culture of personal development; constant informal feedback, coaching and mentoring; a training budget; books and subscriptions; conferences; a chance to shape your career within a successful, growing company with a wide range of personal and professional growth opportunities.
- Rewards: excellent salary; performance and company profit-related bonuses. 24 days holiday per year plus bank holidays. We like a nice team lunch on the company regularly too.
- Fun: Life’s too short to focus only on money. The team are clear that the company exists to do important, enjoyable work with interesting clients. We are however hugely ambitious in this.
To find out more and apply, find out more on the Wired Sussex advert.
Will McInnes wrote this on 07.08.09 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
Are you, or is someone you know our new Office Manager / Bookkeeper? We are looking for the right person to join our fun and lively team of social media experts…
Read more…
Ruth wrote this on 01.04.09 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
We would like to introduce the newest member of our team to you.
Please welcome, Murray Cox (we affectionately like to call him Muzza).
Murray joins us as a Social Media Consultant; heading up the new Content & Conversations practice within NixonMcInnes.
Murray is an ex-BBC online journalist who brings 15 years of mainstream media experience including 11 years spent in online news. Working in a variety of roles, including as an online journalist and producer, Murray has represented organisations including the BBC, Yahoo! and News International. During a stint in Australia in the late 1990s Murray worked on the initial launch and roll-out of MSN, underlining his heritage in online media.
Quote from Murray: “Every company is becoming a media company by virtue of their unfiltered, freely-published conversations with the outside world: my role is to help our clients create compelling content that engages, and so keep them at the forefront of this bold new digital world”
Quote from Will: “The shift in how big businesses engage with consumers makes the credit crunch look like a toddler’s garden party. Our mission is to help the smartest companies be bold, transparent and to drastically improve the quality of their engagement with real people: content in this is key.”
See the online coverage from PR Week.
Ruth wrote this on 06.02.09 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Interesting, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
The short version:
We are inviting applications from consultants at senior and mid-weight levels to join our growing team of specialist social media practioners. We have one vacancy immediately, and possibly another soon. Please find out more here and apply.
The long version:
A while back I announced, in a blaze of glory*, our search for a PR Pirate – someone to come from the ‘traditional PR’ world and help our clients with their new digital communications strategies.
Unfortunately, no sooner had I launched the search than we won a couple of significant pieces of work which this new team member would’ve – in an ideal world – helped to deliver. Instead, Anna and I went into full-blown delivery mode, which meant that the hiring process went on ice. There was literally no time (OK, not literally).
Being upfront, there were also issues with the hiring process, which was no bed of roses**:
- the title I gave the role of Account Director didn’t meet the scope of the role, which my PR pals told me was more what you’d call a ‘Board Director’ – a naive mistake on my behalf
- the double-bubble challenge of finding someone this niche AND keen on living or already living in Brighton seemed to restrict the number of the most senior-level candidates
Something good has come out of all of this, though.
Having done the work ourselves so far, Anna and I have been able to evolve a much clearer of understanding of what the company does and DOESN’T need. My understanding of how we’re going to shape our teams in the future has evolved, and I’ve been refining these ideas with Jenni, Pete and Tom.
As a result we now have a clearer idea of our needs.
We were building here at NixonMcInnes is a hybrid consultancy offering clients a range of services focused not by the ‘what we do’ but by the ‘where we do it’.
The ‘what we do’ range of services now regularly spans Research, Strategy & Planning, Training, Digital PR and Design & Build. This range gets our clients from ‘don’t know a thing’ to ‘actively engaging’.
The ‘where we do it’ remains the same as we continue to grow and enhance our ability to help clients in the specialised and evolving sphere of social media.
So our needs are a little broader than when we kicked off the search before.
We would still love for a senior consultant from a PR background to be this next hire: that will be spiffing if it happens. But equally we are now more open-minded to the benefits that someone from a market research, online marketing, agency planning or other related discipline can bring. Because our clients need help in a range of areas.
So if you or someone you know is passionately online, and keen to participate in how the internet is changing the world we live in from an HQ here in Brighton, UK, please read the job description and get in touch.
Alternatively, if anything is unclear or you have some feedback, I’m almost all ears. Thank you.
(* and ** are Bon Jovi references. No idea why).
Will McInnes wrote this on 11.11.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, Recruitment, Social media, Strategy box
Notes:
- We’re looking for an excellent, nice, smart person to join the team!
