Profile: Nik Ellwood and Steve Lambert Opposites attract to deliver fast-growing marketing agency

C&W in Business caught up with Nik Ellwood and Steve Lambert, of We Are Nameless, to discover how their polar opposite personalities make them function as business partners and which Hollywood superstar gave them their company name.

When it comes to ‘how did your business get its name’ Top Trumps, Nik Ellwood and Steve Lambert have got a story that will beat allcomers.

The pair of brand strategy and marketing experts had been working together on and off in various roles for around a decade when they launched their own marketing company just before the Covid lockdown of March 2020.

Their first major pitch to a client not only delivered a contract, but gave birth to their company’s name.

“It was early 2020, just before the pandemic,” said Steve. “I was busy looking for jobs and I was lined up to go and work for a lovely luxury brand which ended up not materialising.

“Soon after, Nik got in touch about a project. He’d been doing a little bit of work for a motorcycle brand called ARCH in the USA, which is owned by Keanu Reeves.

“We went over in mid-March, did some strategy work with Keanu and his business partner talking about how they were going to expand. They really liked everything we discussed and then Keanu said: ‘fantastic, what’s your company called?’

“We hadn’t even thought of a name at that stage so we told him we hadn’t got one.

“He said: ‘so, you are nameless?’

“We told him: ‘that’s right, we are nameless.’

“And Keanu said: ‘there you go, that’s your name. We Are Nameless’.

“So, Keanu Reeves is responsible for our company name!”