25 years of partnerships: Discussions with senior leaders

Please note the transcript has been edited to improve readability

David: Hello, my name's David Pester. I'm a partner at TLT, the national law firm, and I'm Head of growth in the firm and also, I'm client partner working alongside Aardman Animations. Today I'm pleased to be joined by Sean Clarke, who's the Managing Director of Aardman. 

Aardman, like TLT, have a celebration at the moment, although Aardman’s celebration is 50 years in business compared to TLT’s 25, but we've known each other a very long time as organisations, we've grown together, we've been involved in our own evolution with them and I think they're a company that we've always enjoyed working with and I think they've enjoyed working with us, but I'll let Sean tell you more about that next. 

So Sean, thank you ever so much for agreeing to spend some time with us today. As you know, TLT is 25 years old, which in the context of Aardman probably seems half the time given it's your 50th anniversary this year as an organisation. But we've worked with Aardman at TLT, with the founders, Dave and Pete, Dave Sproxton, Pete Lord, right the way through to the organisation growing and becoming hugely successful globally as an animation studio in the world of film, and I think that relationship has developed with us working with you. We've grown too, we've grown alongside you, like most organisations, I think you grow with your clients. But I'd be interested to get your perspective on that journey really. What made the difference around TLT working with you?

 Sean: Well, it's my pleasure to be here. I mean, it is a big year, 50 years, a huge milestone for any company, let alone one in our industry of film and television. I think really, for Aardman, what makes the success is the people in the business and it's the partnerships that we have and TLT has been a key partner over that 50-year journey. 

And you know, I think this is the moment where I bang the drum about our success. We’ve had some real success, 4 Academy Awards, 17 Bafta's, five Guinness Book of World Records, so we've seen some real, real success around our films. We've diversified into different areas.   I think we're on our 11th movie now over the last 25 years. Our characters touch people all over the world, you can watch Shaun the Sheep in 170 countries, we have a Shaun the Sheep Land in Japan, we have stage shows in China. So we've really diversified, we've really grown, and what underpins that growth is our ability to have the infrastructure in the buildings, and TLT have really helped us on that journey where we actually own the building that we're in. 

It was built, we moved into here in 2008. We have, we lease a site up at Aztec West where the M4 meets the M5, which is like a huge aircraft hangar, or sort of shooting space, which TLT have been instrumental in helping us land. And then we're, you know, I mean, I'm sure you have a wide variety of clients. I think you will probably agree we're quite unique. We have our idiosyncrasies. And when you're in a creative company, there are many shades of grey, so we really value people that understand who we are and how we work.

So I think, you know, we very much take an approach, if we're working with somebody and they share the vision, and we work well together, then it's a relationship that we that we nurture and we grow. 

David: One of the things that was interesting is we both started in Bristol and Bristol is important to the organisations as well as being businesses that have expanded. We've got international partners we've worked with, we've got offices across different parts of the UK. 
Did proximity play any part do you think in closeness, is it about accessibility or is it just about the way we've learnt to work together to be effective for you? 

Sean: Yeah, I think proximity helps and you know, there's something about, it's good if you're based in Bristol, you can work with other Bristol companies, you know, first and foremost and then proximity helps clearly on a practical level. But I think that the most important thing is working with people that get us, that understand us, you know, and that has been the foundation of the partnership, you know, over the years. And, and as I said, you know, we have developed in a lot of different ways, we have an interesting mix of people. We have production people, we have development people, we have finance people, we have marketing people, you know, 500 people on the payroll. So it's good that we can work with people that understand who we are and what makes us tick. 

David: Yeah, I've always been struck by how we've had to adapt and evolve to work with you for the way you want to work rather than coming to you with something prepacked. It's really clear that you're an organisation that is creative and inventive, but also works commercially, successfully around it and can choose anyone it wants to work with because of its reputation. 

But I think it's that it's that working together to really understand what's looked for, in terms of how we work with you to support you, but also how we can help you by anticipating things which might well be relevant to you from what we've learned across the wider business community. 

Sean: Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, there is, whether you're a film studio or you're a banker or insurance company, the sort of geopolitical situation in the world and the economics, it affects you the same. You know, so it's always good to have an understanding and insight in terms of those common things that affect all businesses. 

And, you know, I think that what makes Aardman tick really is the people and the innovation and the can do spirit. And, you know, we would be, we could be sat and we are sat here talking about the next year and there is nothing, there is no blueprint for the following year. 

You know, we're very different to an FMCG company that will be making widgets and they'll be making the same widgets the year after. You know, our projects are very different. They're all unique in the stories that we tell and there are shades of grey in terms of when we will launch them because we have to, we are independent, we have to go out to the market, we have to raise money. So again, it's good for people to understand the nuances of how we work and what we're doing. 

But I think I've always felt that if you're a successful independent film maker as well as having creative integrity, the other side of the coin is also being entrepreneurial because the fact is you have to be to survive and be independent. So there are commercial aspects of what we do as well. 

David: You have to be listening to your clients, trying to understand and anticipate. 

Back on that point about independence is a really neat lead into quite a significant change point for the company, which was when in 2018 against many other options that could have been taken by the founders, the decision was taken to become employee owned. We were incredibly lucky to be involved in that process and work with you and post that be involved at board level as well. 

