This interview is a part of the FBCC member series. This time we interviewed Nikke Österback, the founder of our Corporate Member Saari Ltd.
Saari Ltd is a London-based strategic digital marketing and communications agency. Their services include marketing, advertising, partnerships, social media, digital transformation consultation, and strategic consulting. Other Saari projects relate to brand building, design, and development. Additionally, related legal consulting for digital law and contract services. Saari clients are from all over the world and different sectors. Their amazing client projects are visible on their website, click here to read more.
The name Saari (Finnish for ‘island’) is derived from being “stuck on an island”, the UK being an island culture and for Nikke’s first job in the UK at Island records. Bob Marley’s Survival, which was released by Island Records is the first record he remembers picking up and listening to!
When asked about their company’s culture, Österback describes it as very entrepreneurial and focused on problem-solving. One of our biggest strengths is that we are multicultural and multilingual. ‘This enables Saari to help our customers with a genuine approach that competitors in our class can’t match’.
For Saari Ltd, Covid 19 had little impact with exciting projects being delivered for Finnish and other international clients. Current good examples include strategic work for the largest Nordic hockey brand Tackla and strategic content marketing work for Genelec an awarded Finnish speaker manufacturer. “They are a fantastic team and nice people. They (Genelec) are a good example of a company that just make it work” says Österback.
Like most agencies in South England, everyone at Saari Ltd is currently working from home. For Mr. Österback this has helped combine work and family better than before Covid 19 restrictions started. All in all: ‘the negative impact is minimal since our clients expect us to deliver work online’ … ‘but sales work did suffer because we can’t meet people face-to-face or travel’. Luckily this has not been a big problem since past sales work was already helping grow Saari before the pandemic.
Österback mentions that his number one tip for working from home is to get up early to get ahead of the game to ‘clear the decks’. He also mentions that they can benefit from the time differences between countries, by for example starting an online meeting with their Finnish clients already at 7 in the morning UK time and to be able to wrap up later in the evening with clients from the US west coast. You can work more!
The biggest benefit of being part of the FBCC for Saari Ltd has been the networking and visibility that it provides.