Sam Morton: Being creative in business

Aug 21 2009 By Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

AS REASONS for starting up your own business go, being unable to find a suitable job would seem like a brave move – particularly when you’re only 25.

Sam Morton formed Twenty First Century Media in 2002 with business partner Casper Berry, then an actor with Byker Grove on his Equity CV. The fact that Casper later went off on his own to play poker for a living perfectly illustrates the competitive world the fledgling business had joined.

The company has since grown to be one of the North East’s most creative and progressive providers of digital media production – television adverts, online video, corporate and sales training and web television – and now employs 31 staff divided between its Jesmond, Newcastle, headquarters and offices in London, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

“Now Casper does talks about poker and calculated risk,” says Sam.

“Nick Imrie joined from the Leighton Group as marketing director and after that we grew quite quickly over a period of about four years, working in communication for business, internet communication, mobile phone technology, video production processes and training.

“We even developed our own software that standardised all our processes, apart for the creative bit.”

Twenty First Century’s client list reads like a roll-call of the nation’s highest-profile names and includes corporate and public sector organisations
such as Nike, Sage, Nestlé, Lego, The Prince’s Trust, the NHS (and conversely, Imperial Tobacco) as well as small independent businesses and six regional development agencies around the country.

Sam says: “We realised we had to have talented staff if we were going to bring business to the North East, but to be a real success you have to look beyond the region to big London companies. We do a lot of work with creative agencies, not just cheaper – that only gets you so far.

“You have to be good if you want to get the best people back to the North East or expect them to leave London. We’ve also been able to get good young graduates and shape them – staff from sales to editorial production managers and animators. We turned out 200 films last year, which includes safety DVDs for the Highways Agency, Northumbria University and web television for the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

“There’s a lot of talent in the North East. Companies like Mere Mortals and Different are turning out very impressive work and it’s important that people are seen to be talking and thinking about this region. A lot of companies are very, very good at what they do and are bringing big clients here, but put them together and it makes us very strong. It’s important that we’re represented. We’re doing a really good job at that and would do even better if everybody spoke a bit more. Hoults Estate (the creative hub in the east end of Newcastle) wasn’t here five or six years ago, now it’s great. It keeps you on your toes.”

This attitude and impressive track record brought Twenty First Century Media to the attention of Ten Alps, a multi-media, AIM-listed company founded by Bob Geldof and with an annual turnover of £81m. Last year Sam and Nick sold their business in a £750,000 deal which will allow them to move into a substantial new market still in its infancy and where the surface has only been scratched. However, the two entrepreneurs continue the day-to-day running of the business.

Sam says: “We have a really good young staff and run the company in complete autonomy within Ten Alps, which is a big cushion. Most people running a business don’t like the idea of working for someone else, it doesn’t appeal. What spurs you on is the thought of what can we do when it’s part of something bigger.

“It was a good opportunity for us not to be fighting big organisations like that and to be able to grow our business, to keep our staff and get into companies like BT. I’ve been building this from the age of 25 and to now be working with huge plcs is quite a challenge. We have grown bigger and quicker than we anticipated which led to some very good work and good clients. We’ve witnessed strong increases in demand for our video propositions in recent months across the business-to-business and public sectors.

“We always had a five-year plan to be sold and it happened in five-and-a-half. It’s still a bit scary employing people, all those people we’re in charge of with mortgages. They buy into our promise and our vision but we’ve still got to deliver with Ten Alps – it’s not the challenge any more of chasing money but we’ve got an £80m business sitting behind us. It’s a huge weight off your shoulders and a bit of security.”

Ten Alps knew they had been in serious discussions over the sale and if they ever thought that buying a small business in the North East would be easy, they certainly felt the force of a hard bargain – and the most senior member of the team.

“Ten Alps had grown by acquiring publishing companies, television and radio documentary companies and online television,” says Sam. “It was really ahead of the game – that’s where we came in. My dad was always telling me to work for myself – he was finance director at ACC Dairies at 33, so we got him in to do the deal. He wasn’t fazed by it at all.”