Fluid at 20: Twenty special stories

Phil
By Phil Harvey
November 2023
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Fluid at 20

It may sound twee, but without our team, we are nothing. Every bit of creativity. Every campaign delivered. Every brand. Every website. Every bit of code, every second of footage, every cup of tea. It’s all down to the passion and dedication of the team we’ve built here at Fluid. So it’s only right we tell the Fluid story through their eyes. 

So here’s twenty proud projects and memorable moments, as told by our team…

#1 – Becoming Culture “Queen”

My proudest moment at Fluid so far is when I was crowned the first-ever “culture champion” of the year! I'd only been at Fluid for a year and a half and I know Fluid is very proud of its people and culture, so to receive this so early in my Fluid journey I was incredibly honoured and thrilled to bits.
– Jess J, Campaigns & Content

#2 – A place to thrive

I became Fluid’s first inhouse photographer back in 2019. It was my first industry role since graduating, so naturally I was unsure of what to expect, yet determined to use the opportunity to further my skills and bring a new specialism to the wider team. With the guidance of Dan and others, I have been able to develop and thrive as a photographer at Fluid, and I’ll never forget the time I felt truly settled in my role, having taken creative control on a solo shoot for a client, and then receiving the most wonderful feedback from them. I’m proud of how our specialism has grown, and the exciting projects we continue to secure.
– Bec, Production & Visualisation

#3 – Monkey & Mia

I just loved being part for the team that created this gem for Northwood, a national estate agency in the UK. The advert centred around the idea of Northwood agents going over and above, and culminated in the moving story of Monkey & Mia. It brought together many of Fluid specialisms – script writing, videography, CGI, video editing – and I know it is a proud project for many. It was a joy to work on, and one of my favourite Fluid experiences.
– Carrie, Associate Partner, Strategy & Creative

#4 – Fluid fundraising

My fondest and proudest memories at Fluid have come from our fundraising efforts, particularly the infamous capsizing of the dragon boat of 2017, as we raced for Rainbow’s Children’s Hospice, or the sky dive we did in memory of our beloved Stine. It’s fair to stay we’ve been imaginative too, with events like the Darley Abbey ghost walks with Richard Felix himself proving very popular – so popular more and more tours were organised and it ran for far longer than we ever expected. Last year, the Fluid elves proudly packed 30 food parcels to support Ukrainian refugee families around Derby in partnership with the Derby County Community Trust. Those elves have been busy preparing for the next charity a fundraising evening with a quiz, charity raffle and live music from our recently formed Fluid choir.
– Dani, Associate Partner, Campaigns & Creative

#5 – Opportunity knocks 

Thinking back to early-days Fluid in the Friar Gate office, and Phil telling me that in the future I could have my own team, working on Barchester and other clients like Barchester too. I struggled to imagine that! Fast forward just a few years and after taking Dani on, then Sel, then Tom, we suddenly had that team - and what a machine that's grown! 
– Laura, Partner

#6 – YHAppy

As a keen traveller, my interest was sparked when an enquiry came from YHA. They wanted a campaign to encourage families to stay in its accommodations in the less-than-desirable British months. We came up with a messaging strategy and creative that championed exploring great British locations in autumn and winter. It’s still to this day one of my favourite campaigns that I have worked on, and it was brilliant to represent Fluid and YHA at the Drum Awards in 2017, where the campaign was highly commended.
– Ben T, Strategy & Creative

See the award-winning campaign here.

YHA poster

#7 – The transformation of a team

I feel proud when I look back at the Websites & Systems team six years ago, and reflect on just how far we’ve come. We actually have project managers (not just Andy!), we’ve never worked on bigger websites, we’re working with new technologies, and we’re helping feed wider agency work rather than it being the other way around.
– Georgia, Websites & Systems

#8 – Going viral with EMR

I’m incredibly proud of the work we did with EMR – achieving the 200+ million impressions on socials throughout our time with them, including a video I took on a whim which received 53.2 million views.
– Poppy, Campaigns & Content

#9 – Let’s sleep together

Working on the Rescue Sleep campaign is my proudest moments because it was one of the first times I really felt the power of our specialisms within Fluid. We assembled so quickly to create a multi-channel campaign that included creating a campaign identity, building a website, defining a social strategy and creating oodles of content (photography, digital PR, animations, display ads, the list went on) – and it all came together so seamlessly. I was really proud of the way we worked together and the results it created within such a short time.
– Sarah, Strategy & Creative

Check out the case study.

