Making waves around the globe, TIDAL Digital have proven a force to be reckoned with in the world of digital marketing. Founded by British duo Simon Lomas and Liam Troughton, they took their combined knowledge of the industry and created something new, from the ground up.
With a solid understanding of what it takes to be a success in the business, they have pushed the boundaries of possibility on a shoe-string budget and with skeleton staff. What has grown from these carefully planted and nurtured seeds, is a performance based digital marketing outfit with a global reach. They employ over 20 staff in 3 different countries and have a client list which features many household names.
Bringing out the best in both results for clients and the abilities of his staff, Simon combines innovation with experience and creativity to stay ahead of the competition. We caught up with him to explore the mind behind this multi-award winning, Dubai born digital marketing phenomenon.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
TIDAL was formed in 2019 by myself (Simon Lomas) and Liam Troughton. We’re old friends from university who both worked at a global agency just outside of Manchester in the UK. Liam specialises in SEO and content marketing, and I specialise in Paid Media.
We both ended up in Dubai and had various roles at different companies. We were both underwhelmed with the agencies we were working with and felt that with our experience, coming from a global agency in the UK, we could provide a much better level of service and drive better results than most of the agencies in the Middle East. Based on that, we both quit our jobs and set up TIDAL.
Over the last 3 years, we’ve gone from strength to strength. We have an office in Dubai, full-time members of staff in 3 countries and some of the world’s biggest brands as our clients.
What are your goals?
First and foremost, it’s to make sure we stick to the original principles the agency was founded upon; deliver world-class service and drive results for our clients.
After that, we want to build a business with an exceptional culture and where our employees like to work.
If we succeed with the above, the rest will care of itself.
What is your and your company’s biggest strength?
Our team. The team of people representing TIDAL are the agency’s beating heart. They help Liam and I implement our vision and they give us 110% on a daily basis. Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The COVID pandemic was a huge challenge for us to overcome. It hit during the first year of us running TIDAL, and with so much uncertainty, many clients either thought about cancelling or cancelled contracts. We did manage to navigate through the first few months of lockdown and came out the other end stronger. Many businesses looked to push hard with their online offering post-COVID, and by that time we had a solid performance marketing solution ready for clients to utilise and help them get back on their feet.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
Performance.
What makes you excited about Mondays?
We have a strong team at TIDAL, and we offer them a flexible approach to working, whether from home or the office. We’ve removed the 9-5 corporate attitude from our workplace, which helps alleviate workplace-related stress, particularly on Mondays. This enables a constant jovial attitude within the agency and ensures we get the most out of our team’s talent. Getting to work with such a great and talented group of people is what we really look forward to on a daily basis, not just on Mondays.
We also have a great group of clients, some of whom have become more like friends than clients over time. We pride ourselves on maintaining a close relationship with our clients, and this is something that inspires us to perform our best work. Working with them to scale their businesses is hugely rewarding on a personal and professional level.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
The aspect we value the most is our ambition to empower our employees rather than micro-manage them. We feel this helps our team grow and develop much faster, gives them a sense of responsibility, and makes them feel much more valued. We always encourage our team to try and fail, than not try at all.
What are your company’s strategies, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
I can’t comment on our competitors’ strategies, and I don’t even know what their strategies are. We’re 100% focused on what we’re doing as an agency and how we can improve on a daily basis.
As mentioned before, Liam and I are totally committed to building a sustainable business that our employees enjoy working for. If we achieve this, our growth targets will take care of themselves.
What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
There are multiple benefits of working with TIDAL. We’ve gained a reputation within the industry for helping Start-Ups and SMEs scale very quickly through integrated performance marketing strategies.
As we’re still a small agency (in the grand scheme of things), we’re very agile and can be very reactive. The size of our agency also allows me and Liam to be very involved in our client work. As far as I know, this is quite a big USP for TIDAL and something our clients really appreciate.
How can we find out more about TIDAL and get in touch?
Go to our website by visiting https://www.tidal.digital/, complete the contact form on https://www.tidal.digital/contact/ and either myself or Liam will get back to you to arrange an introductory call.
Connect with TIDAL on LinkedIn.