Cardiff-based PR agency acquires studio partner
James Nee has been appointed as Working Word’s head of creative following the PR agency’s acquisition of Ernest Studio.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, sees the film company become part of Working Word and Mr Nee will responsible for leading the firm’s video production content.
It coincides with Working Word’s move to a new larger creative space in Cardiff city centre’s MA Rapport & Co building to facilitate the growth.
An existing partnership between Working Word and Ernest has already seen them create films to explain the technology behind compound semiconductors, to champion youth rugby teams and work with the Principality Building Society. The partnership also created Visit Wales’ most viewed social media video ever.
Working Word co-owners Caroline Holmes and Daniel Tyte, who completed an MBO for the company in 2016, say the acquisition and citycentre move is an important part of the pair’s growth strategy. Turnover is expected to exceed £1m in the current financial year for the first time.
Ernest was founded by Nee in 2013. Based in Cardiff, their clients included Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, Business Wales, DE&S, the National Deaf Children’s Society and Macmillan Cancer Support. The team specialised in communicating clients’ stories via innovative and engaging promos.
Working Word managing director Daniel Tyte said: “Video has become one of the main ways many people find out information and insight about the world around them. Moving images have become a key part of the campaigns we design and deliver and our partnership with Ernest has seen us make films that have been engaged with millions of times, helping to nudge audiences to take action that makes a real difference to what our clients are trying to achieve.
“Bringing Ernest into Working Word means we can offer a fully integrated approach to communications campaigns, truly fulfilling our purpose of strategic storytelling.”
Mr Nee said: “Since the first collaboration between Ernest and Working Word, it was clear we shared the same goal of creating content that would excite our client, tell their story and galvanise their audience to partake in the modern trinity of like, comment and share.
“Working Word is in a really exciting place at the moment, working on a range of diverse and interesting campaigns for a constantly expanding portfolio of new clients. Now seemed the right time to join their team so we can create fully integrated video content for our collective client base that makes sure they reach their audience with memorable content with a distinctive voice.”
Working Word’s relocation to Cardiff’s city centre from Neptune Court is a realisation of the co-owners’ plans following the 2016 management buy-out. Operations director Caroline Holmes said: “When we took over the business, one of our aims was to make Working Word the best place to work in order to retain and develop the best people to produce exciting, quality and creative work for our clients. Our new home is a massive step forward in this – not only is it somewhere our team love to come every day, the space has also been designed to make ideas pop and help their creative juices flow.”