- The backstory can be found here
- Everyone uses the terms ‘Consultant’ and ‘Social Media’ – in our case they both actually apply to the role and aren’t meaningless buzz words :)
Role:
Consultant
We are currently looking for mid-weight and senior-level consultants – packages will be negotiated based on skills and experience.
Purpose
The purpose of the role is to:
• Profitably deliver measurable business value to clients by consistently solving their problems and helping them learn.
• Nurture and grow our relationships with a small number of major brand clients.
• Develop a unique and profitable practice area in the company.
Brief overview of responsibilities
Understanding client needs: At all levels from market and business needs to specific project and personal needs.
Build relationships: Build a strong and trusting relationship with the key sponsor, the day-to-day clients and as many additional client contacts as possible.
Creating a practice: With the team’s support to begin with, create a personal practice of topic and/or sector expertise and package this knowledge into services that profitably meet both client needs and the company’s mission.
Deliver to clients: Profitably deliver the projects and engagements that give the clients the results they seek.
Managing people: Lead, influence and manage team members working on projects, when they may not directly report to you.
Providing intelligence: Keep the internal NM team informed of the client’s strategic and tactical direction.
Developing NixonMcInnes: Contribute to the broader development and growth of NM.
Passions and interests: A passion for the web and social media, commitment to our highly open, transparent and democratic company culture.
If you are interested in applying (or know of someone who may be!) please download the full job description which includes details on how to apply.
Thank you.
Will McInnes wrote this on – what do you think?
It's filed in the Brighton, NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
Hello, would you like to join our team? We are looking for a social media-savvy producer to join our in-house digital design and development team at our offices in central Brighton. Read more…
Ruth wrote this on 22.09.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
Role
Account Director*
* It’s been helpfully pointed out that this may be a higher level position than the average Account Director in a PR agency. Basically, head up the loving and looking after of our clients, and in time shape and mould that function, and reap the financial and real-world rewards as they grow. If you’re as good as we want you to be then you’ll be a board director, a company director, take on other areas too, end up running the joint. I’m getting carried away (maybe), but the point is this isn’t just ‘you get the word director in the job title’. This is: you behave like a director, think and act like a director, make good shizzle happen.
(plus any fancy words you want to add e.g. Digital Account Director; Social Media Account Director)
Rewards
- A rewarding combination of Salary and our juicy Annual Profit Share Scheme will be negotiated
- Indicative salary range is £35,000 – £42,000
- Assuming we’re all performing and flying along the bonus will be thousands of pounds but not tens of thousands
Background
NixonMcInnes has acquired an enviable client base of top brands, and would like to find a capable, experienced Account Director to join the team to nurture and develop the relationships within these client organisations to ensure that we deliver the most value we possibly can.
Purpose
To grow our business by growing the relationships we have with our clients, and consistently delivering incredible business value to those clients.
To focus on profitability through to delivery (as opposed to sell it and run).
This new director will be a peer to the two founding directors, Will McInnes and Tom Nixon and will join a talented, young management team mainly grown from within.
The role will be focused on clients, but with a flexible remit to help shape and develop the business. It’s an exciting opportunity to be a part of a successful business that still has a huge amount of potential.
Experience & credentials
- Management experience in an agency or professional services firm: especially PR, or digital media; marketing, management consultancy, strategy or similar.
- We are particularly interested in candidates who have worked at director level, however this is not an essential requirement.
- Experience of managing top brand clients for professional services where individual clients may have an annual value of >£150K, as well as proven track record growing such relationships from an initial smaller ‘in’
- Experience delivering high quality consultancy, speaking, training and reports
- Demonstrable experience of making improvements to how an agency business performs.
- Managing and developing people.
- Expertise in at least one practical discipline related to the services that we deliver for clients. This might include PR, brand; design; content; strategy; marketing.
- Professional or graduate qualifications would be interesting but not required
- Excellent industry contacts.
Responsibilities – high-level
- Aggressively expanding our client relationships by ensuring that clients rate the quality of the relationship with us and the business value they derive from our work together as greater than that of any other agency they work with
- Taking full responsibility for the relationships between our company and our clients’- the buck stops here, with you
- Ensuring that the client expectations set at the sales stage are exceeded.
- Contributing to strategic company decisions.
