Why join RAA?

Ask anyone who works at RAA what makes them enjoy working here, and you’ll get 25 different answers. But all of them will tell you, in their own way, that it’s a Nice Place To Work. Many of them have worked here for many years, and could easily have moved on – but have chosen to stay because RAA offers a fairly unique combination of agency buzz, big ideas, community and fun, where everyone’s view counts and people are genuinely looked after.

You could probably ask the same question of our clients, who would also say we’re a Nice Agency to Work With. These things rub off, you see.

But there is more to it than the ‘touchy feely’ stuff. We have got a few basic things very right, which might help explain why we have such an enviable staff retention rate, right across the agency.

Firstly, we have a great mix of clients. We have our fair share of high profile, household names – Avis, Bayer, Fitness First, Endsleigh Insurance, Triumph International, Waitrose, to name a few. We have clients across the full range of sectors, and a mix of spenders, from those who spend a few thousand a year, up to those spending towards £1 million a year. But we have always made a point of not taking on any accounts that are so large that we recruit new people for it, who may be vulnerable if the account was lost. We work with a mix of direct and consultancy clients too, which keeps life interesting. In fact, each account team has a balance of clients who need creative work, clients who need a lot of media advice and campaign planning, clients who do lots of online, and clients who have a high media spend.

We also avoid public sector accounts. We think it’s boring. We did try it but nobody enjoyed placing hundreds of small plain ads in the local press week after week, and the profit margins were so depressing we decided to steer clear.

We’re highly profitable. Unlike larger plc’s who have to focus on turnover, and take on huge clients which offer a low yield, we concentrate on more profitable business. We often turn down new business which we think will make us busy fools – running around like mad things processing hundreds of ads but making no money.

And we don’t pitch. Unbelievable isn’t it. And we’re still adding on new business, through recommendation, reputation and self promotion. We’re quite good at our own PR, we advertise in the key press, and we sponsor events.

Size wise, you’ll know that with 25 people, we’re medium sized in our industry. This is a deliberate move – we’ve decided that we don’t want to be huge! We will grow some more, sure, ensuring we keep on providing career opportunities for employees. But we’re not out there trying to conquer the world.

RAA is about enjoying what you do. The Directors believe in this. They could have sold up years ago. They could have grown the agency to 10 times its current size, with multiple offices and huge volume clients. But that would mean sacrificing the essence of RAA – which is fundamentally about having fun while you do your job, giving 100%, and working together to be successful.

Of course perks like weekend Christmas trips to Barcelona and company nights out to awards ceremonies all help…