Since founding Big Brand Ideas Jon has seen the agency grow from just two employees to a team of over 50 individuals based across two offices in Macclesfield and central Manchester. He created its Intelligent Engagement approach, which delivers results for brands and businesses through insights, creativity and engagement.

Outside of work, Jon lives in Macclesfield with his wife and two children and enjoys running, circuit training, boxing and playing football.

Tell us a bit about your business?
Big Brand Ideas is a content-led performance driven agency based in Macclesfield. We started out with just two employees eight years ago, now the business is made up of a 50-strong team of some of the industry’s most talented individuals, who have extensive experience of working within major agencies and with influential brands. We help businesses grow through intelligent insight, creativity and engagement. In an increasingly complex media environment, many brands are losing their way and failing to connect with their consumers.

We work with our clients to rediscover their brand’s essence and bring it to life through our intelligent engagement approach. As a full-service agency, we cut through the competitor noise, drive engagement, improve conversion and deliver tangible results and long-term business growth for our clients.

Tell Us About Your Role Within The Business?
My role as Managing Director is to create a clear vision for the business as well as providing support for each individual department. I’m extremely lucky to be surrounded by a very strong senior management team and between us we set the direction for Big Brand Ideas and the goals we’re aiming to achieve.

In your opinion, what is the most interesting/high profile/exciting project you or your business has worked on?
We’ve worked on so many excellent campaigns over the years and some of our current clients are really exciting, but one of my favourites from last summer was our National Pub Fortnight campaign.

The brief was to highlight the role of the local pub in keeping communities together and to encourage people to visit their local during the fortnight. Our team managed to get the campaign all over the national news and increased pub visits by 48%. It also resulted in Big Brand Ideas being shortlisted for Media Relations Campaign of the Year and Consumer Relations Campaign of the Year in the PRCA Dare Awards, and B2C PR campaign of the Year in the Prolific North Awards. Since then, we’ve become the lead agency for our pub client’s creative brand work, film content, social media and PR.

How long has the business been operating and how long have you been based in Macclesfield?
I started the agency eight years ago and we’ve been based on King Edward Street in Macclesfield from day one. We also have an office in central Manchester.

What made you choose Macclesfield as a place to base your business?
I was born and bred in Macclesfield. My mum was Head of Typography for McCann Erickson and my Dad was an agency owner locally, so it made a lot sense for me to follow in their footsteps. I’m proud of where I’m from and I wanted to show that you don’t have to be based in a major city to be a leading agency or attract the best talent.

What’s the best thing about working in Macclesfield?
I’d say the people. We’re lucky to have an extremely talented team and many of them live in Macclesfield. We pride ourselves on working with local businesses, helping them to develop and grow, and being part of their journey. Macclesfield is where it all began for Big Brand Ideas, so it’s a huge part of our identity.

Do You Have Any Specific Future Goals For The Business That You Would Like To Share?
I want Big Brand Ideas to be one of the biggest agencies in the North West. I want brands to be coming directly to us because we apply a different way of thinking to briefs.

Our approach has been to recruit a talented team with big agency and brand experience in order to give our clients the best advice possible. I truly believe we do things differently here and that allows us to have a much greater impact on campaigns.