Fox&Cat has relaunched with its new people-first, senior consultant operating model and bespoke planning framework, ADAPT™. The agency’s lean model means it can deliver award-winning programmes and campaigns at market-leading value, resource itself at speed with the right team, all while minimising the risk of team or client overtime, stress or burnout.
Fox&Cat established* that in-house communications teams in healthcare were needing to prioritise communications in a rapidly changing and more heavily scrutinised environment, yet with teams shrinking in size and seniority. Budget spend was being closely investigated by procurement teams to ensure best value at a time where workloads, restructures and business demands were causing additional pressures. Year-on-year, almost 8 in 10 people working in communications suffer from significant levels of stress.
Responding to this, Fox&Cat created and piloted ADAPT; a new dual-focused planning framework that parallels the importance of effective, efficient and amicable ways of delivering work with creating award-winning campaigns and programmes. The model introduces a behaviour-change approach to ensure the client-agency partnership constantly thrives.
ADAPT was created alongside in-house teams, a behaviour change expert, and a wellbeing coach. This process ensured the framework could identify cost-effective, resource-efficient, and stress-minimised methods of programme delivery based on each client’s unique situation. ADAPT sits at the heart of Fox&Cat’s new client-agency partnership proposition ‘Deliver Clever, Stronger Together’.
Paul Hutchings (pictured), founder of Fox&Cat, said: “We appreciate how much pressure clients are under to deliver high-value work at lower cost. One of the lesser-known benefits of working with a senior consultant agency that has limited overheads is that we can deliver award-winning communications work incredibly efficiently, effectively and competitively.”
Fox&Cat has been soft-testing ADAPT and its new business model for the past six months achieving 97 per cent and 90 per cent satisfaction from its clients and network, respectively. Clients highlighted, in particular, that Fox&Cat delivered on time and to scope, provided excellent strategic counsel, worked in a way that they wanted and needed, that the Fox&Cat team was right for their brief, and that they noted a reduction in their own stress.
Michael Ho, franchise manager from Consilient Health said: “I can’t thank Fox&Cat enough for their support. They were a great fit to our team, understanding our needs and the way we work, delivering excellent results under extreme time pressures.”
To mark the relaunch, Fox&Cat has also undergone a rebrand, where its logo now focuses on the “&” sign. To Fox&Cat, this represents the non-negotiable importance and value of the relationship between Fox&Cat and its clients, its affiliate partners and its network.
Morgan Lewis from the Fox&Cat network said: “Fox&Cat provides the perfect balance between freedom and belonging. The passion and the focus on excellence, collaboration and team wellness makes Fox&Cat a brilliant agency partner for me.”
Fox&Cat has won eight awards and accolades since summer 2023 for its agency model and pro bono work. Among these, it is SME Best Healthcare Communications Agency of the Year 2024, PR Week Consultancy of the Year, Bronze and Silver badge winner at PM Society Digital Awards 2023, and is listed as one of PR Weeks’ top agencies to watch in 2024.
*Fox&Cat’s client research included speaking to 12 in-house individuals (prospects and current) from communications and procurement functions, surveys to clients and network members, running four strategy and brand planning meetings across the network and with its partners. This took place between June 2023 and January 2024.
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