Breaking agency silos

How to achieve 30% efficiency gains in your international agency model: The case for breaking down international agency silos

PRWithoutBordersTM is a visionary international operating model developed by Tyto to achieve unprecedented gains in efficiency and quality. The central strategy behind this model is breaking down agency silos wherever possible. There are three types of silos that are unavoidable to the approach of traditional international agencies which Tyto seeks to break down through its PRWithoutBordersTM operating model:

  • Budget silos: The traditional approach to building an international agency is to establish local country operating units. These units work towards their own revenue goals, and local leaders are compelled to optimise “their” budgets. These budget silos get in the way of achieving client communication goals, as clients do not have the flexibility to shift the focus of their programmes as needed. Big launch in the UK? The “German” budget is locked in Germany, and so can’t be added to the efforts to support this key event.
  • Country silos: Local agency subsidiaries often replicate the structures of the HQ. The result from a client perspective is that they have a lead team in their most important market, plus local country teams everywhere. Often, strategies are developed with the lead team, whose responsibility it is to involve and coordinate the local teams. This back and forth is one of the largest causes of inefficiencies in day-to-day international agency life. Insights and local knowledge often get lost at the expense of a coordinated approach, leading to international campaigns failing in certain local markets.
  • Service silos: Budget and country team silos are often amplified in service silos. When traditional international PR agencies build out social media, content and digital marketing capabilities, they often create dedicated teams locally that operate in silos and do not maximise their combined knowledge and expertise. For the clients that pay the bills, this means higher fees and less integrated services. Campaigns that have the potential to support PR, marketing and sales targets are often not designed with a 360° strategy in mind, with silo service leaders preoccupied with their own piece of the puzzle rather than the overall campaign impact.

How Tyto’s PRWithoutBordersTM model breaks down silos

Budget, team or service silos do not exist within Tyto. Each client we support with pan-European communication campaigns has one truly pan-European, multidisciplinary team to support them from day one. While budget flexibility makes it easier to direct efforts where they are needed each month, the lack of country or service silos create immediate efficiencies that increase the ROI of all client campaigns.

There are three fundamental building blocks of Tyto’s silo-breaking model:

  • Round table instead of country pyramids: If a client commissions Tyto to build its reputation across the UK, France and the DACH markets for example, the programme lead and deputy will have deep knowledge about these regions. The pan-European lead team will lead all planning from day one, strategising and designing creative plans together with the client. There is no information loss, local nuances are addressed naturally in the build out process and campaigns are developed in a way that they work in all geographies. As a consequence, content and media execution teams are provided with higher quality input to start with, maximising the impact of our campaigns. We estimate the efficiency gains of our “round table” lead team approach to be 15-20% vs the programme management of traditional agencies. This doesn’t even factor in the savings achieved through minimising campaign failure due to misalignment in traditional international agency approaches.
  • Digital Marketing Hub embedded: Tyto’s digital marketing and design capabilities are integral parts of any campaign that is not exclusively a media relations brief. We consider it a missed opportunity if we did not leverage the storylines and content we develop to win the interest of editorial teams in national, business and specialist media for lead generation and sales support, too. Any campaign we propose therefore includes elements to support all communication disciplines – there is no need to “remember” to involve a remote digital team. Without considering the additional impact we are creating for marketing and sales, we estimate the efficiency gains of this approach at 3-5%.
  • Location agnostic: Our PRWithoutBordersTM operating model is built upon a fully remote location-agnostic employer model. We do not have offices and invest the corresponding savings in the development and rewards for our people. We attract and hire the best of the best, no matter where they live. This creates additional quality and efficiency gains for our clients. We estimate that our leaner location agnostic operating model and the benefits it brings, provides clients with 4-8% further efficiency gains. Here’s how:
    1. High retention rates: Our team retention rate is cumulatively 85% since we launched five years ago. That’s 85% retention in total over five years which is better than most agency could even dream of over 12 months. Therefore, our clients hardly experience any team changes, there is no need to onboard new team members in additional meetings and no efficiency losses due to learning curves.
    2. Client service excellence: Our client Net Promoter Score was at 87 for 2021 and 88 in 2022. Stable high performing client relationships are inherently more efficient than unstable ones as we can plan and run campaigns with a much needed long-term focus.
    3. Senior experienced staff: Our consultants on average have over a decade of industry experience. It is often experienced consultants who feel attracted by our remote model and who immediately “get” the advantages of the PRWithoutBordersTM model because they have experienced the opposite. Experienced consultants produce better results faster, again resulting in additional ROI as we have one flat charge rate and don’t charge out more experienced staff at a premium.
    4. Professional tech stack: Tyto was built for the most efficient digital communications. With everyone working remotely, we had to select the best possible tech stack to foster efficient, engaging communication among teams. However, our clients benefit from this tech stack, too, making our ongoing coordination so much smoother than traditional international agencies.

