Established in 2005, Soap Media is a full-service digital agency dedicated to helping clients across various industries achieve their online goals, acting as an extension of their in-house teams.
Embracing the mission statement “Your Partner in Digital,” the agency has experienced significant growth, including the promotion of Jack Oddy to Managing Director in July 2023, marking the agency’s most successful year.
Here, Jack offers insights into his motivations, inspirations in the industry, and his unique business approach.
What was the inspiration behind wanting to climb to the top of the organisational chart?
Simply, I wanted a career that I could be proud of. Much the same as a child may look at a firefighter or doctor, I can recall moments where I’d gaze in awe as a business person, suited and booted, would step out of their fancy car whilst on an important business call – Well, that’s how I liked to imagine it, anyway.
After muddling my way through the traditional education years, my crossroad came at university, during year 2 of a 4 year business course, when I started to lose passion and interest in the subject of business. In fairness, it might have helped if I’d turned up more!
I decided to drop out of university. It was an extremely difficult decision with feelings of failure and disappointment looming over. Eager to find my true calling, the next few years saw me try my hand at numerous part-time positions – Once upon a time you’d have found me serving Greggs’ sausage rolls in Blackpool town centre!
Perhaps by fate, I was eventually drawn back into the business world taking an apprentice business admin position. The company had multi-discipline teams within its departments which opened my eyes to the world of account management. Owing to lack of opportunity, I scoured the job market where I met, and fell in love with, Soap Media.
The timing turned out to be perfect. I joined Soap at a time when the co-founder and CEO, Markerle Davis, had a mound of incredibly exciting ideas. Being a brand new resource, hungry to impress, I grasped the opportunity to work closely with this business mastermind with both hands. We’ve had a unique relationship over the years that transformed into mentorship, and a friendship. Starting at Soap in a business support position, 7 years later I’ve completed my first year as Managing Director, overseeing our best ever year for business performance.
So, I’m in the position I always dreamed of, but the irony is that today I’m sitting in a pair of shorts taking important business calls through video meetings.
Who do you admire and why?
That’s easy – Markerle Davis, Soap’s co-founder and CEO. The hard part is knowing where to begin with the ‘why?’
I’ve seen problems get solved and deals get closed with what I can only describe as master sorcery. Markerle’s knowledge and acumen has had me hooked from day one. The opportunities he’s granted me, with the achievement based rewards, have literally changed my life. We continue to learn and grow together to this day, and I have tremendous gratitude.
I’d also like to make mention of Rob Pierre, founder of Jellyfish.
Part way through my journey with Markerle, he advised that I watched an interview between Rob and the Drum; scaling for impact with Rob Pierre. I had so many ‘penny dropping’, ‘lightbulb’ moments. I always remember how he likened business growth to bodybuilding; you bulk up (grow) and then cut for the tournament (refine) – and it gives you a headache.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Considering the position I find myself and the agency in today, no. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, but every loss is an opportunity to learn and grow.
I’m not a religious person, but in my recent quests for continued development and understanding, I have found clarity in religious speaking. Just today, I saw a post on Linkedin that read “If you get what you want, that is God’s direction. If you don’t get what you want, that is God’s protection”. The parable of the old man and the white horse has a similar moral to its story; good fortune can be rooted in perceived bad fortune.
Of course, it’s hard to remain passionate and confident in your decisions when things start going against you. But you have to accept that’s business, and that’s life. Whenever I find myself getting sucked into the micro, I’m now able to snap out of it to gain macro validation. I also have a fantastic support team around me.
What defines your way of doing business?
Soap Media’s core values are passion, freedom, respect, integrity, creativity and dedication. And all of these are captured by the company tagline ‘your partner in digital’.
Our teams, dubbed ‘Soaperstars’, are dedicated to achieving the very best results in all aspects of our partnerships. And we expect that same level of commitment from the companies we partner with.
We truly embody an end-to-end digital marketing agency with a collective passion for enhancing every stage of the customer journey and experience.
Each person is empowered with autonomy and the reporting frameworks to make best decisions from. There is a no ceiling approach. We adopt a meritocracy-based progression process where employees can ‘pitch for a promotion’ up to 4 times a year. Just look at me; I started from the bottom now we’re here!
Transparent communication is regularly echoed throughout the agency. This honesty helps us address challenges head on and quickly learn from mistakes. Facing complex problems is par for the course in our game, but we pride ourselves on our creativity and innovation.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Write your own story, and be the hero of it. Grab inspiration and guidance from those that you admire, but understand that no story is the same as yours.
When circumstance allows, use time and patience as your ally. It’s amazing what your subconscious will do. Countless times I’ve pinned an RFP submission or delayed sending a response to a difficult email, and had ‘the winning tweak’ come to me on a dog walk or in the shower. In fast-paced moments, lean on your experience, and as I said before, see a loss as an opportunity to learn and grow.
Create a vision and align to it every day. Create a plan to realise that vision and accept that the plan will need constant iterations over time. Granted, agility, dynamism, and resilience are a slew of ‘buzzwords’, but they have been integral attributes of our story so far.
It’s an incredibly valuable use of time to look back every now and then. If you’ve long faced a challenge and doubt starts creeping in, past reminders of achievement and progress bring with them a vital surge of optimism and motivation.
Last, but certainly not least, make sure you love it.
