insideKENT Magazine Issue 38 - May 2015 | Page 149

LOCALBUSINESS

insideKENT spoke to
Wonderful Creative MD Dan Maudhub
You describe Wonderful as being an
integrated strategic digital marketing agency.
What exactly does that mean?
Integrated: No one discipline will cut the mustard
on its own; it is a holistic approach. To be truly
transformational, all marketing efforts need to be
pulling in the same direction, whatever the
objective. Strategic: Our value lies in our thinking.
We are driven by achieving results. And change.
And being accountable for it. Digital: 80% of our
work is now in online, on mobile and on social.
That’s just the nature of business. The difference
being we really get digital and we know how to
use it to our clients’ advantage.
I hear congratulations are in order after some
recent accolades?
Yes, we are really pleased to have been placed
at number 11 in the country in The Drum’ recent
s
design survey based on client recommendation.
The same survey acknowledged our financial
growth, placing us at number 22. If you add this
to being included in the Wirehive top 50 list and
completing the Government’s Growth Accelerator
Scheme, we are having a pretty good year.
What sort of clients do you work for?
You can categorise our clients into three sectors:
regional, start ups and global corporates. To the
regional client, for example Dreamland Margate,
we provide a creative service on a par with the
bigger London agencies, but due to our location
we can be more cost-effective and quicker. To
the start up, we are experienced in launching
new brands in to the market and understanding
investors. To the corporate, for example KLM
AirFrance we provide a personal service, on a
global scale, drawing on the

connections, expertise and knowledge of our
sister company, Worldwide Foreign Direct
Investment and Trade. In essence we work with
companies that have a vision for growth, so that
we can grow in partnership with them.
Describe a recent Wonderful moment…
Probably throwing a brick through a potential
client’s window. We recently launched the startup brand Cereal Killer Café in London, which
came about after we attracted their attention,
standing out amongst many national
agencies vying for their high profile work, by
leaving a brick wrapped in a news print style
letter that simply stated…. ‘we’ve been watching
you’. Needless to say they were intrigued enough
to get in contact. We are now proud to be their
marketing partner.
Is Wonderful all work and no play?
Absolutely! No of course not. Our team wouldn’t
collaborate as well together and with our clients
if it wasn’t for sharing the fun times as well. For
example our pre-Christmas do last year, we
walked as a team from our Maidstone office to
our Isle of Wight office Just for fun…well charity
as well. We raised funds to help establish an
orphanage in Ukraine, through our own charity,
The Wonderful Foundation.
How do you keep your ideas fresh?
We are really keen on attracting fun, intelligent,
agile minds to the business from the local area,
so we have internship and apprenticeship
programmes that work well for us. In addition to
our core staff we have a wider network of creative
consultants that we harness when the scope of
the project calls for it.

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I hear you are expanding?
Yes. We already have three offices in the UK;
London, Maidstone and the IOW, but thanks in
part to our being a UKTI creative industries
taskforce member, which is focussed on exporting
British business, we are working with them to
expand globally, looking at markets such as New
York and Toronto.
What advice would you give to a client
(regional, start-up or global corporate) that
wanted to become a market leader?
It all starts with strategy. Think differently about
the current markets and competitors. Above all,
make sure you continue to disrupt all you think
you know about the creative and digital
landscape. Develop strategies that are really
measurable and ones that have a value
proposition better than everyone else around
you. Have the mind-set to win awar and change
ds
the game; true transformation only happens when
you continually think big.

Wonderful Creative Agency
www.bewond