Reflections on 30 years of collaboration with founder, Ian
Continuing our 30th anniversary celebrations, we caught up with co-founder and Managing Director Ian Sutton to get his thoughts on the history of Milestone, his creative process and influences, and the legacy he hopes to leave behind.
You can also read our first interview in this series with Managing Director Jay Roff.
What was the initial vision for Milestone, and how has that evolved?
Jay and I originally met, many years ago, in a small agency. We kept in touch as we moved through our careers, until we decided to strike out on our own.
We knew we didn’t want to run an agency like those we’d seen in the 80s, one that prioritised profit at the expense of creative quality and relationships with clients and suppliers alike. We’d also seen some agencies grow too quickly, and then it would all go wrong.
Instead, we wanted to create an agency of like-minded people who valued client-servicing as much as we do. An agency which could grow in a way which was stable and sustainable over time. Mostly, we wanted to create an agency that we, and our team, really enjoyed working in.
Much of that hasn’t changed in the last 30 years. We still prioritise our relationships with clients, suppliers and our employees, and we still attract the same kind of people: problem-solvers who like to help people. Sustainability remains an important part of our ethos. Back then, we thought about sustainability more in terms of business growth, but we’ve naturally been environmentally friendly since the beginning.
What has changed is our confidence as a business. We’ve grown more confident about the idea of growth – that we can work on larger projects with bigger clients and compete with bigger fish. More importantly, we know that our way of doing things works.
Were there any pivotal decisions that have helped build that confidence?
The first was when we encouraged Peter to join us as Creative Director in 1998. To begin with, he was mainly working on his own clients that he’d brought into the business, which was great in terms of helping us grow financially. But soon, we started going to meetings together and found that we were a strong team. It was a recipe that clients seemed to like.
We discovered that we enjoyed working together: me on strategy and client servicing and Pete on creative. We’re very like-minded. And the results were good. It helped us win some major accounts and projects that took us to the next level.
The other key decision was moving to the Barn in 2014. It’s a fantastic place to work. It gave us a lot more space, so we were able to physically grow, and clients love to come here.
What do you see as Milestone’s core strength or USP?
You could say it’s combining creativity with marketing strategy. It could be the combination of the people that we have, multiplied by a can-do philosophy.
Or is it that we’re in a nice building with a large car park with excellent biscuits? It’s silly, but true – we had a client tell us that coming to the Barn was like going to your mum’s house but way cooler. Is that more about who we are and the energy we give off, or is it about the office space? It’s probably a bit of everything.
Thinking more about The Work now, what does your personal creative process look like?
I don’t think you can put a process on creativity. Ideas can come from anyone at any time, so I lead with collaboration.
Brainstorm with a group of people to get a range of perspectives, then sit on it for a while. Let the ideas develop – something else will come to you while you’re in the car or sat on a train. Then touch base again with the group. Your good ideas will be made even better.
When it comes to copy, I start with writing with what I want to say or what I want someone to do, rather than trying to be clever. That can come later.
What are your biggest creative influences, or ideas that you come back to when you’re writing?
It’s lots of little things. As one of Milestone’s writers I like to focus on making sure the words really sing, and I’ve been interested in behavioural science for a long time. I’ve tried to champion a lot of these ideas with the team – and it’s interesting that so many of those ideas come from ancient thinking.
You can go all the way back to Aristotle’s three points of rhetoric – Ethos, Pathos and Logos – which are about persuasion. About appealing to your audience’s emotions, rationality, and a third thing.*
*Ian then had his second cup of coffee, and remembered: credibility.
I also think that branding taps into ancient human traditions – we’re all descended from hunter-gatherer tribes that shared symbols, icons, colours and rituals to form strong communities.
What campaign or project are you most proud of?
Probably the brand guidelines work we did for the RAC. As a great British motoring brand, they have a history going back to 1897. The RAC performs an essential service to drivers, so it felt like a real privilege to be supporting them for over ten years. Like us, they help people by solving problems. We helped make their branding and communications more customer friendly, distinctive and ready for the digital age.
I’m also really proud of us becoming an Employee Ownership Trust. We never wanted to sell out to another business. We see the EOT as a great way of preserving the culture that we’ve built over the last 30 years.
Also, we’re on our way to becoming a B Corp which is very cool.
What emerging trends or innovations do you think will shape our industry and business in the next ten years?
AI is impacting everything. For creatives it can be a great tool, but I don’t think it will ever be an end in itself. You need expertise to use it effectively and the experience to know its limitations in terms of truth and humanity.
The trend for consuming masses of short form content is growing, but we still value conversation and storytelling above all.
I hope that the creative use of behavioural science will help drive better solutions for humanity in many areas, and that we don’t just give in to the easy logic of AI.
What legacy do you hope to leave behind for Milestone?
If we’re talking about the kind of business I hope to leave behind when I retire (which I don’t really want to do), it’s one where there’s real, positive word of mouth, that people are drawn to.
Otherwise, it’s the importance of having a bit of joy at work. We’ve tried to embed little rituals and habits into Milestone, to make sure we’re always celebrating something. When Jay and I started thinking about our own creative business, we felt it should be fun at least some of the time! And I hope that’s the legacy we leave behind.
