Category: Matchstick News

When we started Matchstick back in 2018 (before we even had our name) I couldn’t have predicted the journey we would go on. We’ve proudly employed over 15 matchsticks, many of whom had their first jobs with us, we’ve worked with many clients who share our passion for purpose-driven business and we’ve done stuff we know we’ll look back on and think, “We definitely got that bit right.” Running a business is a strange beast where you constantly feel out of your depth, like you’re never not chasing money and that you’re constantly having to innovate to stay afloat. Thankfully we took a more purposeful path that made all of the chaos, joy and late nights worth it. 

When 2023 came along and we had to make some of the hardest decisions we’ve ever had to make as a business, we paused and said “What now? What will keep us going?”. We went back to the drawing board and thought about all the stuff we liked about the previous six years and some stuff we wanted to avoid. At the top of the “Yes please” list was a rebrand. Our old brand had served us so well, but we knew that by shifting our services we also owed it to ourselves to put on a new suit (more likely dungarees) and reintroduce ourselves to the world. 

So, what’s new?

The main driver for our rebrand was our shift in services. We wanted to do more of what we loved, which meant more “thinky” time and less “do-y” time (technical terms). 

We stripped back our services to the stuff we really add value on:

Think

• Business and brand strategies – Because we’re B Corp, we were already advising beyond our marketing and comms remit to help businesses understand how to embed good growth across their organisations. We’ve formalised this by introducing proper business and brand strategy services so people can find a clear path, increase their social and environmental impact and achieve growth in a way that doesn’t feel gross. 

Clarify

Brand identity and voice – We love working on branding projects and we’re proud to have done it for some outstanding purpose-driven organisations. We’re here to make your visual and verbal identity sing. Take a look at our recent work for Hemsec and The Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre for Children to get a feel. 

• Brand experience – With our own skills deeply rooted in user experience and content, we’ve kept this in our creative toolbox. We can still support you with website development and creating collateral. Whether you need an Impact Report designing, a cornerstone digital asset to shout about your great cause or want to communicate something in a thought-provoking way, we can help. 

Act

• Stakeholder engagement – Without realising it, we were doing this stuff already but were using different language for it, so it’s the same service with a new name. This can take in everything from stakeholder interviews and workshops to our totally unique Firestarters events. We don’t just want your brand to talk the talk – you need to walk the walk as well. We’re only going to tackle The Big Stuff™ if we spark conversations and ignite action from the people in power.

We’ve updated our purpose, vision and mission as well but our values remain: act with empathy, lead with authenticity, stay curious and change things for the better. 

We’re still us, but with more focus. 

What’s the Good Growth stuff you keep mentioning?

Growth is important for any business, but what’s more important as a society is supporting businesses who want to achieve good growth. Good growth is when we think about people, planet and profit equally. Do we want to make money? Of course. But where does that money go after it has been made? Good Growth businesses are focused on reducing their environmental impact, supporting their local communities and creating work environments people want to be part of. All businesses should be working towards this, so it’s become our mission to make it happen. 

This video sums it up nicely, actually:

Who did your rebrand?

That’ll be I Am Female, a queer-led communications agency for brands tired of the same-old sh*t. To say they understood the assignment is an understatement. By pairing our new verbal identity (created by Ruth) with their visual creativity, we have created something we’re proud to call home. 

Just look at it:

What the future holds

The concept of being able to predict the future right now feels laughable to say the least. With the world’s most powerful climate denier back in the white house, a roll back on ED&I initiatives already being seen and a significant lack of movement on the climate crisis, the world feels scary and unpredictable at the best of times. To run a business at the moment, let alone a purpose-driven business, is an audacious quest fraught with perils (here be dragons). But persist we must. The only way to predict a better future is to set about making it. 

If you want to be part of the Good Growth movement we’re here to help. We’ll create a clear path amongst the chaos, build thought-provoking campaigns that change minds and bring people together under a shared goal. The future is as good as we make it. Let’s get to work. 

In 2022, we reached the huge milestone of becoming B Corp certified, demonstrating our dedication as a purpose-driven business to do more good and strive for positive change. As part of our B Corp commitment, we’ve produced our first impact report, highlighting the great progress that we’ve made over the past year to impact improvement, and also creating transparency around the areas that we found slightly challenging to hit the mark.

Gaining the B Corp certification was always the goal for us at Matchstick Creative, and is at the heart of our values and mission as an organisation. We wrote a blog explaining exactly why B Corp was right for us. 

What is a B Corp Impact Report? 

