“Christmas video captures the essence of our combined company”

By Mike Sewell, managing director, CPL One Group

I don’t know if you’ve watched our little Christmas video yet, but it makes me feel slightly emotional.

Put together by Chessie, one of our newest team members, it shows some of the people who make this company tick.

It’s true they are only commenting on their favourite thing about Christmas, after being given pretty much no advance notice to plan what to say.

And it’s true that some can hardly be heard above the din of our Christmas party at the Cambridge Union last week (see picture above). 

But for all the homemade feel of the video (we’re capable of making much posher ones as this showreel proves) – and despite the fact that rather wiser things have been said in that debating chamber over the past few centuries – for me it brings out something of the essence of our company. 

In short, it proves we are on the right lines with our four-word business purpose: “We help people belong.”

Because another important thing about the video is that it features colleagues from CenturyOne, the business that we combined with this summer to create CPL One Group.

Despite all the due diligence one undertakes before completing a deal like that, there is always a sense of risk when you sign on the dotted line. 

Yet I am pleased to say it has been a case of “so far, so very good”. It’s been great to welcome CenturyOne MD Sarah Simpson to the CPL One board and to be working closely and effectively with members of her team.

It has also been a pleasure for me to meet some CenturyOne customers and to see the same commitment to a strong agency-client partnership that has driven our growth over the years.

Over the past few weeks, we have been considering how best to maximise the benefits of bringing the two businesses together; you’ll be hearing more about that in 2023. 

But one thing we know for sure is that “We help people belong” is an ethos that will continue to be at the heart of everything  we do. 

It sums up why we’re in business.

First, in striving to create outstanding content that encourages audiences to feel like they belong to the organisations for which we work.

And second, in fostering an atmosphere that makes us a company where good people feel like they belong.

Now, I am not saying we always get it right and things don’t always run smoothly. 

Arguably, this is not surprising when people in our teams in both St Albans and Cambridge have taken on a number of rewarding but challenging new projects in the past few months, while continuing to deliver – day in day out – for dozens of existing clients.  

We are proud to be accredited with a gold award as one of the best employers in our region, but we don’t ever want to become complacent.

That’s why a big focus for CPL One Group in 2023 will be on continuing to nurture all our team members so they genuinely feel like they belong.

If we can match the spirit that comes across in that little Christmas video, we won’t be doing too badly.
 

To see examples of work being delivered across the CPL One Group, please visit our websites:

• Cabbells

• CenturyOne 

• CPL