At Spire, it’s more than just elevating B2B brands and award-winning work that makes our agency special. It’s the culture that makes our shop one-of-a-kind. And we’re not just talking about golf outings, Spotify playlists, horse races and poker nights, though we do all of those. Company culture is really about the shared values, attributes, and characteristics of an organization. And ours is welcoming, inclusive, celebratory, award-winning, and embraces continual improvement.
Unfortunately, it has become hard to tell if companies today care more about people or just profits. And is their purpose focused on improving the world or simply improving the bottom line?
Spire stresses from our initial interview process that being a cultural fit is just as important as your accolades and resume. We’re a culture of motivated doers who care about each other, people who laugh together and celebrate the special moments in life—inside and outside the office. Most importantly, we’re a team that respects each other’s differences and embraces them.
Working in the advertising industry, it’s our job to tap into our targets’ hearts and minds, and be experts in their wants, needs, and even pain points. B2B research firm SiriusDecisions found that 80% of purchasing decisions are based on the buyers’ experience with the brand, only 20% is based on price or the actual offering. That’s why emotion is so important in connecting with people—in the B2B world and the world at large.
Through our various internal Slack channels, we often post about things that inspire, astound, and move us. So we thought we might bring some of that emotion to life through a new Instagram Stories feature called Spire Inspired. A recent Gartner study found that 56% of employees said COVID made them want to contribute more to society. We couldn’t agree more.
The idea is to spotlight inspirational people, both today and from the past, who bring a unique perspective to the world. They will represent racial, cultural, age, gender, sexual orientation, and disability diversity. In the first couple of months, our plan is to focus on Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Diversity Month, and Deaf History Month.
Celebrating different cultures in this way is not only meant to educate our followers, but also to broaden our own perspectives of the different cultures that inspire our work every day. Spire is powered by diverse voices and minds that enter every brainstorm session, lead every business pitch, and touch every piece of content produced. Culture and diversity are something that we not only want to celebrate inside of our agency walls, but also something that can celebrate with the rest of the world.
Younger generations are highlighting the importance of diversity in their places of work, with 85% of millennial females saying they heavily considered prospective employers’ policies on diversity, equality, and inclusion before accepting a job, according to PWC. And a recent *Forbes *article discussed how having diversity in the workplace make employees more innovative, creative, happier, and even more productive. Having a diverse environment not only benefits a business but is also likely to attract the best talent out there.
Spire Inspired is a small way we can become informed while promoting positivity and change in the world. As an agency and as individuals, we should always be looking for new ways to grow. How do we grow our business as an agency? How do we grow as a team? And most importantly, how do we grow as people? Being informed and open-minded helps open up the imagination, and that’s when great things happen.
Follow us on Instagram to be part of the Spire Inspired feature.
Caitlyn Pobee is a Senior Account Executive at Spire – Texas’ most-awarded B2B branding agency. And to stay up to date on agency news, awards, and blog posts, subscribe to our Spire Wire newsletter.