- Helping to recruit, manage and develop other members of the team.
Responsibilities – in detail
Understanding client needs:
- Understand an individual clients needs – at all levels from business to project.
- With the client build an annual strategic plan that identifies new opportunities and projects, and required service/maintenance activities.
- Understand the environment the client operates in – by understanding their industry trends, competition, market, financial situation, operations, culture, IT infrastructure, business challenges. and so on.
- Support the Sales team with the development and submission of pitches, and closing sales.
- Work as a consultant to help the client understand their needs and issues and lead them proactively towards finding solutions.
Resources:
- Ensure the resources required for the execution of the client’s strategic plan are made available.
- Help the client find the resources they need either within NM or elsewhere.
Relationships:
- Build a strong and trusting relationship with the most appropriate client contact.
- Ensure strong and strategic relationships are maintained and developed between the client team and the NM team.
- Facilitate the creation of networks of people both within and between multiple clients.
- Create a context for successful relationships between NM and the account, including creating and implementing project escalation processes and procedures.
Intelligence:
- Ensure clients have an accurate and up-to-date picture of the services that NM provides.
- Keep the internal NM team informed of the client’s strategic and tactical direction.
- Prepare accurate forecasts for renewal business and input into the sales forecasting process.
- Give input to Marketing, and input into marketing campaigns.
- Give input to product and service development within NM based on what clients need.
- Ensure that all necessary information about the client and the relationship is available and up-to-date.
- Report progress in achieving results with clients to the Board/Sales Director.
Developing NixonMcInnes:
- Support and coach other people working with clients.
- Contribute to the broader development and growth of NM.
Characteristics
- Organised; likeable; optimistic; robust; assertive; diplomatic; ambitious, streetwise.
- Excellent commercial awareness.
- A passion for the web and social media.
- People-oriented and approachable.
- Willing to challenge and change the business.
- Able to lead a cross-functional team, and to convince and carry the team and client when necessary
- Ability to Get Things Done.
- Commitment to our highly open, transparent and democratic company culture.
- Ability to step back and look at the big picture.
- Ability to balance short- and long-term results.
- Sense of humour and fun to be with.
Company info
Nixon McInnes is a digital agency specialising in social media. We are based in central Brighton, 200 metres from Brighton Pier. Founded in 2000 we are now a team of 17 and widely recognised as leaders in our field.
We help our clients to understand the changing world online and then craft the campaigns, websites, tools and ways of working that enable them to harness social media to improve the way they communicate with the world.
The work we do truly blurs the lines between online marketing, online PR, business strategy and web design and build.
Our clients include Channel 4, BMW, O2, Fat Face, MORE TH>N, First Capital Connect; Neilson Active Holidays; Harley Medical Group; Stannah; Southampton University and Cisco.
Company culture
We have a refreshing and unique company culture based on a number of guiding democratic principles:
- Freedom: To work the hours that suit you (very flexible working policy – way more than flexitime and duvet days); wear what you want; change and improve things.
- Transparency: Open book accounting so everyone knows what everyone else earns and how much profit is made; open communication and distaste for secrets.
- Participation: Flat company hierarchy; voting on key company decisions; regular guest seat at company board meetings.
- Personal development: Regular one-to-one catch-ups with a director; a training budget; books and subscriptions; conferences; personal development planning; a chance to shape your career within a successful, growing company with a wide range of promotion opportunities.
- Rewards: excellent salary; performance and company profit-related bonuses. 24 days holiday per year plus bank holidays and a company vote on additional holiday at Christmas. We like a nice team lunch on the company regularly too.
- Fun: Life’s too short to focus only on money.
Application process
You wanna apply? Cool! To apply, please email Will McInnes with your CV (first name and then our domain name above).
Successful applicants will have an initial brief telephone chat with Will, and then a series of informal and formal meetings with the directors and co-workers at NixonMcInnes. At later stages we will introduce a few small real-world tests or scenarios to give you a chance to prove your abilities and strut your stuff.
For short-listed candidates we will then also be using a personality test because a previous (wonderful, and insightful) team day indicated we had a bias towards some particular personality types and we are looking to create a more diverse team in every sense.
Every applicant will be contacted with feedback.
I hope you see the thoroughness demonstrates our commitment to quality. Bonjour.
Will McInnes wrote this on 16.07.08 – what do you think?
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Recruitment box
