Advertising, Marketing & PR
Published: May 19, 2023 | Updated: 24th May 2023
As Southampton-based marketing agency Carswell Gould reaches its 30th year in business this month, we sat down with mother and son team Gill and Ed Gould to discuss the secrets behind this longevity.
Carswell Gould has been around for long enough to predate the term “Marketing Agency” picking up widespread usage.
Gill explained: “Marketing did exist, but not really. Previously I had been in publishing, and I had friends working for advertising or PR companies, but you never heard about marketing companies.
“I knew about design quite well from working at the Telegraph as there we did page layouts and I had done book jacket designs, so it had always been part of my life. But moving into marketing was complete luck.
“In this area we’ve had quite a few very ambitious people. One of them was setting up a development company and he wanted to do the design in-house and asked me to set it up. I had a book on how to do it under the desk, and literally set up his department for him.
“This naturally moved into marketing as I realised what needed to be done. That was my introduction, and I loved it, because I like people and I like working with people. But most importantly, I like understanding why you do something.
“People would approach us in those days and say: ‘I want a leaflet’ and you’d ask them why and realise they haven’t got a clue. So, you would sit with them and discuss it, and their eyes would open as they realise how many people they could communicate with – it was fascinating.
“Then for years I lectured at Solent University, so I learnt more and more as I had to be one step ahead of the students.”
From these fortuitous beginnings, Carswell Gould sprang. While the road may not have always been easy, Gill has managed the business with certain principles from the start which have helped it grow and grow throughout the years.
“Cashflow is king,” Gill explained. “That has been my main drive the whole time, keeping on top of things and costs down. Everything we made, we put back into the company, making sure we always had the equipment we needed. From our computers to how we communicated with people, we always tried to stay ahead of everyone and always tried to get the best staff we could afford.
“One of the other main reasons we’ve done so well is that Ed joined, because he put a completely different spin on what we were like. He’s got this huge vision for how things should be, and I think without that we would have been in difficulties because it would have been quite difficult otherwise to afford someone like that. Working with family can be quite economical.”
“You can keep talking as much as you want and make a big show, but unless something’s coming out the end of the factory, you won’t last very long“
Around the turn of the millennium, Gill was joined by her son, Ed, who established Carswell Gould’s creative studio and web teams.
One of the interesting things to come out of our chat with Gill and Ed was they both pointed to each other as reasons for Carswell Gould’s success.
When we asked Ed why he thought the company has been so successful for so long, he put it down to: “Persistence, hard work, Gill and an understanding that customer service and going further is key. We’ve been prudent and not flashy at any point, we don’t owe anyone money, we don’t take huge loans to have big cars, Gill taught me that.
“I think the main thing is living within our means, working harder than the next person and being able, willing and creative enough to turn our hand to whatever we need to. A key part of it is not relying on one service area but being able to flex with the times.
“The work we’re doing today is completely different to when Gill started the company, but the thing that remains the same is that it’s about communications, advisory and service.
“The type of work may change, from videos to websites to AI, but the constant is probably looking after the client base, making them look as good as possible and working hard.”
“At the moment, to celebrate our 30th year we’re looking at 30 pearls of wisdom that we’ve learnt over the years. I think one of the things that stands out the most is get stuff done.
“You can keep talking as much as you want and make a big show, but unless something’s coming out the end of the factory, you won’t last very long. If you keep your mind on getting those tasks done, and not trying to climb the mountain all in one go then you do make progress. Most of the time we’re being paid for progress and action. Get stuff done.
At this point Gill jumps in to add: “With results though, if you don’t get the results, you don’t get the repeat. Our clients stay with us, which is brilliant, and then we also get business from people they know or when they move on, and it’s grown and grown from that.”
“It doesn’t matter if someone’s making paperclips or has a hovering car, the approach and the effort should be the same either way”
Ed Gould speaks to the crowds at Venturefest South
One of these results is Venturefest, an annual showcase of innovation both Ed and Gill pointed to as one of the achievements they’re proud of.