Silos are inherently inefficient, especially in communications. Today’s modern tech enterprises need to scale their reputations rapidly and efficiently across multiple European markets. Traditional international agencies are not fit for this purpose. Tyto’s PRWithoutBordersTM model is providing clients with a refreshing and purpose-built alternative.

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Shamina Peerboccus

Hello! I am Shamina Peerboccus, Associate Director at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.

What’s your morning routine?

I usually wake-up around 6 in the morning as I like to have some quiet time before starting my day. Being a mother of 3 children, I start answering questions and solving issues as soon as they are awake! Depending on my flow and energy, I can start my day by journaling, drawing, doing a 15 minute yoga session or just brewing some tea and enjoying the calmness of my home in that moment.

How do you organise your day?

I usually prepare my to-do list the day before just before I log-off. When I open my laptop in the morning, I have a good sense of what my focus is for the day. After that, I scan my emails quickly and check my Slack to see if there are any other priorities I should add to my list. As our team is located all over in Europe, we work with different time zones.

I like to ‘eat my frog’ – for those who are not familiar with this concept it’s all about fighting against procrastination! Acting on the most important or pressing item in my to-do list first makes my day easier.

When are you the most productive?

I am a morning person. I tend to do all the most critical tasks and the ones that require the most of my attention by midday.  This is also the time when I have the most energy and I feel the most creative. And it works out well as I have my US-based client calls in the afternoon.

What is your favourite workplace?

I don’t specifically have one set-up that I like the most and that’s what I love about our remote model. I like to work from home, especially when I need a quiet environment, or go to a local coffee shop if I feel a bit more social and can do with external energy to boost my creativity at work. I also work with my colleagues from a co-working space about twice a month.

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?

The list is long! The most practical thing for me is that I can do the school-run without any stress or worries. The fact that I don’t have a commute is such a game changer and I cannot imagine ever going back. I also enjoy homemade lunches and trips to local coffee shops with my partner – as he works from home as well.

Since the lifting of travel restrictions a few months ago, I took advantage and organised some long weekends abroad and enjoyed a totally different environment for work.

Ultimately, the fact that I have the power to balance between my work-life and home-life to my convenience without feeling totally drained at the end of the day, is the best thing I could have asked for.

What do you miss about working in an office?

I miss seeing my colleagues in real life more often. We are such an eclectic team, with different backgrounds and cultures and it is always so interesting meeting with each other. But at Tyto, we have several initiatives that allow us to meet and work in person with a purpose. The Tyto passport gives us the opportunity twice a year to travel and meet with colleagues and work together whenever we feel like it. We also have the option to meet in co-working spaces for those who are in the same location. And finally, we do have big team gatherings twice a year, our famous Hackweeks: these are phenomenal.

What’s your secret weapon?

Deep breathing!

Ghita_Sebbar_Lifestyle

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Ghita Sebbar

Hello! I am Ghita Sebbar, Consultant at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents. 

What’s your morning routine? 

I don’t really have a morning routine, I don’t even have a specific wake-up time, it depends on when I went to bed the night before. But I like to start my day early: I start with a cup of coffee, while listening to the morning radio show.  

I sit down in front of the computer around 8:30 am to do my news review quietly, go through my emails and prepare my to-do list for the day.  

How do you organise your day? 

I’m a bit old school, I like to write everything down by hand: every Monday morning, I prepare my weekly to-do list. So, every morning I review it according to priorities, then follow my news monitoring which is very important. It allows me to be aware of what’s going on in the sector and the world in general, but it’s also a major success tool for my work as a media consultant: I try to identify news-hijacking opportunities for my clients but also to follow who is writing what in each publication.  

