Jeff’s funnies on BBC Radio Manchester
One thing Matmi is very proud of is its unusual location – for a creative agency. We’re not in London or New York (yet), but in our home town of Macclesfield in Cheshire. So when we got the call from BBC Radio Manchester to join their weekly Manchester Business programme, we were delighted!
Our local Chamber of Commerce (you’re a star, John Walding) had suggested they take a closer look at this strange, growing North West company dealing with the likes of Gorillaz and Iron Maiden – so they did! Presenter, Steve Saul, lined Jeff up for a slot yesterday and he duly arrived at the World Heritage site (joke… ) that is the BBC on Oxford Road in Manchester.
Despite the temptation to open every door lining the corridors and shout “Fire!” to the people inside, Jeff made it safely to the studio with Richard Stead, host of the programme while Steve was on holiday.
The first funny thing was listening to Richard and Jeff decide what kind of company Matmi is. Introduced as a ‘digital agency’ then given the label ‘computer games company’, Jeff decided to bamboozle Richard with our specialist title of ‘branded entertainment and digital engagement.’ Good on you, Jeff; it got a laugh!
The second funny thing for the Matmi audience listening in was hearing the cogs of Jeff’s brain tick as he tried desperately to talk without swearing. I have to say, the result was brilliant; he sounded very well spoken, and he wasn’t talking at 100mph as usual because he was having to think.
The third funny was hearing Jeff say to a quarter-of-a-million people that he was going on management training because we’re growing so quickly. He is. Enough said. And along the way, Jeff unashamedly (but very naturally) plugged Monster Pinball, Comic Relief, United Airlines, Iron Maiden, Gorillaz, Vimto, Cancer Research and Ho Ho Ho Yellow Snow.
Credit to Richard and the team at BBC Manchester though – they fielded Jeff some great questions and it was obvious they’d done their homework. We found out later that they’d even pulled a song from the schedule to get some more time in the interview. Hats off to you guys, thank you and let’s keep in touch.
But the killer line for me, the person with the title of ‘Public Relations’ on her business card was hearing my MD say “We don’t market ourselves.” Of course we don’t (now that I’ve obviously got the boot….).
So if anyone wants to find out about Matmi in a nutshell – and Jeff not marketing us – click here, 16 minutes 35 seconds in (to be precise) and have a listen while I pack my desk… . It’s a perfect 8 minute snapshot of the magic of Matmi.
Enjoy. Penny.
August 2010