As we close the page on 2023 and our tenth year in business, we wanted to mark the milestone with a few highlights from our journey, share how we’ve evolved as a business, and our progress on key areas in 2023.

We started in 2013, with a handful of clients – ready to take on the industry and deliver work that we would be proud of. As we evolved as a team and built our credentials as Alfred, we moved into new sectors and areas, powered by our movements not moments philosophy. This stemmed from an ambition to avoid doing work that was here today, forgotten tomorrow – and deliver lasting impact for the brands and businesses we partnered with.

From hot desking in co-working spaces, through to our first office on Rivington Street – we’ve changed significantly along the way, grown our team with diverse thinkers across a host of disciplines, developed new capabilities, and picked up a few awards in the process. Plus, marking this year with our inclusion in the PR Week Top 150 table, coming in at a strong 138 with 26% YoY growth.

Some our highlights over the last decade include:

• Winning new consultancy of the year in 2014 at the PRCA awards – our first accolade and one that will always be special

• Sweeping the awards with our campaign for World Animal Protection – #TheRealCheekyNandos

• Heading to Amsterdam for PRovoke to pick up the gong for our influencer campaign for Etsy – mobisling their community and driving value and connection for their platform of makers 

• Working with Oatly and being part of their journey from disruptive challenger to industry leader

• Many annual trips with the team (that has become a tradition) – visiting places such as Amsterdam, Paris, Porto and Brighton (less further afield when we were all locked down in 2020)

• Growing significantly as a team through one of the most challenging times many of us have faced with the pandemic – to emerge stronger than ever as we doubled the business during that period. This did lead to some amusing first encounters when we were finally able to get people together IRL, and realising how tall (or not so), some of us are… that you cannot quite distinguish from Zoom

• Working with our games and technology clients to build their reputations around culture and work, and seeing Hutch recognised as a great place to work by the Telegraph

• Receiving accolades for our culture being shortlisted for PR Week’s best places to work in 2022

• Working with Highland Park to deliver integrated content campaigns that have been rolled out globally 

• Delivering a keynote at PR360 with PR Week on the need for brands to embrace transparency, while guiding them on how to navigate the complex and cynical world we now live 

• A series of dinners with key clients and contacts to not only celebrate 10 years of Alfred, but facilitate connection between our partners. The idea being – when you get amazing people together, who knows what can happen… 

• Elevating Westfield on social, with a constant stream of content produced in-house, helping them achieve the 1m milestone on TikTok

• Taking a moment to step back to realise over time we have been shortlisted or won awards for our work, team or business over 100 times

Today

As we stand at the end of 2023, we are a team of 30 with specialists across strategy, creative, comms, digital and content. Delivering cross channel work in an integrated fashion was always core to our direction, as we all know in the world of comms, and marketing – if we want to influence people, change perceptions, and build brands – we need to earn connections across a host of platforms to stay relevant.

A core part of our founding philosophy was to put culture on the same footing as our work – building an environment to nurture talent and ultimately be a great place to work, while doing great work.

This year we have welcomed new members to the team, who all share that passion and bring their own set of skills to the team.

Debs, Eloise, Ellie and Emese became valuable additions to the team, each contributing unique PR skills and experiences. Scott, Rachel, Lorelei and Niamh joined the team bolstoring our digital and social capabilities. Tia joined as our Office and Culture Coordinator enhancing our thriving culture. 

Plus, it has been great to see our existing team and many long standing members progress within the business.

Debbie, Niall and Ellie becoming fierce account directors, Lucie and Greg joining the management team as associate directors, and Nadia take the step up to account manager – all while delivering best in class work for our clients.

We’re also always looking for ways to enhance what we do, and drive progress both from a cultural perspective as well as the important work we all need to do in the industry on DE&I.

Enhancing Culture 

• 2023 Culture Awards: Recognising outstanding contributions from our team. Check out our amazing winners here.

• As the team grew we transformed our office space for flexibility and collaboration, doubling our space – more to come in 2024 here as we look to evolve how the office plays its role in our hybrid working pattern (two set days in, and three flexible)

• Continued our flexi-friday benefit – whereby team members can choose to log off from 1pm on Friday 

• Launched our paid sabbatical benefit to celebrate team members for their dedication

Embracing and improving equity, diversity and inclusion

Since our latest DE&I Update we have continued to enhance efforts by:

• Launching further initiatives to foster diversity and inclusion, creating our DE&I committee.

• Networking: The team attended inspiring events with Talk2Dan, People like Us, PR Mums and the Hobbs consultancy.

• Launching our Enhanced Family-Friendly Policy, supporting both new mothers and fathers with 14 weeks full pay and leave and further pay enhancements for new mothers up to 6 months.

• Hosting a Ten Talk for Mental Health Awareness: Erin, our HR Manager, led a compelling “Ten Talk” on well-being, offering valuable insights on how we can prioritise and maintain our mental health. We also launched Alfred’s Walking Challenge, encouraging everyone to stay active. The challenge brought a healthy dose of competition and camaraderie to the team.

• Hosted our first MacMillan Coffee Morning, raising money for Macmillan, the spread was also a testament to our rich cultural tapestry, featuring delights like Jewish Honey Cake, traditionally enjoyed during Rosh Hashanah, and Kókuszgolyó, delectable Hungarian chocolate and coconut balls. Every bite was a celebration of our team’s diversity and a reminder of the sweet moments that connect us.

And, with a huge effort from many across the team we were pleased to share that we have been certified as a B Corp. A significant milestone, which was achieved in September, reinforcing our commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Find out more about this journey here.

Thank you to every member of the Alfred team and each of our clients, for making 2023 a remarkable year, and many for the work across the decade. 

Bring on 2024.

 

Written by: Dan Neale