And then I’m ready to take the day by storm. 

In general, I work by slots. For example, I have a reserved slot in the morning and afternoon to contact journalists. In the early morning, I work on content production or strategy, because that’s when I’m most productive. The afternoons are more dedicated to follow-ups on ongoing subjects. 

But this is on an ideal day, of course, this program can be and is changed by client emergencies.  

When are you the most productive? 

Undoubtedly very early in the morning, before being “disturbed” by meetings, messages, requests, emails… 

What is your favourite workplace? 

My desk. I have my set-up, I find myself there. It is very minimalistic, not too cluttered so I can stay focused for long. It’s also very bright. The light has a huge impact on productivity. 

But I also like to meet my colleagues from time to time in a coworking space. Or work with a friend.   

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?   

The freedom it brings. I can work from wherever I want – whether it’s my home office, the living room, the terrace, from a café in Paris or from another country. The possibility to choose your work location is a luxury.  

But also, the flexibility that it offers, I organize my day as I wish, I am not forced to adapt to opening hours or whatever.  

What do you miss about working in an office? 

Rather, what I do not miss about working from an office. The list would be long. More seriously, I would say the short informal moments that we share with colleagues, the short coffee breaks, the jokes in the tray, the moments of conviviality that we could have around the lunch breaks, etc. But all this is recreated with Tyto, we regularly have drinks, lunches, and coffee breaks. We also have these little moments, virtually yes, but just as sincere. 

What’s your secret weapon? 

 My notebook, it’s always with me. 

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Lauren Armour

Hello! I am Lauren Armour, Associate Director at Tyto, and this my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.  

What’s your morning routine? 

I usually wake around 6.30/7am and the first thing I do is let my puppy out into the garden! I was one of the many people who succumbed to getting a dog during lockdown. Working from home, it felt like the perfect opportunity. So my morning routine is centred around Luna, my 7 month old Whippet. After a cup of tea (me) and a bowl of food (Luna), whilst listening to the news headlines of the day, we go for a 45-minute walk around the village where I live in Staffordshire. Walking first thing means Luna will sleep for the majority of the morning, so after we get home I can have my breakfast and start my working day around 8.30am, knowing Luna is happily snoozing on the sofa.  

How do you organise your day? 

I use a number of tools and traditional methods to organise my day. My Outlook calendar is my best friend. Working remotely, I think it’s incredibly important to use my diary to block out time for ‘deep work’ in between meetings, to ensure I can focus on bigger projects and campaigns. So I use my calendar not only for external meetings, but for internal down time too.
I’m not sure how common this is now but I also still write a written to do list that I get down on paper every single morning – actual pen and paper! Even though I rely on online tools to manage workflow and progress, there’s still something incredibly satisfying about writing down my priorities and ticking them off throughout the day. I find it focuses me on what absolutely has to be done vs. what is on the wider to do list.  

When are you the most productive? 

Definitely in the morning. I find I am at my most productive as soon as I wake up. If I have long form content to write, or something particularly tricky to work on, I like to log on really early, when I know there will be little distractions, and get my head into it then.  

One of my favourite things about working remotely and working with Tyto is that we can take control of our hours and flexi time as needed. I’ve made the decision before to log on around 6.30am to work on content, and instead choosing to take a few hours off mid-morning for a walk or gym session.  

What is your favourite workplace? 

My office in my home in Staffordshire. It’s where I find myself the most productive, the most comfortable and the least distracted! I decorated it to my taste around four years ago, keeping it super minimalistic with little distractions, in line with my work style. Sometimes I wish I was more of a ‘visual’ worker, with pinboards full of creative diagrams and ideas all over the walls. But, I’m definitely not. I work best in a tidy environment with space on my desk for my notebook – and that’s it. I realise how boring this makes me sound!

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?  

The freedom to have the life I want as well as the career I want. When I left London in 2017 to move to a rural part of the country, I came to terms with the fact I might need to take a few steps back in my career, in order to have the lifestyle I wanted. But I was completely wrong. I’m now exactly where I want to be in my career and in my personal life, which I didn’t think was achievable back then. 

