Nalla: The branding agency that came back better
Nalla is an international creative agency based in Shoreditch East London…
The 12-strong team specialise in B2B branding, with 2 main divisions: brand building and brand activation. They have 12 years in the game, over 20 award wins and countless clients from companies at the scale-up stage all the way through to FTSE 100 companies.
We caught up with Nalla’s Founder Vicki Young, to see how business, policies and opinions have changed since we last spoke in early 2021 when the team were still navigating their way through the pandemic.
- It’s been an electric year for Nalla so far. What’s been your biggest achievement?
There’s been a huge change since we last spoke. Over the pandemic, we had some challenges, but we grew 3% from 2020-21 and we have come out quite a different agency.
Nalla’s most recent achievements have been born out of the challenges and reflections we’ve had over the pandemic years.
My biggest challenge and also my biggest achievement of 2021 and early 2022 has been our team. Going through the challenges of recruitment, getting the right team on board and seeing everything work out – I’m really proud of the new team we have.
My second proudest achievement is the acknowledgement that we’re doing a good job. Just a few months ago, we won two golds and a bronze in the Transform Awards for our work on The Chigwell School’s Rebrand.
Validation in our world largely comes through awards and its really nice to be acknowledged and celebrated.
2. Have your opinions/policies on hybrid working changed since 2020?
Yes and No. We are still mainly remote as during lockdown we closed our previous studio. This was quite emotional for me, but it helped cut business outgoings. Post lockdown we moved to a small studio we called the ‘Hub’ as a place to hold meetings, work together and coordinate when needed
Our work policy during this time is ‘everyone’s a grown-up’. You decide where you want to work. We’re not going to enforce anything on you.
Nalla have recently moved to a larger studio in Shoreditch and I’m expecting a shift in our culture as everyone will be able to come in all together again. Currently, people have wanted to come in for a change of scenery but have been reluctant to because they’ll be the only ones there or because there isn’t a spare desk as someone else has prebooked it.
There won’t be a change of policy. But the way we work will change once we move.
Saying this, I have said to both our Brand Building and Brand Activation departments, that from September they will be required to come in as a team at least once a week. But who knows if that may change again in the future.
3. Have you worked mainly with new or existing clients this year?
A large section of our clients were hit quite hard during the pandemic. When we last spoke, work from two of our largest clients, in the events and food and beverage sectors, had completely vanished. But luckily, we had clients in other sectors which helped us to grow a smidgen over the last year.
4. Have you seen a change in the type of projects clients are requesting?
During the pandemic there was a lot of work on the Brand Activation side of things: internal engagement, copywriting support etc. Whereas now, we’re working more on Brand Building (laying the foundations of a brand through audience research and validation, strategy, visual brand identity and guidelines) and our enquiries mainly tend to focus on this area too. The good news is that tends to naturally filter into the Activation side of things as the project evolves.
5. Do you have a plan to navigate the recession?
The recession is an interesting one. My approach is always to plan for a rainy day but hope for the best.
For us, cash is king and we’re very careful with our spending so if there is a downturn; we’re in a good position. We have everything ready to switch to fully remote again if needed or to buffer any downturn. But I personally feel like planning for something bad to happen and adjusting all your forecasting for that can be a negative.
I haven’t adjusted our forecasting plan for the next 3 years to factor in the downturn. Other businesses may have but I think that sets the wrong mindset for me.
I think the mind is a powerful thing and what you think often comes into being. So even though I plan for the worst I like to remain focused on the positive.
We’re fully booked, busier than ever and we’re still getting lots of enquires. If I start to see this taper off, then I’ll adjust our targets, but as long as we remain buoyant, they’ll remain as is.
6. Have you experienced a reduction in client spending?
It’s the nature of the game, isn’t it? People always want to negotiate. But for us, no. There hasn’t been too much change or push back. Clients tend to understand that its expertise that you’re buying and choosing based on price isn’t always going to get you the best results.
7. Your team have produced some brilliant work this year. What has been your favourite project?
I think that the work that we’re doing right now is the best we’ve done since Nalla was founded. (I can’t discuss it now. But all will be revealed in the next 6 months). However, if I take those out of the equation, I’d say The Chigwell School project was a good example of a sensitive modernisation of a heritage brand and that got a lot of acknowledgement from a lot of awarding bodies.
I’m also proud of the voluntary work which we do. As part of our culture. We try to give back a lot. For us, it isn’t about getting a brief, delivering it and making some money.
We recently completed a project for Strut Safe, a charity based in Scotland that promotes women getting home safely at night.
They had no idea we were doing it. We revealed it online. It’s actually quite funny because you assume that everyone is heavily on social media these days. We sent it to them on Instagram and waited excitedly for their response, but we got nothing. We waited a couple of days and eventually we had to send them an email. They were absolutely thrilled once they saw it, but it did slightly ruin momentum!
A part of our clients budget always goes to helping organisations who ordinarily can’t afford our help.
Instead of sending our clients bottles of wine each Christmas, we use that time and budget on something that actually does good. And we tell them that a part of this is you because it is.
Each year everyone on our team helps to decide what cause they want to support and that seems to work really well. Although this year I have built into our cultural manifesto that we will do something voluntary that helps the environment. So a volunteer day like planting trees or clearing rivers, whatever the team uncover!
Nalla are a top 10 international branding agency based in Shoreditch East London. They have worked with a large variety of respected businesses, including Gabriele. You can see more of their brilliant work at nalla.co.uk and contact them with enquiries here.