EP 130: Gerry Hopkinson Sold His Agency, Stayed Five Years, And Became A Cultural Strategist
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How did Gerry Hopkinson sell Unity and stay on for five years?
You had an agency for twenty years. First of all, that's amazing.
Unity started in we started Unity in twenty uh two thousand five.
This amazes me like with with brands that move away from like the old school. A
lot of marketing directors go and go, I don't wanna follow you know, I'm gonna change it up. Like you'd be mad to change it up. When I talk about innovation I mean if you take a brand like KFC. It's about the chicken, stupid.
Although your Pizza Express example is is a good example of where if you test it,
you can get it right. What we did was we created what we ended up calling a living lab. So we took over Pizza Express Enrichment. So we said, look, we're going to re- we want to reimagine Pizza Express and we need your help.
Jerry Hopkinson, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much. Nice to be here.
You had an agency for 20 years. First of all, that's amazing. Anybody that can have an agency for 20 years needs needs a trophy, I think. Um, but for me, uh, Will and I have never we haven't really consulted on selling the business and and getting out, but I've heard it's it's it can be quite a painful process. However, you stayed for five years, which is really impressive. Like after you sold the business. So how did that come about and how Was it being a an owner, an entrepreneur, and then selling out and staying for five years?
Absolutely. So look, I'd thank you. I'll I'll try to d explain all that um fairly quickly. It's it's just this is my story. It probably will, you know, resonate with a lot of people listening if they've done similar things. So actually Unity started in we started Unity in twenty uh two thousand five. And sold in twenty twenty. So actually fifteen years. Still good innings, long time. And then I stuck around for five years. So in not in total it was twenty years, just to to clarify. Um I think look the thing about um I think the thing about selling Is probably a bit in my experience, and the other only talk about my own take on it, it's a bit like a relationship. Um, you know, you can go and date X number of people until one day, you know, you just know.
You you meet the person and you're like, hang on, this feels good, this feels right, where have you been? And In terms of selling, you know, I over the course of the f fifteen years, there were several moments where we were having conversations probably quite, you know. um, light hearted ones with people about, oh, you know, we ought to buy you, you ought to sell to us, blah, blah, blah. We ought to merge. You know, those kind of things, as you know, in Asian C life, they come up for whatever reason. But actively in in twenty nineteen. I started to lean into looking. for uh an investment in the agency and probably looking for someone to buy it outright. Um and I sp uh had a short list, spoke to a few people, and as luck would have it, um some two guys who I knew very well were on the lookout um and and had s started a group called Selby Anderson, who I sold to
They were called Dom Hawes and Simon Quarrendon, um, both of whom understood PR very well, but also understood marketing, understood agencies, and understood the other side of the equation, finance. They'd brought together some private equity and had capitalized uh that group, had purchased a number of agencies already, so I wasn't a guinea pig. Um and importantly, as I say, We knew each other. Uh in fact Dawn was a client way back when at a previous agency called Bandon Brown Back in the day. So we knew each other and I known Simon from awards dues and things and pitches 'cause he you know, he worked at a uh I think it was I'm gonna say Ketchum might have been Edelman, I can't remember. He'll kill me for not remembering, but I can't remember.
Anyway, um, so we got on really well. Um I was ready to go. I had a succession plan, which was some the advice that I got from friends who had sold previously. Is like, look, you know, a couple of things you really need to be clear about. One is how if If you're prepared to stick around and for how long? What are your kind of absolute deal breakers, if you have any?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Gerry Hopkinson sell Unity and stay on for five years?
0:00–13:10
2
How does cultural strategy help brands connect with society and culture?
13:10–16:34
3
How did Pizza Express rebuild its cultural relevance?
16:34–24:32
4
How did Pizza Express use a customer-led living lab to redesign its restaurants?
24:32–29:55
5
What makes restaurant innovation distinctive and valuable to customers?
29:55–37:13
6
How did Absinthe grow by 300%, and why did Gerry regret leaving the client?
37:13–44:07
7
What does Gerry Hopkinson do now as a cultural strategist and advisor?
44:07–51:25
8
Why should brands start with customer research instead of testing a finished idea?
51:25–56:41
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