“We want to 5x the size of the Alpha Agency team over the next five to six years.”
Those are the ambitious words of Sam Iles (pictured left) who became global head of Alpha Agency when it was acquired by Alpha Group last year.
The past 13 months have been something of a whirlwind. But, beyond the serious work that accompanies acquisitions and integrations, there is an animation about Sam, an excitement for this new strategic and creative adventure he is on.
“The past year has been a rollercoaster, but we’ve delivered some bloody good work,” he says with a wide smile.
Complementary capabilities
Sam joined Alpha FMC in 2014 as an analyst based in London, moving to New York five years later, ultimately leading the group’s client and digital capability in North America.
As his tenure reached the nine-year mark, however, Sam started to sense his days in management consultancy were nearing their end.
“Luc [Baque], our global CEO, was very gracious in offering me a variety of pathways and where we landed was creating a place where we could incubate something new, something that was different to running a management consulting business.
“When we were looking at areas the company may want to grow strategically, one of the gaps that became clear was ways to enhance our capabilities. For example, when we’re building the underlying technology for a website, we were not able to do the design work. We couldn’t write the content. Those were capabilities we did not have.”
**Enter White Marble Consulting, stage left**
The acquisition completed in September 2024. And, as a company that strongly advocates for a clear, consistent brand, it will come as little surprise that we adopted the Alpha Agency name within a matter of months.
Our first year
Sam describes the year following the acquisition as “pretty remarkable”.
“If you look back at what we have done, we have expanded our capabilities, bolstered our team in North America and the UK, onboarded new clients and grown the business. It has been a great story.”
The team quickly hit their stride in the weeks following the acquisition, as very little changed, day-to-day.
“The idea of putting Alpha Agency within our consulting business didn’t necessarily make a huge amount of sense. Being separate and distinct allows us to keep and maintain our own identity, look and feel, and the capabilities that we bring to market.”
He adds: “We wanted to maintain the things that make this offering a marketing, brand and creative agency – not a set of management consultants. So, naturally, we knew that this had to be something that looks and feels quite different to our consulting business.”
Since joining Alpha Agency, Sam has relished tapping back into his creative side. “Every moment of interacting with the team or doing the work is definitely, far and away, the fun part. I spent time at a client’s office recently, cleared my calendar, I was fully absorbed in a project. I went to their offsite… the stuff that we do is really cool.”
Future plans
As mentioned at the top of this article, the ambition is to quintuple headcount across the company over the coming five to six years.
“We’re going to do that through a variety of things,” says Sam. “Firstly, by doing exactly what we do today with a bigger pool of clients. We will also look to build and expand the capabilities across the team; we have done a lot of work already this year to grow our creative team.”
There are “tangential areas” and emerging trends to explore, he adds, AI being a clear example. “Then there’s a geographic component too. Obviously continuing to bolster the team; we don’t currently have a presence on the ground in continental Europe or in Asia.”
Ultimately, what Sam wants to achieve is to use the power of Alpha Group to unleash the potential of Alpha Agency.
“Twink has done such a great job of building the business and team over the years. And she’s absolutely brilliant at that. I aim to be a bridge, someone that can bring that Alpha Group perspective and help drive Alpha Agency forward.”