When I started Liberty Communications 20 years ago, I had just finished a 15-year in-house career working with some global technology corporations. I’d never worked in an agency before, nor had been a part of running one, but instinctively I knew what I wanted from Liberty for our clients and, more importantly, what I didn’t want. The concept of a partnership approach was something we laid down as a core pillar from the outset. Liberty is built on the idea that entering into any kind of business relationship relies on the same components of any relationship: trust, open-mindedness, truth, honesty, integrity and so on. These core life tenants are what make personal relationships work – and in business, it’s exactly the same. So Liberty was built on the foundation and belief that our support for clients would always be true and that we would deliver what we promised and offer impartial but professional advice.
At Liberty, we’ve always worked with our clients to better understand their business and their pain points as well as their successes and strengths. We’ve always believed we are an extension of our clients’ internal teams and the ultimate goal is to work together – in partnership – to achieve great things. Over the years however, we have also experienced client relationships that have, sadly, broken down due to a poor partnership sparked by mistrust or disrespect of what we do. As such, these relationships very rarely work well and in our experience, we’ve found it best to part ways and move on, just like any bad relationship in life.
In the same way that we’ve built some very successful partnerships with clients over the years, we’ve also built strong and in many cases personal relationships with the industry’s influencers. These are the press, industry analysts, the VC community and investors and more who can ultimately bridge our clients’ messages to the wider industry and evangelise on a business’s behalf. Despite what some clients may believe, not every introduction with an influencer will deliver a result, but if that first press briefing doesn’t yield coverage, the good news is that the relationship has begun paving the way to success in the future when your business message coincides with the media’s editorial agenda.
Liberty has been successful with this approach of mutual respect and collaboration. We are absolutely thrilled to be entering our next chapter with some breakthrough, innovative technology brands who believe in us as we believe in them. Like any great partnership, we’ll enjoy each other’s successes. It’s always good to remember that business is about working with like-minded people and we’ll always want to work with brands that appreciate our ethos as we respect theirs. In the end, it’s a 50/50 decision to work together and sometimes it’s liberating to recognise a bad partner and choose not to work with everyone who seeks us out. That might sound rash, but in the long term, it’s the right thing to do.
Here’s to the next 20 years! Viva Liberty!