Since being founded four years ago, B2B specialist agency Man Bites Dog (MBD) has established a credible reputation in the PR industry and has already picked up an impressive number accolades. PR Week magazine named it New Consultancy of the Year 2007, and it was named Outstanding Consultancy 2008 at the CIPR Pride awards, which recognises excellence in PR and communications across the UK.
It has also been noted by the Holmes Report as one of Europe’s outstanding PR consultancies, and received a PR Week silver award in its Best places to work 2008 competition. MBD can boast a 90 per cent staff retention rate – owing it says to its vibrant culture (from legendary socials to annual staff weekenders in Europe), commitment to staff wellbeing and home and flexible working and training and development plans. Members of staff are granted individual training budgets of £2000.
MBD’s entrepreneurial approach has repeatedly seen it cross the line from traditional PR into new product development, for example creating Government policy for BERR and advising on business strategy and sales propositions for consulting clients.
Recent wins include a place on the COI roster and six figure contracts with management consultancies Ineum (MCG) and Roland Berger, plus insurance comparator simplybusiness.co.uk. The consultancy has delivered strong organic growth, building a portfolio that includes BT and the World Bank, retaining founding clients Hay Group and Gensier, and expanding their remit into European and global projects.
Great employer
MBD works with professional services brands, and to date has generated some ground breaking work for a number of big win B2B clients. When management consultancy Hay Group (HG) needed a vehicle to launch its mergers and acquisitions consulting practice and promote its broader consulting capability, MBD designed the most comprehensive ever study of European mergers and acquisitions in a bid to prove that 91 per cent of mergers fail due to culture shock – and in turn helped demonstrate how HG’s human capital integration offering was key to merger success. MBD went on to develop new services for HG based on the research and create international road shows to train consultants. Its coverage delivered 298 pieces of coverage in 10 countries, worth £664,000, and generated eight million euros worth of consulting fees.
“MBD combines board level strategic counsel and business insight you would expect from a corporate agency with a creative spark more commonly found in the consumer arena,” says Jennie Wright, head of marketing at Hay Group.
Good to the client
One of its specialties has been in helping its clients to profit during the economic downturn, by ensuring they are quotable experts in their fields. It helped HG to reposition its services to ensure relevance during the downturn, making the consultancy one of the most widely quoted recession authorities. Similarly, it has helped position strategy consultants Roland Berger as a media authority on liquidity management and financial strategy during the recession, by being the first to quantify a new stage in the credit crunch and expose the effect of working capital on major corporates. The campaign built media awareness of the brand from zero to 82 per cent. “MBDs campaign successfully made Roland Berger a media authority on financial strategy and the effects of credit crunch withdrawal at a critical point in the credit crisis,” says Klaus Kremers, partner at Roland Berger.
Away from the financial arena, MBD helped global architects Gensler to manipulate what they have branded their most successful communications programme in history. MBD’s work proved a link between office design and productivity – claiming that better offices increase productivity by 20 per cent – research that generated coverage worth £440,000, enhanced Genslers sales proposition and delivered 160 business leads. The concept has been turned into an annual global campaign and continues to deliver strong revenues for Gensler despite the downturn.
Profit
The consultancy continues to deliver consistent profit margins of more than 35 per cent on turnover and more than 45 per cent on fee income, and its measured approach to growth has also managed to deliver consistent performance despite the economic downturn – in 2008/9 it posted 19 per cent revenue and 20 per cent profit growth. Since being founded in April 2005, it has remained independent and grown organically, without any start-up capital.
It recently expanded into new premises to support its expanding team.