Gill said: When I was at the last Venturefest I felt huge pride because all our team were there, they were all working and every single one of them was making something happen, and I thought ‘that’s what it’s about, to have a company where you’ve got people who want to be part of it. It was the culmination of everything.”
Ed also pointed to his work with the government’s digital champion, Martha Lane Fox to help people get online. “It was one of the first times I wasn’t just selling someone’s goods,” he said. However, he went on to explain that one of the things that gives him pride is feeling like he can make a difference to someone’s business.
“It doesn’t matter if someone’s making paperclips or has a hovering car, the approach and the effort should be the same either way. In our world there’s a lot of people who won’t look twice at something unless it’s got a huge budget, and I think they’re the lazy ones. We might not have picked the easiest jobs all the time, but we get a lot of value from those sorts of challenges.
“I’m also proud of how we’ve been able to help regional players including the local councils and the local economy, we might have done more than we should have, from a commercial point of view, to involve ourselves in, and be a positive part of, the success of the region.
“We’ve just reconfirmed to stay in a physical office, while others are taking co-working spaces or getting rid of their offices, we’ve decided we’ll keep spending money on an office so that there’s a physical space, because what happens if we don’t? What happens if nobody cares about place anymore?
“I’m pleased that it’s enabled us to get involved and think about some of those bigger issues and play a valuable role in the success of, not just local businesses, but local people and families in the region. I think small businesses all over the country are doing that and are not really getting the credit they deserve. It’s key that we celebrate that fact in our 30th year.”
“A lot of the big things we’ve learnt along the way are about change”
Looking forward, both Gill and Ed pointed to flexibility as a necessary quality in a world which is constantly changing. Gill illustrated this by looking back to the start of the coronavirus lockdowns.
“When we were all forced to go home during the lockdowns, I remember locking up the offices and leaving carrying the dog’s beds and everything and wondering if we would ever be back. We were all sitting around but Ed was able to take the work we already had online. We are moving all the time forwards.
Ed adds: “That’s an illustration of how nothing stands still. Recently we helped councils and various organisations run a skills conference.
“One of the main things to come out of that is when looking at the skills needed for the future it’s less about specific things such as needing to be able to edit a video or write a press release, and more about having the cognitive ability to flex and pitch and turn and cope with the situations that are put in front of me. I think that’s what we do better at Carswell Gould and that’s why we’re still here.
“In the 30 at 30 piece we’re going to be bit by bit releasing things we’ve learnt from people better than us, from each other and from our clients throughout the year. One of them is ‘be like Madonna and reinvent yourself every five years, otherwise you might get yanked off a stage backwards by your cape’.
“If you don’t constantly think about what next and how and why you get bored, you’ve got nothing new to offer and your braincells get all dull and connected and can’t move properly. That’s something that comes out of my dyslexia and my creativity, but actually it’s something that works really well in the context of trying to help businesses reinvent, find new answers and recreate. And that goes for us too.
“A lot of the big things we’ve learnt along the way are about change, a lot are about hard work, a lot are about luck, and a lot of them are about not complicating things.
“We’ve developed something we call the Carswell Gould Collective, which is a big part of our proposition now. It’s not just our core team, it’s the relationships we’ve made in the past 30 years with really good talent we’re able to deploy across our work. It’s great for our team because they learn from them, it’s great for our clients because we can do more, and it’s great for the business because it allows us to do more work.
“If people are reading this and they’re in the world of communications and they want to look at a different way of doing things we’d love to hear from them because it’s a very open way of working we do now.
“On a wider note, if someone’s reading this and thinks this is a different kind of business I’d either like to work in, or work with, I’d like for them to get in touch. I think physical relationships are on the slide generally in the world, and reliance on digital relationships is inevitable but not essentially the only way you can go. If someone values that hands-on service and creative approach, we’d love to speak to them.”
Gill concludes: “You don’t know how the world will be going. It would be lovely to have a little glass ball you can look into and see the future with, but there have been some shocks recently. I think things will work themselves out but in which direction is going to be fascinating.”
Carswell Gould are releasing 30 pearls of wisdom on their website, offering people the chance to tap into what they’ve learnt over 30 years of successful business.