Impact reports are important for any B Corp-certified organisation, helping to provide an open and honest representation of their measurable social and environmental impact over a 12-month period. Helping both internal and external stakeholders to better understand an organisation’s B Corp journey, the annual impact report explores progress from the five core areas, which are:

• Governance – Our core mission, ethics and transparency 
• Workers – The way we help our Matchsticks from their career, to personal wellbeing
• Environment – Our environmental impact and management processes
• Community – How we’re supporting diversity, inclusion and equity whilst engaging with communities both locally and nationally
• Customers – Our commitment to working with 100% purpose-driven businesses and advocating for social change

Taking a deep dive into the key areas, the impact report will take a look at some of our big moments from 2022, the progress that we’ve made and how well we’ve worked to stick to our B Corp commitment. Alongside the good things we’ve done, we also know there’s room for improvement. Taking into consideration the things we found slightly challenging in our first year of B Corp, the report will take a look at our goals for 2023, and exactly how we’re going to do it! 

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What impact has Matchstick Creative had in 2022? 

We’ve learnt a lot in our first year of becoming certified, hitting many milestones to help us create impact along the way.  Last year, we were proud of our successful commitment to working with 100% purpose-driven businesses and the steps we’ve taken to support our Matchsticks, such as setting up our HR functions and implementing our first-ever staff handbook. Our vision to drive social impact has been exceeded with a host of successful Firestarters events, including three events at The Good Business Festival. We’ve been busy!

Where can I find the first annual B Corp impact report?

Our goal is to share with our incredible purpose-driven community the work that we’ve done over the past year to do more good for both people and the planet. You can explore our impact and our commitments for 2023 by reading the report here.

From exciting purpose-driven projects to our Matchsticks hitting big milestones, we have lots of great things happening. Be the first to hear about our latest news by signing up for our newsletter.

To stay up-to-date with the latest news and updates, make sure to follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

We’re thrilled to announce that last week we were officially awarded B Corp™ status. As a purpose-driven creative agency, this recognition of our commitment to doing good solidifies how working with a strong vision and ethics, whilst leading with empathy, can benefit business in many ways.

So, what is B Corp?

The global B Corp movement is a group of leaders using business as a force for good. The B Corp community works toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and the creation of high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose. It focuses on placing stakeholders at the heart of all businesses, harnessing their position to transform the role of business in society. 

Essentially, the B Corp certification aims to reinvent capitalism to ensure that it works for both people and the planet. Which sounds just like us.

Becoming B Corp certified requires a rigorous assessment of the whole of the business – not just services and products – to ensure you meet high standards for social and environmental performance. And for good reason, there are only 360 B Corp certified businesses in the UK, so we’re in good company. We’ve long admired other businesses who have achieved this sought-after status, so we wrote a blog celebrating our favourites here. 

The assessment looks at five key areas across the business:

• Governance – mission and engagement, ethics and transparency, governance
• Workers – career development, health, wellness and safety, engagement, human rights, worker owned
• Environment – Environmental management; air and climate; water; renewable energy; resource conservation; transport distribution & suppliers
• Community – Diversity, equity and inclusion; supply chain management; civic engagement & giving; local economic development
• Customers – Customer stewardship; education; access to basic services; economic empowerment

Assessments are scored on a points basis and to qualify a business has to score over 80. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfl9vx6MIsn/?hl=en

Why B Corp?

For us, becoming B Corp Certified was a goal from the beginning. We are on track to hit our 100% purpose-driven work target in 2022 and being included in the B Corp community is a massive nod to all the effort we’ve put in on our journey so far. Working at a 100% purpose-driven rate isn’t always easy, but the commitment we have to doing good – and only doing good – as an employer, partner and member of our community is something that is integral and central to our culture. 

As a company we scored highly in the Governance section – specifically on our mission and engagement levels. Our culture is central to our business planning and all day-to-day decisions – we were recently shortlisted at the UK Company Culture awards for ‘Best Team Culture’. We go above and beyond to engage the whole team with decisions around workload, projects and the direction of their careers. A bi-monthly retrospective formalises this, but we have clear open lines of communication at all times, on all levels of the company. 

Alongside this, we are committed to keeping wellbeing central to our business practises. We’re always looking for ways to improve our colleagues’ lives, whether that’s through enhanced leave and parental policies, or giving them the opportunity to structure their work hours around personal commitments and projects. Recognising tangible help to support everyday lives of the team has greatly improved our staff wellbeing. We’ve addressed this by becoming a Real Living Wage Employer, providing a home working fund for equipment and laying out our policies in a transparent way. Inspiring confidence in Matchstick Creative as an employer, as well as a brand, helps our business practises whilst simultaneously supporting our staff.

