Interview With Alicja Lloyd, Deputy CEO at Feed Agency

Feed is a global, independent digital marketing and communication agency. We exist to fuel the growth of 21st Century brands, and to make a positive impact for our clients and people.

We’re digital-only and support our clients with our five core practices: CRM & Performance Marketing, Digital Experiences, E-Commerce, In-House Talent and (Start-ups Studio) So Far So Good.

We’re technology-enabled, meaning we deliver at speed and scale. We’re performance-focused meaning we drive consumer action and we’re craft-focused meaning we never sacrifice creativity when meeting targets.

How Have You Seen Feed Grow?

We’ve been growing at pace, both in terms of the size of our business and the client services we offer. We’ve now got offices in London, Manchester, Berlin, Sydney, San Francisco and Toronto. We actually hired, on-boarded and launched our Toronto office 100% remotely during the first lockdown last year.

Feed’s original core business was the agile creation of digital comms at scale, but we now offer so much more, having expanded our capabilities and practices by anticipating client need and hiring brilliant talent.

We now deliver digital platform experiences, digital-first branding and marketing consultancy for start-ups and trailblazers through our So Far So Good studio – and, of course, we still excel in the agile creation of digital comms at scale.

How Has Feed Evolved During the Pandemic?

As a global digital marketing business, Feed is designed to work as one unified team uninhibited by geography – it doesn’t feel like we’re in separate countries – so virtual connectivity and collaboration across markets and offices has always been part of our DNA. Through the pandemic, we used our essential DNA as a building block and took our existing approach and extended it as a full-time working practise.

With in-person collaboration no longer possible, we put an increased emphasis on initiatives that ensured our people felt connected and supported. All colleagues connect monthly at the Global All Hands meetings, regular virtual Socials, plus we’re all on Slack, which enables collaborative working and real time connectivity.

Our Feed x You programme is designed to help our teams thrive, learn and develop under lockdown – the connectivity we’ve learnt is also vital to wellbeing while teams are separated. We have focussed heavily on being service-centric – looking at all the ways we can better help our clients, navigate the uncertainty and adapt and adjust ways of working, leveraging our global network to take advantage of time zones to help clients feel as loved and supported as possible anywhere in the world and any time of day.

What Advice Would You Give to Aspiring Female Leaders?

As leaders we have a responsibility to our team. Rather than prescribing a specific leadership style for Feed we’ve created a set of universal principles that outline core traits we feel our leaders should embody, but the principles can flex to allow our leaders to adopt their most authentic approach for individual employees.

My advice is to lead by example, be authentic, compassionate and crucially, be as empathetic as possible – this has been so important while working remotely. Without empathy, you can’t build a team or nurture a new generation of leaders. Empathy allows you to know your teams motivations and how best to support them, now and after the pandemic, which will both inspire and create loyalty.

Understanding and appreciating that no two employees’ circumstances will be the same, and working with them to ensure they feel the right level of support is there for them is key. It isn’t about keeping tabs on anyone, it’s about building trust with your team and being visible and available enough to be there when they reach out for support.

What Can We Hope to See From Feed In the Future?

We simply want to continue being absolutely service-centric, to deliver the utmost support and agility for our clients both during this challenging time and beyond. Our incredibly strong team ethic, means that we are committed to pooling our skills, problem solving capabilities and innovation mindsets to create fresh opportunities for clients and to deliver brilliant, well-crafted work to help them become even more efficient, deliver brilliant communications and continue to drive impactful business results.

Our plan for the future is simple – continue doing what we do best: drive conversion, with heart.