Team shares best moments as Distinctive turns four
As we start our fifth year in business, we’re taking a moment to reflect on another year of purposeful progress.
We’ve enjoyed great successes, from award shortlistings to investing in our growing team, along with honing our approach to AI and of course, celebrating client milestones.
We’ve spoken at conferences, supported our clients’ growth ambitions and helped their projects to move forward.
Whilst we never like to stand still, though, and it’s onwards and upwards at Distinctive towers, it’s always good to take time to look back and see how far you’ve come. Here are our team’s best bits, favourite moments and top successes – so far…
Arianne Smart
There are countless pieces of work I’m proud of delivering since joining Distinctive, but what stands out to me above what we deliver is how we go about it. I know that each one of the team genuinely cares about delivering outstanding results, tackling challenges together, and being at our clients’ side as an extension of their teams.
We prioritise really getting to know the people within clients’ teams and always working with transparency, accountability, personability and positivity.
And you don’t just have to take our word for it, we’ve been shortlisted in the national CIPR Excellence awards for ‘best long-term client care’, an entry which shines a light on our commitment to taking a personal approach to client relationships, not over-complicating and, quite simply, doing the basics brilliantly.
It’s never easy to talk about your own achievements, so I’ll let client feedback do the talking. We’ve achieved an NPS of 83% with most clients rating us 9 or 10 out of 10. Clients commented that we’re “insanely dedicated”, “great to work with” and “an invaluable partner… We trust them completely to represent us with professionalism and impact.”
Getting good results is (or at least should be) a given in a client-agency relationship, but I’ve learnt that creating a collaborative partnership is much harder and, arguably, more important.
I’m proud of the way we do that and constantly looking for ways we can be even better at it.
Heather McKay
By the end of this month, I’ll have been at Distinctive for a whole year. It’s flown by, and I’ve absorbed so much already. But a particular highlight has been playing a small part in telling the story of Gloucester city centre’s Forum development.
Ben has worked on this flagship project from very early stages – before spades even touched the ground – but joining when I did, as the project approached completion, The Forum was pretty much gift-wrapped for a comms content creator like me.
From the 17-metre tall media screen to the living wall (the largest in the south west), to smashing its social value targets, there has been so much to say about this award-winning project.
It’s gone from strength to strength in recent months, welcoming co-working space Patch, who have put their unique stamp on the space, and bringing it to life with bustling events and workshops (DJ-ing for beginners? Sounds baths? Yes please!)
We recently helped The Forum celebrate its official opening, securing media coverage across Gloucester. It felt like a significant moment for both the project team and for the city itself, which feels like it’s on the cusp of a really exciting new chapter. Watch this space for more…
Katie Witcombe
At Distinctive, we’re lucky enough to work with organisations that are powered by purpose. From place-makers and skills-specialists to community-builders, our clients create real, positive change within the South-West and beyond.
One of my most rewarding experiences over the last few years has been supporting CIC Community of Purpose to share the impact of their transformative outreach programmes. We were lucky enough to be invited along to the Bristol Young Heroes Awards, organised by CoP, where the great and the good of Bristol came together to celebrate some of the city’s most remarkable young people.
Nominees were given a vital platform to share their stories: many had overcome huge challenges to achieve great things or found new ways to give back to their local communities.
It was a deeply humbling – and inspiring – evening. It was also a reminder that storytelling is so often the key to unlocking new opportunities, and shedding light on the issues that really matter. Here’s to helping our clients find the words to make their projects sing!
Ryan Devlin
What I enjoy about being at Distinctive is how we support our clients and communities through our engagement work… and it’s all about trust.
We are working on some brilliant projects, and our early intervention and community-centred activity is helping clients to solve those dreaded – and sometimes costly – headaches, as it builds trust between developers and communities.
That builds the support needed to bring schemes forward, which means our clients trust us to help them navigate the planning process successfully… and that’s how we roll at Distinctive.
Ben Lowndes
Memories are a funny thing. They catch the little moments and disregard the bigger picture. But, ultimately, they make us who we are. It’s very hard to pick one moment from the last year, so I’m going for two.
If I was to pick a client moment that isn’t listed above, a public fundraising event at the restored Underfall Yard in Bristol would be the most emotional.
A wonderful place on Bristol Harbour, terribly damaged by fire three years ago. I remember the call from trustees seeking advice after the fire happened. Seeing the yard literally rise from the ashes with hundreds of people celebrating its success brought a tear to my eye. I was there on Friday and it was brilliant to see the place busy as restoration work happened on site.
More specifically, I’ve had my own set of moments which help me to see more clearly that what we do matters. Conversations with people I respect. Together, they feed a sense that ‘purpose’ isn’t a slogan to us. Our work makes a positive difference.
Knowing that helps us to step into our fifth year confidently. We’re ready.
The image in the header is by Makarios Tang on Unsplash.
Written by
Heather McKay
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