Company that is coming into full Bloom in age of Big Data

As the world continues to digitise, the opportunities for business are endless.

The term ‘Big Data’ has been bandied about with relish by tech firms looking to create more connected experiences.

However, there’s the large elephant in the room of trying to preserve people’s privacy, while simultaneously looking to use the ever increasing streams of data for good.

Alex Craven, CEO of Bloom Agency, a Leeds-based digital marketing firm, is hoping to provide the answer.

“As the world digitises all our interactions leave bits of data. Whether that’s walking through the doors of a shop, using a credit card, logging on to social media or making a phone call,” says Mr Craven.

He added: “If it is managed correctly and not in a scary Big Brother way it can be used to benefit individuals and also society, enabling us to make marketing and advertising communications a lot more intelligent and targeted.

“If you look at Facebook as a platform for instance, we can target advertising messages to people that are genuinely relevant to them rather than hoping that a small percentage of the people who you broadcast to might be interested in that.”

While on the surface access to large streams of data sounds like a good idea, there are challenges.

“It can sound quite scary to have all this data available to us. Rightly or wrongly certain press are particularly sensitive to privacy issues,” Mr Craven says.

In order to deal with this sensitive issue, Mr Craven recently launched Our Data Mutual.

He said: “We were thinking about what would be the right way to handle this for society. What we didn’t think would be right was if you created an organisation like Google who started handling all your data for shareholder benefit.

“Equally, there’s been a lot of surveys into who we trust to handle our data. We don’t want Government to handle our data because that could get a bit draconian.”

Having done a lot of work with mutuals in the past, it struck Mr Craven that a citizen-owned organisation that handled the data was the way forward.

“The problem with us launching a mutual is funding it because you can’t go to traditional venture capital sources,” he said.

Mr Craven added that they have put in a Horizon 2020 bid to try and fund the organisation.

The boss of Bloom says data at the moment is being underutilised across all sectors, including digital marketing.

But he added that data is one of Yorkshire’s greatest strengths and that digital will play an “extremely important” role in the Northern Powerhouse.

He said: “We have many strengths in the North. The one that I’m closest to is obviously digital and on this side of the Pennines we’re particularly strong on data.”

This fact is highlighted by the presence of medtech organisations such as HSCIC, which created the NHS’s digital backbone, Emis and TPP, says Mr Craven.

He added that more needed to be done to showcase the region’s digital capabilities.

Mr Craven said: “The main thing is lack of awareness within and outside the region of just how much is going on here.

“If we shine a spotlight on just how much is going on here it would really impress people, not just across the nation but also internationally.”

The creation of the NHS Spine 2 system being a prime example.

Medtech and fintech are two areas that Bloom is looking to get more involved with.

Mr Craven said the marketing world can play a positive role. For example, he says, they could help predict and possibly even prevent type two diabetes by analysing people’s shopping habits and incentivising positive changes to their lifestyle.

However, it comes back to the point of how it can be done without being Big Brother and getting people to consent.

Bloom was launched by Mr Craven and a few friends in 1999, when the internet was really taking off, after he graduated with a degree in philosophy. Since then the company has come a long way and experienced the highs and lows.

For Mr Craven the low point came in 2013, when Bloom lost a range of contracts which led to 13 staff redundancies.

He describes the experience as “horrible” and says that “it’s not something you go into business for”.

A high point for the tech boss has been learning from the board of directors.

He said: “The board of directors are all older and wiser than I am, from different parts of the marketing mix and bringing those people into the business and learning stuff from them has been a real high point for me.”

They have provided clarity as to what the business is all about and helped Bloom position itself as an agency capable of delivering fully integrated campaigns, he added.

The future maybe sunnier for Bloom. Not least as the agency, which today employs 38 staff and has a turnover of £3.2m, has just secured a contract in Sydney.

The firm is also looking to add to its staff with a number of vacancies going live, says Mr Craven.

In the crowded digital marketing sector, Bloom says it differentiates itself through its products.

The firm has various digital intelligence tools such as Whisper, which identifies a brand’s influencers.

The company has become quite good at innovating says Mr Craven. It’s in their CEO’s nature.

“I get bored very quickly,” explains Mr Craven.

Like many tech entrepreneurs, Mr Craven says he never set up Bloom as a lifestyle business.

“I’ve always planned to exit at some point,” he says.

“I’m not trying to build a lifestyle business where I’ll earn until I retire. The point has always been to grow it into something that looks really interesting that somebody wants to recognise financially.”

Though he insists talk of an immediate exit would be premature.

Alex Craven factfile

Title: CEO, Bloom

Date of birth: 1976

Lives: Leeds

Favourite holiday destination: Barcelona

Last book read: Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

Favourite film: Blade Runner

Favourite song: n-Joi anthem

Car driven: Audi SQ5

Most proud of: Bloom, Whisper, working and playing hard and being surrounded by good friends and people I love.

Education: Liverpool Uni - Philosophy degree