Why brand agency and client collaboration matters

We know our working environments need to be flexible in order to support our team, and our clients, to do the best work we can. Whether that’s working from home, collaborating with the team remotely or championing an environment where creativity isn’t stifled by a strict office set-up.

Truly immersing ourselves in our clients’ worlds requires us to go beyond the screen, so we can experience what they are all about, feel what makes them tick and help them to unite their people, purpose and potential. Sometimes that means members of our team will head to the offices of tech-challengers in Paris, to facilities management giants in Prague, or to Madrid to deliver workshops for global leaders in professional services. And how could we forget leading workshops for the African Management Institute in Nairobi (now that was a trip!). But on this occasion, one particularly sunny day in mid-June, the UnitedUs team went wild 30 minutes away from our Brighton HQ… we headed to the rural heartland of Sussex to get back to nature and learn about self-sufficiency – understanding where our food really comes from. We went to visit one of our wild clients, Hunter Gather Cook. And, wow! What a day out it was.

Hunter Gather Cook was founded in 2011 by head chef and survival expert Nick Weston, who (along with his team) has become famous for teaching people the self-sufficiency skills, game butchery, wild foraging and cooking over fire. Strangely, it was a bit of a home from home for the UnitedUs team. No, not because we’re feral. We aren’t, obviously. But because the things we do as a brand agency have some similarities with foraging and cooking with fire. For our chosen clients, we scour their business to uncover morsels we can prepare into an almighty brand feast. Next, we spark creative ideas and fan those flames into hearty brand fires, so our clients can share their offering with audiences or customers.

A pin was dropped onto the digital maps of the UnitedUs team who arrived at a remote location near the Firle Estate in Sussex, sporting UnitedUs x Hunter Gather Cook custom merchandise. We were met with a warm welcome from Nick and his chefs Dave and Hamish, with strong hot coffee, grins and a couple of friendly terriers – Nick’s faithful sidekicks. Right away, the people behind our two brands had met, our badges proudly nestled next to each other, and we handed out the t-shirts we’d made to commemorate the collaboration. But this physical display of togetherness has a very real purpose. A purpose crucial for brand agencies to deliver the best creative service they can for their clients.

We’re humans, and that’s what we do, share ideas, conversation and experiences in order to make sense of the world around us. We also stand up for the things we believe in. In terms of brand that means truly understanding what your offering feels like, and the only real way for a branding agency to do that is to experience it. So, we switched off the screens, breathed in some fresh countryside air and unleashed our wild-side with Hunter Gather Cook: to experience how people can get to grips with four fundamental elements of nature – game, foraging, fire and cookery.

The Hunter Gather Cook chief, Nick Weston, is a wildman through and through. Going into the environment where Nick was most in his element, enabled the UnitedUs team to get a sense of his business in the rawest form, it helped us to not only visualise the brand but be it (at least for 8 hours). We learnt that Nick first put flame to tinder in Sussex back in 2008, hungry to get back to the woods after spending years living city life as a freelance chef in London. Nick, hardly a conventional corporate character, has an enormous sense of purpose, to help people experience where food really comes from – we felt this wholeheartedly as we talked, asked and became better equipped to communicate the truth of his brand. Nick’s specialist knowledge of foraging and cooking in the outdoors led him from being a survival expert on Channel 4’s popular Shipwrecked show, to living in a treehouse in Sussex where he penned a diary, becoming a published author and gathering a tribe of skilled individuals who share a burning passion for food and fire.

With animal butchery being a strong part of the day, it was clear that this experience wasn’t one for vegetarians or vegans. But we knew this experience was the most ethical way we’d probably ever prepare and eat animals and plants, in their own environments. How food was meant to be consumed before vacuum-packing, refrigerated logistics and battery food-farms happened.

As a group of amateur foodies, UnitedUs’s day out at Hunter Gather Cook heightened our appreciation for food, flavours and natural ingredients. As a branding agency, going straight to source with the client, and getting to know who they are on their patch, gave us insights to uncover the true essence of who they really are. The thread of personality we needed to weave an authentic brand identity for their business.

You can read more about Hunter Gather Cook’s fresh identity here, but this one is best served hot! Check out huntergathercook.com and book an unforgettable experience.