This week on the PRmoment Podcast I’m pleased to welcome founder and CEO of Manifest Alex Myers.

Manifest is a self defined brand communications agency and has a fee income of £3.5m.  

Manifest has grown by 70% in the last financial year and has offices in London, New York and Stockholm.  

Here is a summary of what Alex and I discuss:  

• How Alex got into PR
• PR outside of London and the burgeoning Huddersfield PR scene!
• Why Alex, a northern lad, set up his PR firm in London
• How the start of Manifest London came about through a mixture of naivety and bravado
• Whether Alex regrets initially having two other partners in Manifest
• Why Alex enjoys managing a business
• How, unwittingly, Alex has taken a creative approach to building the Manifest – from deciding what computers to use, to developing an appraisal system, to hiring new staff.
• How having children has changed the way Alex runs Manifest
• Why Alex found having a boss more stressful than being a boss
• How the hierarchical structure of large businesses can prevent a collaborative approach
• How Alex learnt the importance of brand communications over product-focused communications
• What was the genesis of Manifest’s approach to communications?
• Why communications is now the product for brands – and will define whether your customers buy your product
• Why modern communications is about building communities around brands
• How did Alex grow Manifest by 70% last year
• Why Manifest seeks out brands that will allow it to do the type of work it wants to do
• Why hires from outside of PR are vital to how Manifest has grown
• Why Manifest pays new employees £1,000 if they want to leave in the first three months
• How finding out new ways to think helps Alex come up with new ideas
• Why a mix of cultures in a PR firm is vital to coming up with relevant ideas
• Why Alex believes everyone is creative – some people have just had it taught out of them
• Alex discusses his views on a “Shoreditch” approach to creativity
• How the Manifest offices in New York and Stockholm came about