Can you give us a bit of a sense of that 2018 moment and what it meant? 

Sean: I really genuinely feel that we are, we'd like to, we strive to be the most inspirational animation company in the world, and that's about inspiring the people that work here, inspiring the people that work with us and inspiring probably most importantly, the audiences that that watch our work. And I think becoming employee owned was probably one of the most inspirational things we've done. And it's quite unique in our industry, but was inspired, you know, by David Sproxton and Peter Lord, the original founders. Really in terms of what makes this company tick is our independence. It's our ability to be in control of our own destiny.

It's our ability to believe in a project such as Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep and actually make it happen. And clearly we need to make money, but we're also driven by the passion of the projects that we make. 

So what they were really keen to do was establish a model that really future-proofed the independence, which then, if you like, underpinned our creative integrity. And that's where the employee ownership came along. And really, TLT was integral to that, in helping steer and navigate the process of how that came together from a legal perspective, and how the owners sold the business to the studio. That was a bit of a minefield to navigate really, but we are in a really good place and we're now sat here celebrating 50 years and feeling very confident that we will be independent in another 50 years. 

David: So I remember the process of having an involvement myself in that as well and thinking at the time it was important, but I remember I think it might have been Pete Lord was in LA at a conference and all of the film makers who were in the room applauded them when they announced what they'd done about this, this idea that you could do something that plays to your values. 

There isn't a playbook model. Yes, there are principles, the legal principles, there are tax principles about what you do with employee ownership, but ultimately you've got a blank canvas as to how you interpret and work that. 

And I think they were very good at spotting that opportunity to ensure the studios longevity for the next 50 years by remaining independent in an incredibly challenging consolidating market.

That sort of takes us a little bit into where we find ourselves now. For TLT, we've always, like you, we've grown. That's been about working with the clients that we want to provide more things to, but also about deeper expertise. The way we've developed with our clients, the things that they're trying to navigate, we've been alongside them and change is sort of constant in organisations. 

From my personal point of view, I think you're anticipating but also recognising you're not in control of everything. So you're to a large extent only able to do what you can do despite the competition. 

I mean, what do you think? Technology is something that we've embraced for a very long time as an organisation, I know you have too, invention is important, what do you think the future looks like for the next five years plus for Aardman? You know, the sort of what comes next in your sector and for the company? 

Sean: Well, there's a lot of change happening in film and television. You know, there's a real proliferation now of how people can watch content from the big screen to the small screen, on your phone. And so there's a change in terms of how audience consume content, there is a change with respect to technology. 

And you know, AI impacts everyone, it’s ubiquitous across everybody's life and business, and like everybody else, we're looking at how that plays a part in what we do. 

And actually I'm quite excited about it, in that it can help us be more productive in our financial accounting, in our marketing. You know, how great would it be if somebody comes into our website from Japan and the AI can recognise they're from Japan and serve them images and messages about what's going on in Japan there. So there's lots of things we can look at. 

 I think the bit that we're playing around with is how we use it in our filmmaking and really how we use it in a way that allows us to do things that we wouldn't be able to do. So it might be that we lean into it more when there is a different type of budget or schedule. So you know, for example, on TikTok, we couldn't do a huge stop motion set up, to do a 10 second film on TikTok. So we're looking at different ways of how it can assist our people. 

I'm actually quite excited about the fact that, you know, I talk to people and we look at the research and the Aardman Studio's brand is still incredibly strong. We released the Wallace and Gromit film two years ago that broke all records. 21.6 million people watched it over 30 days, which is unheard of, so we're in a strong place. We just need to make sure that what we're doing is fit for purpose and actually is still connecting with our audiences and that means change. That means that in the same way that the stop motion we do today is different to what we did 50 years ago, what does the next iteration look like? 

David: I recognise that in our own sector, there's an awful lot that's written about technology, particularly AI, but the truth is people are only just beginning to see the capability and the potential. And there's a mismatch sometimes between efficiency, resourcing and your talent.

And actually, you're still going to be recruiting talent, but there'll be people working in different ways, doing different things alongside things that have always been done, but done in a far, far better way, far faster, certainly. And I think it's that cultural change that you're navigating alongside the industry change, I think we both share that. 

And I think the one thing that I've always felt that's really important when you're listening to clients and trying to understand what they're trying to achieve is you see demonstrably their values. And whilst organisations change, successful organisations tend to be, in my experience, very consistent with their values and I've certainly experienced that with your organisation. 

Sean: I would agree. You know, and I think, I do talk to a lot of people and AI comes up a lot. And I do think that innovation does not always have to be connected to tech. 

 You know, I can always remember when I first joined Aardman just about in 1998, and I did a tour of Chicken Run and they'd lit the sets and they they'd managed to get this effect by using the bottoms of jam jars, you know, so that to me was hugely inspired and innovative. You don't need a shiny piece of tech to deliver it, you know, and I think we need to embrace tech, but we don't need to reinvent the wheel if we don't need to. 

And I'm positive that we're, you know, we're the best in the world at stop motion. We'll be doing stop motion in 50 years, but it will be slightly different to what we're doing today. 

David: Well, just to say thank you for spending some time with us today. I'm sure everyone who's watching will be looking forward to the next 50 years of Aardman and we're certainly enjoying working with you.

Sean: Thank you. Thank you for having me.