Meet the Creatives: Amperative

North Somerset is home to many wonderful and unique businesses and organisations. This month, we’re delighted to introduce Dave Ackrill from Amperative.

How did Amperative start and how has it developed?

The company started almost by accident over 20 year ago when our founder was asked by a
friend to create a website. From this one site the demand grew and a small company was born.
Initially it was word of mouth, with smaller jobs but this expanded to us partnering with larger
charitable and not for profit organisations who make a real impact on their area and communities.
Our team also grew from 1 to 12+ and our experience in the web technology industry became
deeper and broader.

Having successfully collaborated on a number of projects with Hullo Creative, we (Worthers) were
excited to join forces with them in 2021. The team has continued to expand to over 20 and it is
great to see our values of collaboration, evolving and prioritising people being put into practise
across the company and wider to our clients. We now offer a full service agency with technology
and development capabilities, hand in hand with branding, design and creative skills.

After going through a structured and exciting naming process, we relaunched our new brand,
Amperative. With a new name, stronger team, focused vision and shared values, we have
embraced the new adventure.

Why did you decide to base yourself in North Somerset?

One of our founders Pete was born here in Clevedon Maternity Hospital and as an adult always
had the vision for an office in Clevedon (we decided Kenn is pretty close). Many of our staff also
grew up in the area and have a strong affinity to North Somerset. The office itself has beautiful
views and is near the M5 which makes it easy for visitors – we can’t picture ourselves anywhere
else.

How do you attract talented staff?

The culture within our team strives to prioritise people, relationships and sustainable working.
Our collaborative ethos and focus on team wellbeing means we create the right space for
creative and technical minds to flourish. This is attactive to prospective employees and means
that once people join, they very rarely leave. We embrace hybrid working so we can hire locally
and further afield to build a close-knit team who care deeply about what we do.

What have been your biggest challenges?

When the companies merged, we had the challenge of re-positioning ourselves and combining
two teams. We were assisted by the local company Culture Stretch who partnered with us
through funding from North Somerset Council. We explored questions such as:
Why do we exist?
What do we do?
Who must do what?
This sessions were so insightful that we still refer to them and they continually inform our choices
when it comes to team collaboration and making strategic business decisions.

What are your plans for the future?

We want to continue to thrive and build on our success. Our hopes are that we build a creative
and technical hub here in Clevedon, adding to our dedicated team and reaching more clients
across the community and the globe.

What have been your proudest moments?

There are so many and they would all revolve around people. One that comes to mind is when
we moved into our new offices at Breathe House. There was lots to do to get the office ready for
moving day. We asked for volunteers from the team and were overwhelmed with how so many
gave up their weekends and own time to chip in. It felt like a real team effort and many of them
can point to the parts of they office that they painted or contributed to.

How have the Economy Team supported you and what support would you like moving forwards?

One of the team members attended a event on Intellectual Property that was hosted by the team.
It was a really useful event, but also gave us the opportunity to connect with the Economy Team.
Since then, they have visited our offices and shared lots of useful resources.
Going forward it would be great to receive help on accessing grants and training to develop our
amazing team even further.

To find out more about the Amperative and the team, please visit www.amperative.com