FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN

Fresh Head Media Directors William Anderson and Alison Kennedy-Anderson

Creativity, foresight and vision is the nemesis which spurred William Anderson to set up an advertising agency. He talks to Niamh MacSweeney about why Ireland needs to become a borderless country if we are to avail of all the opportunities the island has to offer

With a previous background in social work, William Anderson’s initial initiation into the world of business began more than twelve years ago when he successful owned and ran a number of coffee shops and restaurants in the north of Ireland. Although an avid restaurateur, he had a passion and far reaching interest in film production. Five years ago he set up his own film production company taking on commercial adverts and corporate videos. This was a crucial time for the creative entrepreneur and the seed of his latest business offering, Fresh Heads Media, was planted. Now a year later Fresh Heads is proving a hugely successful business model and Anderson has clearly fine tuned his business acumen to ensure that his company provides a valuable and professional ad agency service to clients.

While working in film production Anderson found that naturally advertising agencies work in conjunction with film production houses. Over the course of his experience in film production came the realisation that he was in fact coming up with the ideas for the advertising agencies but that the advertisers were taking all the credit and of course the big bucks. When Anderson identified this, the logical next step for him was to become more involved in advertising. This led the intuitive businessman and his wife to set up the advertising agency Fresh Heads Media an advertising agency offering a full range of concept, creation and production services delivered via TV, radio, web and print.

FROM A-Z

From pre-production to post-production Fresh Heads Media deliver a comprehensive service, which includes broadcast production, graphic design and web design. “A client will come to us when they what a full communications package for their product or company. They want a graphic design that is reinforced by a strategy that fits into the communications structure of their business, should that be letterheads, business cards or a website and we would take all that on board. We analysis someone’s business and apply the graphic design to their strategy and the previous film production experience we have is merging well with the graphic design side of things,” explains Anderson.

Increasingly Anderson is also finding that due to the proliferation of broadband a number of clients require Fresh Heads to shoot everything in high definition, which can then be put online on their website in a visual way to promote their product or service.

CORPORATE IDENTITY

While only in the advertising business for a short time Anderson and his team have established a strong reputation, so much so that rather than pitching for work, clients are in fact coming to Fresh Heads requesting their professional services.

According to Anderson the approach taken by Fresh Heads with every new client is very simple yet highly effective. “We take peoples’ businesses very seriously. If someone comes to us we ask two simple questions – ‘do you know where you are going’ and ‘do you know how to get there’? If clients know where they want to go to, but don’t necessarily know how they are going to get there, Fresh Heads will take them to where they want to be. “We are very upfront and will not say something is a good idea if its not. We are very honest about what we see as the best way to bring a business forward and that applies to everything we do, Anderson reveals. “We sit down and analyse someone’s situation; we don’t just come up with a set formula,” he adds.

This direct approach is proving very successful for the emerging entrepreneur who enthuses at the positive feedback he has received from clients. “One client said they didn’t expect the level of engagement that they received from us and this is because we are there for our clients for all aspects of a strategy from start to finish,” Anderson proudly announces.

ALL-ISLAND COLLABORATION

Based in Belfast, Anderson is adamant that the only way forward for Ireland is to embrace and engage with businesses on both sides of the border and to ultimately have a borderless country as a means of sustainability. “The north has 1.7 million people and the only way that we can move forward is to operate as a whole island because economically I don’t feel the north of Ireland can fully sustain itself on its own,” he says. Anderson is also quick to point out that companies in the south of Ireland, who only look to their close neighbours for business, are limiting themselves to the potential opportunities that exist across the whole island.

Confident that his company can operate at a very competitive and professional level not just within Ireland but also within Europe, Anderson warns that businesses that fail to venture beyond the border will lose out. On a more positive note he says Ireland as a whole island punches way above its weight. “For an island the size of Ireland I think we seriously compete on a world wide stage. There are a lot of strong competitive businesses in the north and we are confident that we can compete for business in the south,” he says.

FRESH FUTURE

Published in the December 2007 / January 2008 Issue of Irish Entrepreneur