Adam is the founder and creative director of Reborn Marketing & Design, a furniture industry-facing agency which has delivered branding, marketing, event management and image creation for clients including Hydeline, Howen, and Leggett & Platt – and winner of the Best Display Support Provider category in 2023's Readers' Choice Awards.
How might a child describe what you do?
At Reborn Marketing & Design, we read people’s minds and visualise it, and then create it so it then becomes a reality. We also solve problems through the form of art.
What’s the biggest long-term challenge you face?
The global recession. Reassessing customers’ marketing budget and maximising their ROI will become more prominent than ever before during these cost-conscious times. It is a proven fact that no matter what the current global financial situation is, all leading brands continue to invest in their marketing to maintain a strong presence in the market place. At Reborn, we work with our clients to define their marketing goals, and then create an action plan, along with a budget, to achieve the desired outcome.
If you had 10 x your working budget, what would you spend it on?
First and foremost, fulfilling our clients ultimate marketing dreams! We would analyse the clients’ existing marketing and design campaigns to understand their ROI, and from there, Reborn Marketing and Design would have a great understanding of the areas that gained great traction versus the areas that failed.
From this point, we would have a great foundation to create a customised marketing plan that would take this increased working budget and turn it into a marketing campaign with great value and substance.
What would be the title of your autobiography?
Feeling Reborn.
What does ‘work/life balance’ mean to you?
Understanding what your personal limits are before something becomes damaging to your own health is essential to a good work/life balance. If you don’t have good health, unfortunately it becomes more challenging to achieve those high standards if your work/life balance is not evenly distributed. Making time to do what relaxes you is essential to ‘Feeling Reborn’!
Who’s been your most influential professional mentor?
All throughout my professional career, I have had great mentors and influences, but by far the best mentor I had was my father. After my father had finished 22 years with the RAF, we both decided to embark on the same design and marketing dream, when we enrolled at the same arts university together. We continuously motivated each other to think outside the box, treating our tutors as if they were our clients, and trying to achieve higher grades than each other on the same projects. All throughout university we collaborated together, motivated each other and guided each other.
After we both graduated, we went on to form our own successful design agency for a period.
What advice would you give your younger self?
My personal perspective is to not look back at the past events/experiences and wish that something was done differently. All these life events mould who you are now, so learning from these past experiences are crucial to avoiding history repeating itself.
I am also a strong believer in ‘things happen for a reason’.
What’s been your best day in business to date?
Project-managing multiple trade show booths to completion. It is a great feeling to see the client’s sales team arrive at the stand feeling energised and proud to present their products, and hearing customers’ positive reactions firsthand.
At Reborn, we take great pride in seeing what we have conceived with our clients and watching it grow and mature within the marketplace – whether that is a brand logo, online marketing presence, trade show booth, 3D modelling or something else.
What’s the biggest myth about our industry?
Return on investment! Not all marketing can immediately be analysed to gauge its success rate. On some occasions, marketing or brand awareness campaigns can take time to mature within their surroundings.
At Reborn, we take the seed, analyse the ground and then strategically place the seed in the ground, allowing it to have the best opportunity to grow and mature over time. However, with all marketing campaigns you need to continuously add nourishment to support their growth, if you want to reap the fruits of your labour at a later date.
What should everyone in our industry either stop or start doing?
Start creating new product innovations that will define who you are now and where you want to be in the future.
Where do you see the industry going in the next 5-10 years?
I suspect a big shift towards sustainable materials and in the manufacturing of raw materials.
This interview featured in July's Furniture News.