Also, I love that I can work from anywhere – not just from home. My family live in Kent and my partner works all over the country. Working remotely means I can travel around to see both without having to take annual leave every time. I have so much more flexibility and freedom.  

What do you miss about working in an office? 

Friday treats? I remember a colleague in London used to buy a selection of treats every single Friday without fail. Krispy Kremes… those amazing little tubs from M&S with Rocky Road and Mini Rolls… Millies Cookies! Drooling at the thought.  

What’s your secret weapon?  

Not so secret, but the thing that instantly makes me more productive / lifts my mood is a dog walk. Taking a full break and going for a walk used to be something I would deprioritise but now I have Luna, it’s something I have to make time for every day. It’s amazing how a quick walk and some fresh air can give me fresh perspective when I’m feeling busy, stressed or not very creative!  

Borja-Iglesias-Tabeayo-Tyto

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Borja Iglesias

Hello! I am Borja Iglesias, Digital Strategy Lead at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our location-agnostic model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.

What’s your morning routine?

I am not a morning person. Basically, I get up, take a shower, have breakfast and get to work. I am incapable of doing sport first thing in the morning – in fact, I would say I am incapable of doing it before 12pm. When I finish work in the afternoons is when I exercise, study other languages, do training courses…

How do you organise your day?

As I have a hard time getting started, first thing in the morning I can’t focus on complex tasks, so I check my email and Slack and organise my day. I’m a to-do list addict and, despite being a digital marketing expert, I have to admit that I always need to have with me a notebook where I write down my to-dos by hand. As soon as my brain has booted up, I can get down to the tasks of the day, from leading Tyto’s marketing to advising our clients on their digital strategy or extracting insights for our clients or potential clients.

When are you the most productive?

From mid-morning until lunchtime and in the evenings.

What is your favourite workplace?

My home office. It has the ideal conditions to work at ease.

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?

I am a strong advocate of flexibility at work. I don’t want to be forced to work in an office whether it’s one or five days a week because I don’t consider that I am more productive in an office. I actually work better at home so I prefer to have the freedom to choose where I work at any given time. Tyto’s model allows me to work from home on a daily basis but, if I want to, I have the option to work in a coworking space or from a coffee shop, if I want a change of environment. One of the great advantages of our location-agnostic model is that I can work wherever I travel. This has allowed me to work from my hometown for several weeks this year and enjoy quality time with family and friends. Previously, I would only get to spend some days of holidays per year with them.

Besides, the good thing about working from home is that I don’t waste time commuting. At the end of the year I have saved hundreds of hours that I can spend on whatever I want, from sports to reading.

Working remotely also allows me to create the working environment I want. In my office I can regulate the temperature and humidity, decide whether I want to listen to music and which one… I adapt the environment to my needs.

What do you miss about working in an office?

The spontaneous chats and the fun meal times with my colleagues. Working remotely can make you lose the social side of working in an office, but at Tyto we have initiatives that allow us to generate those moments of relaxed chat, they just aren’t spontaneous. We have coffee chats, virtual lunches, virtual drinks… that compensate in a way for that need to interact with your colleagues. I have friendships with colleagues I’ve never seen in person because we live in different countries.

What’s your secret weapon?

Sport. One of the biggest risks of working from home is a more sedentary lifestyle. Going to the gym or for a run when I log off helps me to switch off mentally and relax.

When I am working, my secret weapon is coffee. Black, no sugar.

How the Remote Economy is shaping the future of the agency model

When we launched Tyto in 2017 we sought to address two questions. First, why as a top professional in your field can’t you choose where to work from and still operate at the highest level? Second, if you were to reinvent the pan-European agency model and deliver clients something fundamentally different and better, what would it look like?

The answer was Tyto’s PRWithoutBorders operating model which sees a multinational team working as one, across borders, to deliver clients with the most integrated, diverse, and therefore efficient and creative pan-European model.

The enabler for this model and the answer to those two key questions was the remote economy, and remote working has allowed us to hire the best people regardless of location, and break down national silos between offices, countries and teams.

Fast forward to today and remote work has become the norm for lots of us, despite some high-profile sceptics. In fact, over half of UK agency leaders expect most their roles will be virtual in the coming years.  

