Poke Marketing are an agency who looks at things differently. From a founding team of three creative minds they’ve grown to a multi-discipline agency of ten and work with the likes of National Football Museum and Liverpool Cathedral. Gather has helped MD Nicola Docking and the leadership team make the changes they need to grow with confidence.

Where they were at

Poke was a fairly new agency on the block, but the founders had lots of experience and were starting to work with some great clients. With one eye on scaling, they knew they needed to be ready for the challenge and that needed a more consistent approach to processes and systems.

Why Gather?

“We were giving clients a great service, but without robust project and account management processes in place it wasn’t efficient internally – and that was holding us back from taking the next step.”

Nicola and the team had big ambitions, but they needed external support to help them prepare for growth. After co-founder Andrew Binns completed the Shift programme they knew Gather had a team of experts who had been there and done it and could help them do the same.

How Gather helped

"Our growth consultant kept us on track. It's easy to kick things into the long grass when you're in the business and there's client demands. But having someone to keep you accountable really helps."

The Poke leadership team worked with growth consultant Katie to get to the heart of their challenges around processes.

Breaking it down into three key areas they focused on getting to a single version of the truth, improving internal communications, and recruitment. Aligning around a new change strategy they transformed their ways of working.

Results

“I don't think we would have experienced the same level of growth as quickly without the support of Gather – the impact within 6 months on the business was huge.”

Understanding where their processes needed to change and getting a new consistent approach to project and account management has given Poke the confidence to push forward.

They are now a team of ten having recruited a new Senior Account Manager and recognised the potential of another team member to make the move into project management.

New Senior Account Manager Emily recently took part in the Emerging Leaders and the programme has given her the skills and insight to play a key role in shaping Poke’s new ways of working.

“Building the team has been one of our greatest achievements and Gather has supported us with that. Emerging Leaders has given Emily the strategies and confidence to lead, set up new processes, and get the most from her team.”

The future

“We now have everything in our armoury to continue our growth journey.”

With a renewed focus and internal alignment Poke have set their sights on securing new clients, continuing to grow as a business in terms of headcount, turnover, and reputation, and putting Liverpool on the map creatively.