Why Factor 3?//

From time to time, we get asked ‘why Factor 3?’ Sometimes people are asking why we’re called Factor 3 – literally, where did the name come from – but often the enquiry is commercial, rather than just inquisitive: ‘Why should I use Factor 3 – what makes you different and better?’

So, let’s answer each in turn for the record.

Factor 3 was established 26 years ago by three fine gentlemen named Fairburn, Crane and Turner. So, there you have the 3. The three’s initials then became the ingredients for the alchemy of creating a fitting name. After sifting through every word containing F, C and T that the Oxford dictionary had to offer back in 1996, ‘factor’ was named the winner. ‘An element that contributes to a particular result’ seemed an extremely apposite definition of a company creating marketing communications, especially given that it was never just about creating beautiful or even award-winning work; it was about creating work that works. The fact that the name is just as fitting today as it was 26 years ago is testament to its quality.

The answer to ‘what makes Factor 3 different and better?’ is, as happenstance would have it, also a story of three factors: Understand. Create. Deliver. These are the three distinct factors that typify the Factor 3 way and, as a package, make us uniquely and compellingly, well, us.

1. UNDERSTAND

When standing at the centre of any new marketing task, there are 360 different directions that you can run off in. We will ask for as much information and do as much groundwork as possible to understand the product, the market and the customers, so that we can build the best strategic springboard – pointing in precisely the right direction – for the creative team to jump off. Being creatively brilliant, and successfully dramatizing the wrong strategic message, is like whistling in the wind. So, be prepared to answer some pretty searching questions about how and why you’re doing what you’re doing, what you know about your intended audience, and what you’re hoping to achieve. Not because we like to be objectionable, but because the big, bad outside world doesn’t have the time or patience for poorly conceived and badly executed marketing. It will just be brushed aside – budget well and truly burnt. We’re not interested in tick-box marketing; we’re interested in mission accomplished.

2. CREATE

As far as we’re concerned, creativity is the price of entry in this game; it’s the lifeblood of any agency. If you don’t feel that your agency can cut it creatively, ‘Houston, you have a problem’. At Factor 3, we believe you should be surprised and excited by your agency’s creative output, time and time again, day after day, not just wooed in the honeymoon period. Our best and brightest are not a select few; they are each and every one of our people. As an integrated creative agency, we encourage creativity to flow through every individual and into every corner of the agency; it’s not caged up and confined to ‘the creative department’. The unique flair in every individual is identified, nurtured and deployed to maximum effect. So the big ideas are just as likely to pop up on a piece of DM or in your social strategy, as they are on a rebrand or big-budget product launch.

3. DELIVER

We are as obsessive about service as we are about the other two factors. All too often, accounts are won on creativity and lost on service. We deliver to the same high standard with absolute reliability and accuracy, within a relationship and process that we endeavour to make both interesting and enjoyable. Your agency should get better over time – as the knowledge and relationship deepens – not more apathetic. If it’s given to us, it will be done, without question. You won’t have to wonder where something is up to, when you might get it, when you’ll get a response to your email or a call back, whether the work will be right or full of errors. We’re on the hunt for agency awards that are based on service delivery, accuracy and client relationships. We reckon we’d clear up.

So, now you know why Factor 3 – on both fronts. If you like what you hear, or at least the idea of it, we’d love to get the chance to prove our worth. Take a look at some of our favourite projects, or get in touch and give us the chance to prove that our walk is just as good as our talk.