#10 – Out in the wild

Often, we work on campaigns and brand roll-outs and events and we never really get to see our designs ‘out in the wild’. I think one of my proudest moments was seeing our work for The Cambridge Building Society in its newest store and head office. You can really see the Fluid ‘stamp’, not just in our amazing CGI animations on signage and digital posters, but in the colours, our furniture suggestions, and the vibrancy in these spaces.
– Lucy, Campaigns & Content

#11 – Growing professionally

One of the main things I am proud of is my growth in confidence in presenting and pitching to clients. OSJCT had a really tough tender process, and ultimately, we pitched to a room full of board-level people. And we smashed it. That pitch win was a big team effort and for me personally, it was super scary. But it all paid off in the end and was a genuinely pivotal moment for me.
– Shelly, Websites & Systems

#12 – From placement to permanent

I came to Fluid for a week's work experience. However, I was delighted when I was asked to stay a little longer on an extended placement. This eventually turned into a full-time, permanent job offer, which I couldn't be more thrilled about. 
– Maisie, Production & Visualisation

#13 – Sending a cow to space

As a bit of a space nerd, when the National Forest Adventure Farm said their annual Maize Maze was going to be themed around the moon landings, the first thing I thought was that little ol' Crumpet (their mascot) needed to head to space. It presented the perfect opportunity to reveal the maze design in a completely unique way, while captivating kids who visit the Farm with a live broadcast of a trip to space. Admittedly the idea of recording in 360 and allowing people to re-live the journey in VR went a bit rogue and induced a touch of motion sickness in visitors... but the whole campaign allowed us to push the boundaries for a client that has consistently trusted Fluid to deliver unexpected wow moments across social.
– Ben M, Associate Partner, Performance & Innovation

#14 – TP1 

I've been lucky enough to work on a number of fantastic projects, but I have to say that the one I'm still most proud of is the TP1 animation for Control Group back in 2017. While the quality of our work has undoubtedly moved on since then, the blend of 2D and stylised 3D animation was completely different to anything we had attempted at that time. I can still vividly remember the client watching it for the first time over my shoulder in the studio and the look of delight on their face afterwards!
– Jamie, Production & Visualisation

#15 – ZeroZilchZip

My favourite projects are those that we get to shape from the start, because we have the most creative freedom. ZeroZilchZip is definitely one of those projects – and it came with huge trust from the client with an idea for a start-up. From naming, branding, web, animation, social and photography, I loved working with the different teams to realise my creative vision on behalf of the client, and seeing it all come to life.
– Anneliese, Strategy & Creative

Take a look at the brand we created.

#16 – Driving results

Working with the team to evolve and enhance our web offering to provide a more optimised and results focussed solution is something I’m extremely proud of. The benefit to our clients is a website that performs better, both from a technical and conversion point of view, which in turns supports visibility, traffic levels and conversion targets to maximise the website ROI.
– Col, Partner, Websites & Systems

#17 – ScreamFest

One of my favourite projects to work on for Fluid is the promotional material for ScreamFest which includes social ads, TikToks, reels and organic posts. It’s my role to come up with social-based video concepts, direct the actors, as well as filming, editing, and designing the content. I love working with the scare-actors to create terrifying and (a lot of the time) comedic sketches to get the public excited for the October scare experiences. The National Forest Adventure Farm team gives us so much free reign on creativity, so it's a really fun for all of us involved, and it's exhilarating to see the views, likes, shares and ticket sales that validate all of our hard work. 
– Vicky, Campaigns & Content

#18 – Over £450m property sold

My proudest achievements come from the close relationships we form with clients, and this can be the case when a client forms a working relationship with a product we've created for them. This is true of our digital sales tool, or DST, which has been in use with various clients since 2013 and has enabled sales and marketing teams to sell over £450m of property to the retirement sector. The longevity and continual improvements this product receives will hopefully see its growth and help us to support more of our partners in the future.
– Andy, Performance & Innovation

#19 – Going out out

I really enjoy our Fluid social events where we really get to know one and other. Everyone takes the time to reach out to people that they may not speak to very much when we're in the studio environment. I also really enjoy going on client visits with other team members. It has a real buzz about it. Great ideas tend to stem from these days out. 
– Liv, Campaigns & Content


 

Fluid party

#20 – The real head-scratchers

Coming from an illustration background, one of my proudest moments was developing a character-based creative strategy to refresh The Cambridge Building Society’s intermediary service brand. The Cambridge has a beautifully playful and wholesome brand, and its characters provide huge scope, opportunity and a truly emotional element to a subject that may otherwise be tricky to communicate. The Cambridge is ‘always up for the challenge’, providing a personal approach, even in the trickiest of financial situations – be that self-employed, rent-to-buy or expat mortgages – you know, the real headscratchers.
– Gail, Strategy & Creative