Later this year TLC will turn 25 and its been quite a journey.
I’ve learned a lot about myself over that time. The need to adapt personally and professionally, particularly when the goalposts move, are skills any business owner needs to possess if they are determined to succeed.
The last 5 years in particular have exceeded my expectations to some degree, but at the same time also come as no real surprise.
Originally positioned as a small family business, though perfectly placed to handle major activity in competition to the “major players”, pre 2015 our account list already included many impressive names.
Our ability to win one off major campaigns such as British Airways to every household in the UK was already proven, alongside a wide range of more local and regional clients.
And our desire to provide the client marketplace with a full tool kit of distribution options, saw us launch SMART-Drop in 2010, still the industry’s most successful, sub postal sector level final mile service.
2010 also saw the arrival of Neal from the London agency world and his influence started to change the internal dynamics of the company.
But since 2015, purpose built offices, employing outside staff for the first time, upgrading our technology and a promotional objective to engage with a wider client audience, has seen us grow year on year ever since, when our industry statistics chart a general decline in fortunes over the same period.
And despite all the issues raised by Covid this year, we have again adapted to continue our success and are online for another successful year.
Remote working became the new normal for us as well, but our service levels have not been affected.
We still regularly find when following up outline door drop proposals, that clients respond by saying they have yet to hear back from other organisations they have approached. But our turnaround times and our eagerness to engage with potential clients commonly wins the day and underlines the strength of our account handling.
Now positioned as a small, specialist media agency, but with more experience of our market than any other door drop supplier, our mantra is that size does not matter.
We have in the past lost business pitches because of clients perceptions when comparing us to the “major players”. But when all said and done, the day to day running of your account will be handled by a team at TLC who we will name up front. And I’d wager that our competitors will not allocate any more people to your account than we will on a day to day basis and quite possibly people with less experience.
Our major account wins so far in 2020 in competition with our major competitors are really impressive names and we are delighted to be working with them of course.
These include major High Street retailers, well known leisure providers and large public sector organisations, alongside smaller clients from these and other business sectors.
The wins are consistently based upon common sense, easy to understand proposals delivering the packages each client seeks.
Telephone calls and Zoom meetings have replaced face to face meetings in the main, but its good to talk, as somebody once said!
We have not announced it with a huge fanfare, but our new website is now up and running, so please find a few minutes to scroll through the pages.
And if you are still reading this piece, intrigued by our claims and like the look of the website, feel free to get in touch and test the water.
We can assure you of a warm, prompt and engaging response.