Wanna be in my gang?

So what?

Yeah, you could well ask that – and in most cases, I’d answer ‘so nothing’. True, we’re not the only ones to have found some great business mates over the years, I get that. But what IS new news, is that we’ve decided to make it official! We’re taking our relationships to the next level (and yes, that is a plural, because we’re in an open situation here) and in doing so, creating one mass of talent, expertise, skills and downright decent, old-fashioned fun.

Introducing Roofbox Collective

We are forming a collective, a group of industry friends who have joined forces to expand our offer and share our vast expertise in destination, travel and tourism.

We’re a bit like The Beatles* I guess, with five excellent members, each with their own unique and highly desirable skills – and all of whom, have pretty much been there, and done that (we might even have some t-shirts 🤔).

• Looking for an experienced consultant who can guide you on the right path to improving your destination offer? Need help securing that much needed funding for a tourism campaign? After a bit of strategic guidance?
  Yeah – we can do that.
• Want some epic Travel brand strategy, or brand creation or repositioning? Creative concepts? Campaign ideas?
  Easy peasy.
• How about media strategy? Need a multi-national tourism campaign sorted?
  On it.
• Hang on – you want assets too? A brand film? TV Commercial? Social content?
  All in a day’s work.
• And PR? Of course – we have the connections and media networks and the ideas to get your brand story out there.

So, you see, it makes for some really exciting conversations, it opens doors. And being in a gang of people you trust, means everyone’s got your back.

Don’t you already have a team?

Hang on, hang on – let me be clear: We have exceptionally skilled people at Zest. People I trust and see as friends, and we’re not looking to replace that…but now, we just have even more. More skills, more knowledge, more brains, bigger networks, more opportunities – greedy innit? And focusing our collective efforts on an industry where we have a proven track record, just makes good business sense.

“The timing’s perfect. It’s tough out there at the moment, for everyone. How do we make things better? Join forces. Pool expertise. Find smarter, more coherent solutions to the problems we share. No business is an island, and the breadth and weight of experience that comes from a collective allows many companies access to a service level that just wouldn’t be possible with one agency alone” That’s the view of Zest’s MD, James.

“Tourism and destination marketing comes with an inherent two-fold challenge – it demands specialist, native thinking, and you need to join that thinking up across multiple channels, platforms and context”.

What makes a good gang-member?

History is littered with evidence of strong teamwork. Research lead by Google concluded that the best teams included team members who listen to one another and show sensitivity. Studies have also shown that when people work in teams, in contrast to working alone, they are more productive and report greater job satisfaction.

Working in a team results faster innovation, better problem-solving, and greater performance according to research findings.

Gang-member Jim Dawson from Go To Places says “There are many vital components to any successful collaboration: experience, creativity, integrity, commitment… But the most important is trust. It stretches across everything.”

You only have to do a very quick google search to see how teams can change the world (that doesn’t make me lazy, it’s research). The Apollo 11 team, for example, responsible for one of the greatest moments in human history, or  the combined power and determination shown by D-Day. Or you know, Buck’s Fizz when they won Eurovision in 1981.

• Destination/travel or tourism expertise
• Mad skills ✔️
• Be nice ✔️
• Join in (no silent partners here) ✔️
• Be prepared to tell everyone you know about the Roofbox Collective ✔️
• Less of this 🗣 and more of that 👂 (tbh I’m not sure why that’s in this list, but my Mum used to say it to me all the time and it’s kind of stuck)

We genuinely pull together as one. Everyone is involved in decision making, and driving the Roofbox Collective forward. What’s really important when you’re working with 5 busy businesses, and specifically the leaders within those businesses, is understanding there will be times when you can’t get all members together. So, when that happens, we have all agreed to have faith in one another to make a majority call, so we don’t delay.

The lovely Lee Climpson at Transmission Productions (yep, he’s in our gang too) says: “Being part of a collective is a meeting of minds. Every person has their own speciality, their own field of expertise, their own special talent, and that’s what makes this so wonderful. We bring together the best of the best, and that brings incredible benefits and results to our clients.”

How does it benefit clients?

“It’s not often that you find a group of destination specialists who are experts in their own field.”
Says Sue O’Gorman from Davies Tanner “Collectively, we make our clients objectives a reality with creativity and a drive to surpass expectations and I’m so proud to work with this great bunch of people” (You’ve guessed it, she’s with us)

“The Collective gives us access to a resource of experience and knowledge, decades in the making, that each of us can draw upon to ensure the success of client campaigns. Put simply, for our clients it means increased bookings, higher visitor numbers, more effective communications, and their overall marketing objectives realised. And that’s what makes us tick.” Explains Richard Rizzo-Hills, from Fabbrica (you can see the pattern here, right?)

The travel and tourism industry has been dealt some pretty hard blows in recent years, and I for one firmly believe that it’s time for a change. We want to support those who have found themselves in greatly reduced marketing teams, trying to fight back and finding themselves stretched to breaking point. We’re all about getting stuck in, being flexible and adaptable. Bringing the extra hands, eyes and knowledge. We’re a box full of experts, all geared up and ready to go.

And I for one, am bloody excited – can you tell?

Good company on a journey makes the way seem shorter.

* I’m including Epstein in the line-up by the way, to make this work.