We prioritise supporting our Matchsticks in their career journeys, which was why career development was also an area we scored highly on. We do this through regular PDP meetings to help our colleagues achieve their goals. Our improved working processes and empathetic culture have resulted in:

• 3 promotions 
• 1 career change 
• 5 Kickstart placements
• 2 mentorship schemes
• Enhanced staff retention

What does the B Corp status mean for Matchstick Creative?

Although achieving B Corp status was the focus of our agenda for this year, it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement in both our business and our impact. We will be using our new status to influence business policy and help drive our  mission to be as impactful as possible. We’re also continuing to work towards clear career development plans for all staff, a full staff training programme and refining our business model. 

We want to say a big thank you to our clients, partners and everyone who has supported us so far. And major ‘snaps’ to our team for being the most talented and empathetic people who make coming to work everyday something to actually look forward to.
Find out more about our story and our values, or get in touch with our CEO to discuss B Corp certification and what it could mean for your business.

On June 24th 2022 The Supreme Court overruled the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade. This truly breathtaking decision has left many women, including myself, reeling from the news. To quote my colleague, I am both shocked and completely unsurprised this has happened. 

I wanted to take the time to comment on this from the only lens I have; my own. Rather than focus on the facts (this Guardian article does it better than I could) I wanted to focus on my own experience of abortion and how this decision in America will affect women in the UK. As someone who runs a purpose-driven business, I have a duty to speak out about the things that affect our planet and the people who inhabit it. This may sound lofty, but it’s the truth. Difficult conversations have to be had for progress to be made. And for me to be sitting here writing about a decision that was reached 50 years ago is blood boiling. 

My experience with abortion

When I was 21, I needed an abortion. I became unexpectedly pregnant, was in the middle of studying and had no intention of giving up on my aspirations to support a child. To this day, I am still resolutely child-free. It is by design. I chose, and continue to choose, to not have children. I was able to make that decision when I was in my twenties and I would make the same decision now. The idea that a group of men I have never met could change the way my life looks feels far too Attwoodian to me. 

As many wise women have said before me, making abortion illegal doesn’t stop them from happening. It makes them dangerous. Since the beginning of time women have been carrying out abortions and they will continue to do so. All this decision has managed to achieve is to add yet another layer of stress, anger and hurt to an already difficult situation. Abortions are needed for a myriad of reasons and all too often the dialogue surrounding them lands on trauma. Not wanting a child should be reason enough. I am exhausted having to explain this. Abortion is a medical procedure. It is only when the church or state gets involved that it becomes anything but.

So why does this effect women in the UK? If the richest country in the world can make this decision then it is highly likely our own government will have had similar thoughts – and even conversations. When reproductive experts in America said “they’re coming for Roe v Wade next” people called them hysterical. Doesn’t that sound familiar? To downplay a woman’s concern surrounding her autonomy and body? 

For the last three days this decision has sat uneasily with me. It has felt like a sob clinging to the back of my throat. It has forced me, and many other women, to think back to a decision that is often difficult (and sometimes I would like to stress, not at all difficult). Our feeds have been filled with stories of women’s trauma, the very immediate decisions they will have to make and how their future plans have altered drastically. 40 million women are affected by this decision. 40 million. Their fates decided by people who will never have to live through their experiences. 

So, what do we do?

I always tend to be an action-driven person. Whilst it is important to mourn, get mad, yell into the void and create voodoo dolls of the men who made these decisions, it is also important to take positive steps. When faced with such an enormous outcome as this, it’s important to focus on small things you can do to feel like you’ve got some control. 

Let’s take the power back, together. 

Here’s what I’m going to do:

1. Invite women to speak about it in a way that’s helpful to them. Want to yell? I am your sounding board. Want to sit quietly and fume? I can bring tea. If you are in my network and beyond, reach out to me so we can talk it out: ruth@matchstickcreative.co.uk
   
2. Donate to Planned Parenthood. The bastions of common sense in difficult conversations such as these – the money will go to help those people affected by this outcome.
   
3. Create an environment in my own business where it is normal to talk about abortions. Business leaders can encourage better understanding and more positive action. This is what being purpose-driven truly means. 

I know you’re tired. I know it’s exhausting to keep explaining the glaringly obvious about something that shouldn’t even be a conversation anymore. But by taking these small steps, we can do something. 

For now, I’ll end with some iconic nonsensical Latin from Margaret Attwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, the ultimate cautionary tale of what happens when you take away women’s autonomy. “Nolite te bastardes carborundorum”, loosely meaning “Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” 

This decision may feel like a massive defeat, but together, we can achieve small victories.