I’m a great advocate for remote work in its binary form – i.e., the migration of jobs from office roles to remote roles. But I get even more excited when I see remote models deployed in new imaginative ways, enabling businesses to launch truly transformative service offerings, like ours.

As the remote economy moves out of its infant stage, what might we expect to see in PR agency land over the coming years as more people start to push the boundaries of remote work models? 

The beginning of the end for the ‘jumbo’ agency  

The age-old perception that giant international agencies offer unrivalled connectivity and ‘on the ground’ insights is becoming a thing of the past. The pandemic demystified remote working, and the advancement of online collaboration tools means agencies can far more easily build global teams, without needing to fork out for local physical offices.  

PR buyers have more choice than ever before too, putting the business models of traditional mega agencies under even greater scrutiny. Hyper-growth tech companies are one audience where the need to speak globally is there from the start, but the funds to pay eye-watering multinational agency fees aren’t. Bespoke, more agile distributed agencies have huge opportunity to steal market share with more tailored services, higher quality consultancy, and more competitive pricing.  

Asynchronous working becomes de facto  

The remote economy is about more than just location – it’s when and how we like to work best, too. Now, workers are no longer confined by the bounds of time zones, the school run, or being a night owl caught on an early morning meeting.   

Asynchronous working – where colleagues collaborate and communicate in their own time, without the need or expectation to respond immediately – offers a new mode for distributed teams to boost productivity, improve wellbeing and transform how we engage and work internally and externally. Zoom fatigue and the feelings of ‘always being on’ many agencies reported following the pandemic are symptoms of remote working models that need work, and asynchronous practices are one invaluable way of helping remote working reach its full potential. 

Diversity and authenticity – if not now, when? 

Remote working is a powerful tool in empowering a whole host of people who may struggle or be unable to work in certain roles otherwise. Consider working parents, those living in rural areas, those with disabilities… the list goes on.   

PR has long struggled with diversity, but remote working addresses some of these challenges. In the next few years, remote economy can help more companies better cater for and welcome in diverse teams, while making a safe space that enables people to feel they can bring their whole, authentic selves to work. PR is storytelling, and remote economy can help fill our industry with people from all walks of life to help find and deliver those stories.

Reimagine the PR agency financial model 

I’ve been a student of some of the great agency entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs all had two things in common. First, they understood how important it was that their agencies were paid for the value they delivered. Second, they knew the importance of rewarding and incentivising their employees who created this value. 

Agency leaders have some decisions to make because the emergence of remote agency models has slashed operating costs, creating a unique opportunity to redistribute those savings. In a well-run traditional PR agency, you would expect operating costs (opex) to be 17.5-20% of revenues. A fully remote agency would expect opex to be closer to 10-12.5%. So, what do agency entrepreneurs do with this extra 5-7.5%? Do they pass on these savings to clients? Do they let them drop to the bottom line and make higher profits? Do they pass them onto the team in the form of higher remuneration and bonuses? Or do they use the additional slack to support social enterprises?

In our case, we already believe our PRWithoutBorders model provides clients with 25% more value than traditional models, so have therefore decided to transfer the opex savings we make into two main areas. Part is shared with our team via a quarterly profit share scheme, which is combined with a universal share options scheme and gives every employee a path to becoming a Tyto shareholder. The other part, the equivalent of 20% of our annual profits, is donated to pro bono causes via the Tyto Foundation. For us, these strategies are invaluable in contributing to our goals of building a sustainable business and being a perfect partner to all our stakeholders. For others, this kind of reimagining of the agency financial model can be hugely empowering.

Agencies ramp up climate creds 

The urgency of the climate crisis is unavoidable, and sustainability is high on both the media and businesses’ agendas. Reports have found telecommuting reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 600k cars, while employees are more likely to invest in their local communities when remote working, such as green spaces. Agency entrepreneurs also have the power to funnel their operational savings into meaningful climate-positive action. After all, PRs should be acutely aware of the damage of ‘greenwashing’. To avoid that danger, Tyto has teamed up with professional consultancy and software company Planetly, who is guiding us on our path to mindful growth in 2022.  

People are increasingly climate-conscious and want to feel part of a company that shares their ethos, so this will soon be part of what helps hiring organisations stand out too.  

