Founder Insight: Lessons from the early years and navigating turbulence with Mark Howarth
What was your professional life progression to starting MCH?
My professional life started at The Financial Times, where I managed advertising executions that encompassed print, digital, strategic partnerships and events. I progressed to specialise in commercial relationships with luxury and consumer brands and worked across watches & jewellery, fashion, motors, private aviation and high-end food & drinks sectors.
Representing the FT, a premium publisher with a rich history and huge global readership, was an incredible privilege. It enabled me to create industry award- winning campaigns such as the FT Weekend Hidden Cities Project - which was seen by 26 million people worldwide and won a leading industry award for The Drum’s Best Partnership.
Outside work, I am the Vice-President of the Professional Development Committee for the International Advertising Association and have been a member since its inception almost 4 years ago. The focus of the voluntary committee is to help those in media navigate their careers and drive forward professional development.
Aligned to key industry issues, we support and encourage engagement at all levels of seniority - from fresh upcoming talent all the way up to senior executives - via events such as Speed Mentoring, Boss Your Review or our Leaders Series. It’s a truly wonderful organisation led by media rock stars that I’m proud to call my friends.
What made you start MCH?
Let’s just say it was time! A number of changes in my work and personal life led me to really reflect on my ambitions and personal business values - I knew I needed to do more, but not for anyone else - it had to be my own personal mission.
This process led me to establish the blueprint and vision for MCH London and consider the steps that I’d need to put in place to create a responsible full-service advertising agency. I strongly believed that there was a space in the market for a more ethical agency model with the right brand partners that share these values to succeed and flourish.
What was your first year in business like?
The first year was really about learning and taking time to establish mentors, partners and suppliers that aligned with MCH London values and understand the challenge we were taking on. I was very conscious about sustainable growth and wanted to ensure that the foundations of MCH London were strong from the start.
I leant hard on my network - turns out I made more friends over the years than I had realised - people that wanted to go out of their way to help me succeed - they either became clients or introduced us to them!
To touch on an initial risk in year 1, we integrated with pioneering partnerships, such as Fenestra’s blockchain technology for full financial media accountability, which I now understand to be something that many business owners wouldn’t put in place so early on.
However, it was an important investment to highlight MCH’s differentiation in the market. It’s relationships like these that have led us to pick up multi-channel business that we simply would have never have come close to, were it not for the support of key partners. We can now firmly say that we are full-service.
How do you see commercial life adapting to life after coronavirus?
Finally breaking the taboo around “working from home” within large organisations, with the success stories from digital technology and video conferencing demonstrating that productivity can be maintained outside the office. Some of the big players will have to change.
More investment in digital connectivity within traditional industries - ‘digital transformation’ has been one of the most referenced terms in consultancy for the past few years, but where businesses have yet to fully appreciate what this could mean in their field, this global experience should certainly encourage them to realise the full benefits of digitisation in future.
Boardrooms will be turned upside down. For so many reasons, this is a good thing.
Mark C Howarth
Founder & Managing Director
MCH London
www.mch.london