Faced with a downturn, here’s what this marketing agency owner did to boost business again

For PR and marketing agency FORWARD, COVID was a “near-death experience,” according to its founder Fergus Kibble.

Bootstrapped and founded in 2012, the Australia-based agency supported leading consumer brands — including Nestle, Unilever and Clorox — with influencer and content marketing services.

Although COVID initially negatively impacted business, FORWARD wound up growing from 2020 to 2021 thanks to smart strategic moves.

This growth helped lead the company to a 7-figure sale just a couple of years later.

How FORWARD kept moving forward during a global pandemic

Kibble founded FORWARD after years of client-side experience in marketing roles at Unilever, Kellogg and Bristol Myers, according to Mumbrella.

“I started FORWARD at our dining table with an ambitiously simple idea… PR done differently,” Kibble shared on LinkedIn.

What propelled the agency forward was the team’s commitment to deliver award-winning work. Within two years of launching, FORWARD was named a finalist for Boutique Australian PR Agency of the Year by CommsCon. The agency would continue to rack up awards for consumer marketing and campaigns, influencer strategy, experiential publicity stunt, media relations efforts, digital content, and more.

Then, in 2020, COVID completely disrupted the economy and forced brands to scale down operations — and their marketing budgets. In reaction, Kibble made some big changes: He pivoted FORWARD to virtual events, doubled down on influencer marketing and pursued B Corp certification.

Becoming a B Corp in Australia requires meeting “high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.”

During the certification process, FORWARD improved its employee mental health support, enhanced its flexible working benefits, increased community giving and volunteering programs, and more. At sale, FORWARD had 13 employees.

In addition to doing good, B Corps’ topline growth outperforms other businesses, and they were significantly more likely to survive the pandemic, according to research from B Lab Global. Benefits of becoming a B Corp can include greater employee engagement and retention, access to global opportunities, greater brand credibility, and stronger brand awareness.

“We actually thrived through the storm and ended up growing through 2020 and 2021,” Kibble said.

Selling FORWARD: a “rigorous and rewarding” process

FORWARD’s buyer, GrowthOps, approached Kibble about an acquisition. GrowthOps is an Australia-based marketing agency that offers customer research, data and analytics, creative advertising, brand strategy, experience design, software development and more.

GrowthOps was interested in acquiring FORWARD to help expand its earned media, influencer marketing, brand social content and activation capabilities for its clients, according to Mumbrella.

And Kibble was interested in selling for a few reasons: He wanted to scale the bootstrapped agency, tap into a wider client network across new markets — and provide an exit for himself.

The process, which Kibble described as “rigorous and rewarding,” took 12 months to complete. In February 2023, GrowthOps officially acquired FORWARD in a 7-figure deal.

“There was thorough due diligence on both sides and plenty of chemistry check meetings to ensure alignment of values,” he said. “We were determined to keep our B Corp status, and ultimately this was appealing to the buyer.”

Although for FORWARD’s people and clients, “it is business as usual” after the sale, according to a LinkedIn announcement, the work wasn’t over for Kibble.

“Post acquisition there was additional work, meetings, compliance and interface with senior leadership and the board, which took more of my time than I had expected,” he said.

He stayed on the team for this period of transition and integration and then, in September 2024, announced he would leave the company in January 2025.

With the acquisition behind him, his advice for founders is to look beyond the numbers.

“Obviously the numbers are important to maximize your return, but equally important are the people, the capabilities and the values of the company who are acquiring you,” he said.