Remote wins the war for talent  

The ‘Great Resignation’ has been widely reported and speculated on. The huge upheaval experienced by workers during the pandemic – personally and professionally – has made many reassess priorities and scrutinize their work life.  

For employers, the war is on to land and keep great talent. And undeniably, agencies offering more flexible options will come out on top. It’s a win-win, too – we have a phenomenal pool of talent based all over Europe that we simply wouldn’t have been able to get if we relied on physical, capital-city based offices.  

Remote work

Remote culture resolves its trust issues  

Finally, the death of presenteeism once and for all! And in parallel, the end of ‘burnout’ culture, as people no longer feel the pressure to stay in the office as late as their colleagues to get ahead.   

Those agencies who don’t trust their employees to work from home may soon need to reconsider. Office culture in the remote economy will be more flexible and, by necessity, built on trust. Building a team culture that doesn’t share a physical space isn’t without its challenges, but it can be done effectively. Shared culture previously passed-down verbally simply needs to be built in other modes – whether that’s random team coffees, regular virtual social events, or more written culture guides. Teams can still feel a sense of ‘belonging’ across borders.  

The metaverse transforms, well, everything 

Considering the phenomenal funding going into the metaverse, it’s clear big tech is doing significant behind the scenes to make this new internet paradigm a reality.  

While metaverse may seem an out-of-reach world, it’s closer than you might think. Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are mature technologies, already in use by numerous companies to facilitate better creative group thinking, problem visualisation, socialising and collaboration. Here at Tyto, we have our Tyto Labs and VR initiative that sees a dedicated portion of our team committed to discovering new and exciting ways for us to work powered by these tools. As the remote economy evolves, these technologies will be transformational in resetting the idea of ‘place’ in the workplace. 

The future’s remote 

The remote economy has and continues to have significant implications for the way agencies and the PR industry operates – how we do business, how we hire, how we build a culture, and even how we relate to media and our clients.  

The future of PR agencies is remote and, with that, stronger, more agile and more connected than ever before.  

Tea Crnkovic My location agnostic PR agency life

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Tea Crnković

Hello! I am Tea Crnković, Consultant at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents. 

What’s your morning routine? 

I usually get up around 7:00am. After stretching extensively and taking a good sip of water, I listen to the news or the Handelsblatt Morning Briefing. While I’m doing that, I make my coffee (black, no sugar) and as soon as it’s brewed, the first thing I do is go out on the balcony and enjoy a big warm cup while I take a deep breath of fresh air and enjoy the morning calm while looking towards the city skyline and the Alps. 

How do you organise your day? 

I’m generally a big fan of handwritten to-do lists. While organising the day’s tasks, I can already be visually creative in this way. So at the end of the working day, I write down the most important to-dos for the next day. The next morning, I go through them sorted by priority and update new, additional tasks accordingly, which are usually added after a glance in the mailbox. 

When are you the most productive? 

When it comes to productivity, the word ‘hybrid’ applies perfectly to me: I am very productive in the early morning hours as well as from late afternoon. After lunch, which is enormously important and an absolute must for me, calls and Zoom meetings are the perfect change.  

What is your favourite workplace? 

I enjoy my home office set up: the freedom to furnish it in the way that suits you best makes it my preferred work oasis. Besides a large window front with a view of the Olympiaberg, I enjoy the absolute silence in this bubble. I think it’s great when it’s so quiet to work that you can hear a leaf fall. For me, it’s the perfect environment to let my thoughts run free and grab for new ideas. 

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?  

The opportunities I would not like to miss are flexibility and the fact that you can structure your work around your life thanks to Tyto’s remote working model. It literally gives you a sense of freedom to work anywhere you choose – whether it’s in a home office, with family or in a co-working space with colleagues in other countries: there are no limits and working itself is taken to a more human level. That is really special!  

What do you miss about working in an office? 

Certainly, meetings in real life cannot be compared with digital meet-ups. Talking and socialising with colleagues in the office obviously moves to the digital arena when working remotely – but I wouldn’t describe it as missing or lacking. At Tyto, it’s hardly noticeable that we don’t sit face to face IRL, as we are connected through many social team activities and continuous Slack messages and can get to know each other (better) in this way. But the exciting aspect is that there are the Hackweeks and the Tyto Passport as a way to connect with my colleagues in person. 

