It’s been almost one month since Anna and I knew Mantis would become part of the Ruder Finn family. On Monday, it’ll be four weeks since the most dramatic team call I’ve ever had the pleasure of hosting, where we told the team. I really wanted to reach through the screen and jump about and hug people and say:

“we did it!”

Why, “we did it?”

Because last November when our new FY began, we upgraded our mission statement to reflect the way we wanted the team to feel about the business, and themselves. It’s certainly something that I’ve always wanted to act strongly on, and it was time to make it reality, especially after the way we’d worked through 2020.

Our 2020 objective was:

“To increase the perception of Mantis’ worth as a communications partner, whilst increasing our own belief in our worth as professionals and people.”

 Our new core values: knowledge, worth, commitment, partnership and equality.

How we got here

We spent this year industriously working away, achieving Mantis record-breaking results for our clients, gathering new ones, and supporting each other’s personal journeys and professional growth. We gave ourselves the space to reach new heights, solidify the perception of our expertise, and best of all, the confidence to be more direct and open about it, launching services such as our Industry Enrichment programme. If you know Mantis, you’ll know our team really understands the public sector, and loves it, and wants to tell the big stories of what tech is capable of.

The culmination of this year’s work, the “we did it” moment that proves to me that we achieved our objective and lived our values, is our subsequent acquisition by Ruder Finn, who believes in us and sees our potential. It’s been a fantastic transition so far, and our new colleagues are so bright and welcoming.

I grew up in global agencies, and from the moment I stepped onto the ‘all hands’ call a few Fridays ago, it felt like home again. The value and worth of working across markets and cultures should never be underestimated, it’s a genuine privilege.

I’m so proud, and so happy, and so enthusiastic about the opportunities it’s going to create for our team and our clients. I also want to say the biggest thank you to Anna, Bryony, Liz, Jo, Rebecca, Lily, Luke, Caitlin, Faye, Martine and Tom. You did it! You built this together and you continue to add to it daily.

Although Anna, Bryony and I are busy in the background working with our new colleagues on certain aspects of our early integration, client work continues and our results in October have been stellar, especially on the national, broadcast and local media activations. And, we’ve onboarded two new clients in the education and healthcare sectors.

From time to time either Anna, Bryony or I will update you here with new things that this new chapter for your team might mean, but for now, it’s great to have you here to experience it with us.