It’s been on our radar pretty much since I started at Advance that we wanted us to do something “more” with our online presence. But if you’ve ever tried to capture the essence of a people-led, values-driven business in a few short, sharp words and images you’ll know it’s a daunting task!

We coined the phrase “we are a P2P business, not a B2B business” a while back (P2P is person to person!) and that is – to me – critically important to our vision, values and the brand that we create from that.

We had already worked with the team at nu creative before, supporting one of our clients, and when the time came to find a partner to help us on this online journey of discovery, they became the obvious choice. A journey that started back in September 2021 is now coming to fruition as we launch not just a new website but a whole vision for the future of Advance, #weareaadvance.

It’s been a humbling and a real learning journey for me to have others challenge us and help us create a relevant, fresh future context for the Advance brand and what it means to us – but more importantly – to our clients.

But this is just an ongoing development of a journey that began for Advance back in 1993, a year that – coincidentally – saw me take up my own first “proper job”. Back in 1993 Norman Kerfoot had a vision that teams and individuals working effectively together – working collaboratively – could “do better things”. Those early days, the seminal project in alliancing and collaborative working of BP Andrew, led to the values-driven business we are today, having weathered many storms to more than “just survive” but continue to thrive.

So what….? You ask, why bother?

Because we are passionate about what we do, how we do it and the value we believe we can bring to our clients – many of whom we know as individuals and work with over many years. And we believe we can offer that to a wider, more diverse client base.

Our website is the visible product that we now have – but its more than that – it’s the base, the anchor for the broader Advance brand and vision. Nu have helped us create what we now call our 8 commandments. We’ll share these with you over the coming weeks but I want to finish this blog and start sharing them with you with the first and most important:

We Listen.

Yes, we have a wide range of experiences and a wealth of evidence and information to share with you to support you in meeting your challenges, but none of that is worth anything to you if we don’t take the time to listen and understand.

We don’t thrust a standard plan or solution on you – everything we do is tailored to your circumstances, wants and needs. That’s why the first section of any of our project outlines and proposals is “Our Understanding of the Situation” where we lay out what we think we have heard in our own words to ensure we understand the context our Sponsors and teams are working in before we even think about co-developing scope and solutions.

We are Advance. We Listen. Come and Speak to us.