What’s your secret weapon? 

The green parks in my neighbourhood. I’m a big lover of exercise for balance and to clear my head. For a creativity boost or to switch off, I like to go for a walk outside in the nature. Not only is it good for the body, but above all it allows new ideas to bubble up and always offers me an opportunity for a change of perspective.

Lucy-Marinova-Tyto

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Lucy Marinova

Hello! I am Lucy Marinova, Senior Consultant at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.

What’s your morning routine?

I’m very much a morning person – one of those who will give you an energetic wave to say hello before either of us has had a coffee. I usually wake up around 7:30am every day – with no alarm needed – but my workday doesn’t start until 10am, so most of my mornings are about sorting out life admin, doing some yoga or just enjoying a good few final minutes of sleep.

I’m based in Sofia, Bulgaria, but look after PR activities in the UK, which gives me a good hour or two for a nice head start before everyone else wakes up. I use that time to browse through any early news, go through emails and messages that have come through overnight, and re-organise my to-do list, which (I’m sure many PRs would agree) almost never stays the same throughout the day.

How do you organise your day?

Working through priorities has always been the case for me – something that I believe is an essential part of my PR job. While I do have certain tasks that I know we have to complete each day, week or month, priorities can shift by the minute and so does my to-do list. I try to work on bits that are holding other people’s work first, clarifying what we need to achieve and when – I hate being a bottleneck. I also tend to focus on chunkier bits earlier in the day, leaving my afternoons free for meetings with my US clients.

When are you the most productive?

Mornings are definitely my time! I feel fresh and ready to go through the majority of the actions I have for the day. That works quite well for me, given that most of my calls are late in the afternoon.

What is your favourite workplace?

My home office, as it is nice and quiet – one thing that is very difficult to get in a PR agency office! I’d very much like to explore some co-working spaces, or simply go to a coffee shop once or twice a week, but you know… we’re still in the midst of a pandemic, so I try to stay at home most of the time.

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?

Oh, that’s an easy one – not having to commute! I used to spend more than an hour each day on a packed train in London and was going through all the circles of hell at Bank station for years! Now, I simply walk my slippers to the other room and here I am.

Being able to work from pretty much anywhere is also a big advantage. I only recently moved back to Bulgaria from the UK and the ability to work remotely was really important to me for ensuring that I don’t compromise on my career to get a good work-life balance.

What do you miss about working in an office?

Going out for a drink with colleagues – nothing beats a good old noisy night out and the only difference to doing it when you work remotely is planning it a bit in advance. Tyto has a nice passport scheme, which allows us to travel across different locations to meet, work and have a drink together with colleagues – something I’m SO looking forward to exploring as soon as pandemic restrictions allow it.

What’s your secret weapon?  

People and memes. Catching up with colleagues casually for a quick coffee or exchanging a meme or two can really make a difference and brighten up a busy day at work. It’s about staying connected and staying human in everything we do, and I dare to say that we manage to do this brilliantly at Tyto.  

Donia-Metoui-Tyto

My location-agnostic PR agency life | Donia Metoui

Bonjour! I am Donia Metoui, a Consultant at Tyto, and this is my location-agnostic life. In this series, we want to highlight the freedom our model enables and how we navigate any challenges it presents.

What’s your morning routine?

I start the day by giving my cat her breakfast. That is really the first thing I do because if I don’t, she’ll get cross and won’t let me do anything else!

Not being much of a morning person, I need to have coffee as soon as possible to really wake-up and focus. While taking the first sip of my coffee, I open my laptop and check the news and my emails.

How do you organise your day?

I always write down my to do list at the beginning of the day. I’m one of those people who needs to write things down. I try to make it as clear and detailed as possible, so I write each action for each client, the last update, and deadlines. The most important and urgent actions are usually blocked in my agenda so I can give them the right amount of time.

I also do my best to have proper lunch breaks away from my desk.

When are you the most productive?

Once I get going, I’m actually most productive in the morning. That’s why I usually plan to write content, do localisations and proofreading at that time.

What is your favourite workplace?

