GETTING PERSONAL Adam Ashborn

Adam is the founder and creative director of Reborn Marketing & Design, a furniture industryfacing agency which has delivered branding, marketing, event management and image creation for clients including Hydeline, Howen, and Leggett & Platt.

How might a child describe what you do?

We read people’s minds and visualise it, and then create it so it then becomes a reality. We also solve problems through the form of art.

What’s the biggest long-term challenge you face?

The global recession. Reassessing customers’ marketing budget and maximising their ROI will become more prominent than ever before during these cost-conscious times. It is a proven fact that no matter what the current global financial situation is, all leading brands continue to invest in their marketing to maintain a strong presence in the market place. At Reborn, we work with our clients to define their marketing goals, and then create an action plan, along with a budget, to achieve the desired outcome.

If you had 10 x your working budget, what would you spend it on?

First and foremost, fulfilling our clients’ ultimate marketing dreams! We would analyse their existing marketing and design campaigns to understand their ROI, and from there, we’d have a great understanding of the areas that gained great traction versus the areas that failed – and a great foundation to create a customised marketing plan that would take this increased working budget and turn it into a marketing campaign with great value and substance.

What would be the title of your autobiography? Feeling Reborn.

What does ‘work/life balance’ mean to you?

Understanding what your personal limits are before something becomes damaging to your health is essential. If you don’t have good health, it becomes more challenging to achieve high standards. Making time to relax is essential to ‘Feeling Reborn’!

Who’s been your most influential professional mentor?

Throughout my professional career, I’ve had great mentors and influences, but by far the best I had was my father. After he’d finished 22 years with the RAF, we both decided to embark on the same design and marketing dream, when we enrolled at the same arts university together. We continuously motivated each other to think outside the box, treating our tutors as if they were our clients, and trying to achieve higher grades than each other. Throughout university, we collaborated, motivated and guided each other. After we both graduated, we went on to form our own successful design agency for a period. www.feelingreborn.com

What advice would you give your younger self?

My perspective is to not look back at past events and wish something was done differently. All these life events mould who you are now, so learning from them is crucial to avoiding history repeating itself. I’m also a strong believer in ‘things happen for a reason’.

What’s been your best day in business to date?

Project-managing multiple trade show booths to completion. It is a great feeling to see the client’s sales team arrive at the stand feeling energised and proud to present their products, and hearing customers’ positive reactions firsthand. At Reborn, we take great pride in seeing what we’ve conceived with our clients and watching it grow and mature within the marketplace.

What’s the biggest myth about our industry?

ROI! Not all marketing can immediately be analysed to gauge its success rate. On some occasions, marketing or brand awareness campaigns can take time to mature within their surroundings. At Reborn, we take the seed, analyse the ground and then strategically place the seed in the ground, allowing it to have the best opportunity to grow and mature over time. However, with all marketing campaigns you need to continuously add nourishment to support growth, if you want to reap the fruits of your labour.

What should everyone in our industry either stop or start doing?

Start creating product innovations that will define who you are now and where you want to be in the future.

Where do you see the industry going in the next 5-10 years?

I suspect a big shift towards sustainable materials and in the manufacturing of raw materials.