Chief People & Purpose Officer, Bicycle London - 'Our culture is our secret weapon'

To anyone not familiar with the way new, independent advertising/PR agencies tend to appear on the market place, the typical genesis tends to go something like this: People who have worked in ad-land all their lives become disenchanted with the ‘big agency’ all-controlling, ‘no-fun’ model (often pushing back on likes of Omnicom, WPP, Publicis etc.). They want to work somewhere that’s more fun, more customer-centric, more how things used to be. Cue, up-sticking and deciding to create a brand new exciting agency of their own – one completely aligned to their own [in their eyes], much better vision.

The model is so predictable (and such a poor reflection of the way existing big groups operate), that dozens of new ventures start every year. But while lots of new businesses appear, not a lot tend to make it, and those that do also drift back to old established ways of working. The experiment to ‘be different’ might have appeared like a good idea, but ideas still need to make money.

Riding high

But one company that has challenged the old guard model, and is determined to stay that bright and vibrant company is independent London-based media agency, Bicycle – one which has as its mission statement, a vision for being ‘the newest version of the oldest model.’

Founded in 2021 by – you guessed it – ‘four people who believed that a better type of media and comms agency wasn’t just possible, but needed,’ [their words not ours], the agency says it seeks to ‘leave the industry better than we found it’. It also says it wants to do ‘impactful work that you want to tell your mum about’ and most importantly, it promises that it will allow people to ‘have fun doing it’.

But if all this sounds like another piece of clever copywriting, this is one business where lofty mission statements actually have substance to it – thanks to bringing in an HR resource – initially just to set up the basics, but who transitioned to being the agency’s dedicated Chief People & Purpose Officer – when it was just 22-people strong (it’s 60 today).

That man is Mark Pavlika (Pav). Having also served his time at the bigger, more faceless agencies (including at Omnicom-owned Alcone Marketing Group as HR & Finance Director, and later COO), he says he’s also relishing the chance to develop and build a culture that actually fits modern employee sentiments (and yes, most of the staff are Gen Z).

We do things properly

“In the networks (those big mega-groups that own lots of other agencies), you sell your soul working there,” he says, of his ten years in Omnicom. “And while things might be good when everything’s going well, at the first sign of trouble, they chew you up and spit you out,” he says. “The experience actually make me change career!” he says, “I re-trained as a coach, and mentor, and became a board trustee of a youth centre. But,” he continues: “in 2023 I was introduced to the founders, and as someone who describes himself as a ‘left of centre HR person’ I was lucky enough to be given the brief to actually create, and build, and develop a brand new employee culture.”