I love working from nice places like hotel lounges and cosy coworking spaces. Especially since Covid-19, I try to look for places with the best views. New décor puts me in a good mood and motivates me.

What’s your favourite thing about working remotely?

I enjoy working remotely because I can go wherever I want and travel to other cities or countries throughout the year. It is great to know that in the summer for example, I can go to the south of France and work close to the beach!

One of the biggest advantages for me though is being able to go back to my hometown in Tunis, Tunisia as often as I can. I can finally spend more time with my family and be present during important events like weddings.

What do you miss about working in an office?

I miss seeing colleagues more often and getting updates on how they are doing and what’s going on in their lives which are discussions we normally would have at the cafeteria or even the lift. However, I still frequently meet my French colleagues at coworking spaces in Paris.

At Tyto, we also often organise virtual lunches and coffees and try to get together in a new destination via our Hackweek event. We also have a ‘Tyto Passport’ which allows us to travel to a place of our choice for our professional growth. My first destination was London where I was able to meet some colleagues for the first time. It was a great experience!

What’s your secret weapon?

Usually, at the end of the day, my cat starts seeking attention and practically forces me to disconnect and play with her. She can be a real comfort and makes me laugh at very unexpected moments.

My other not-so-secret weapon is: M&Ms!

My location-agnostic PR agency life: From cold Germany to sunny Cyprus | Noëlle Bölling

Kato Paphos, just before eight in the morning: As autumn arrives in Germany, I stroll along the harbour in Cyprus with a cup of iced coffee and enjoy the first rays of sunshine. At this time of day, it is still quiet. Apart from a few joggers and the locals, who are swimming in the water as they do every day, no one is on the move yet. I go for my usual walk, which I have discovered in the past few weeks, hoping to see some turtles on the pier, and while the crystal-clear waves of the ocean gently rush, I think: Isn’t life beautiful? 

Remote working in Cyprus - location agnostic PR life

For me, it was not only the first time I visited Cyprus. It was also the first time that I had ever been away from home for such a long time, and I had never worked abroad before either. When my boyfriend and I booked the trip half a year ago, we had no expectations. For us, Cyprus was just a sunny island in the Mediterranean. We never expected that we could feel at home here within a very short time. However, after spending the entire lockdown in a small one-room flat, we felt it was worth a try. I have always enjoyed travelling to dive into other countries and cultures, but in my previous job I was very limited due to the amount of holidays I could take. Fortunately, this is no longer the case, because thanks to Tyto’s location-agnostic working model, I now have the chance to work from wherever I want! As my boyfriend is also more free in his job, we definitely didn’t want to wait any longer to take advantage of this opportunity. We wanted to feel the long-lost freedom – and we wanted it now!

Nevertheless, I have to admit that I was a little skeptical at first. Actually, I don’t do well in the heat. During the summer in Germany, I often have headaches. The fact that the desk in an Airbnb can’t keep up with my height-adjustable desk at home was an aggravating factor. So I had to get creative. I repurposed a pot as a stand for my laptop and I learned that the desk is just as good to stand at during calls to get some variety and not sit all day. And even the temperatures around 30°C didn’t bother me after one or two days. On the contrary, I even enjoyed it!  

However, I particularly enjoyed the fact that I could organise my working hours a little more flexibly. Cyprus has a one-hour time difference to Germany and a two-hour difference to my colleagues in the UK. But with a little preparation, this was no problem at all and it even had a big advantage: Since I was already working on my laptop much earlier than everyone else after my morning walk, I was able to write pitches and bylines in peace and quiet without even one single email or Slack message reaching me. It also allowed me to enjoy a few more hours of Cypriot sunshine in the afternoon or jump straight from my desk into the sea. 

After almost four weeks in Cyprus, I can only say I would have loved to stay! Not because it’s not nice at home too, but in Germany I often have the feeling of falling into a rut. Everything revolves around appointments and paying bills. So it’s great to be away for a while and switch off from everyday life.  

Besides, you can get to know a new city or region in a completely different way if you don’t have to fly away again after a week. You have the chance to really settle in – and without necessarily using your holiday. In our current working world, this is not the standard, at least not yet, and I can hardly wait to get back on the plane for the next adventure. In any case, one thing is certain: My colleagues will accompany me wherever my path takes me.