On Tour is a series of video blogs by staff at Vision+Media recording visits to some of the digital and creative businesses in and around the Northwest.
Tony Tickle, Digital and Creative Services Manager at Vision+Media continues the series with a visit to new media agency Matmi based in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
Matmi Company Profile
We are digital visionaries who start trends, ride them early and foretell their pathways. We experiment using our own material first so that we can make it work very successfully for our clients. When Matmi began, we realised that free online games were a powerful branding tool of the future and now they’re acknowledged by the rest of the digital industry. That example is typical of our award winning work. It leads, pushes the boundaries and is never still.
Matmi loves to create, invent, question, stimulate, design, laugh, outperform and believe. We are a team of talented individuals who breathe life into our clients’ campaigns together. We are graphic designers, animators, 3D and special effect artists, directors, musicians, programmers, copywriters, dreamers, viral marketeers, game makers, digital visionaries, business people and geeks.
What are the benefits of not being ‘Inner City’?
There are a number of benefits, and we believe they far outweigh the negatives, of being out 'in the sticks'. We don't have any of the distractions of a major city such as crazy nightlife or difficulties getting in to work when the roads are gridlocked. Being in Macclesfield allows us to focus very much on Matmi work, and making our products the best we can. We don't really socialise with other agencies, so there's no cross polination of ideas, and we also don't suffer from other agencies poaching our team. We've built a specialist, well developed team from a grass roots level who are some of the best designers and developers in the industry, and we're still a very close knit team of people who've known each other for years. By developing individuals from the ground up we're constantly refreshing our business with talent without having to look at taking from other agencies. And there's a wicked pie shop two doors down from the office.
Where do you see your business in the next 2 years?
Business is really going to take off for Matmi over the next 12 months, but we want to manage our growth properly so we don't grow so much that the business becomes unmanageable. We're already starting to take on more and more business from the US, and we see this trend continuing over the next 24 months. Ideally we'd like to manage all projects from our base in Macclesfield, but we may see more situations where we have to supply small teams to work on the ground with clients over in the US. International development is going to be a key part of Matmi's continued growth. We also want to grow our presence in the UK, particularly the North West. Already we're working for some of the biggest brands around the world; United Airlines, Gorillaz, Iron Maiden. We want more North West businesses to be coming to us and letting us help them grow their online brand presence. At the same time we want to be leading the way in terms of bringing more women into the industry. A large percentage of the 'Casual' gaming audience is female, yet this isn't replicated in the designers and developers creating the work. We want to be bucking that trend and giving more opportunity to female designers and developers in the North West.
What do you see as the biggest disruptor that may affect your business?
Cash flow has been a key problem in the past, certainly when you work with the larger brands and their crazy payment terms, but we've already started to address this and it shouldn't be a major issue in 2011. Volume of work may become an issue as we balance the benefits of global notoriety with a realistic approach to company growth. It's an interesting problem to have.
What single ‘thing’ could improve your business?
A new IT and telecoms system. Because we've been so busy managing the growth of Matmi we've been struggling on with a phone and IT system that isn't up to our requirements. Fortunately we were recently named the winner of the Siemens Business Boost Award for 2010, which not only recognises us for the great work that we've been doing, but also comes with a prize of a state of the art telecoms and IT system which is going to help us no end as we come into our 10th anniversary.
Do you see MediaCityUK making an impact on your business?
Definitely, as a development it's unparalleled and will bring more and more creative minded businesses into the North West, obviously the BBC were the first to sign up, but there will be an influx of other businesses coming into the area, from the small to the multinational. This itself brings greater opportunities to partner with like minded companies on a variety of projects. It feels like Manchester and the North West is really becoming a hub for the creative industries, and the development in Salford will only go to strengthen that. It's a really exciting time to be working in a growing digital agency at this time. Long may it continue.
www.matmi.com