Last month I was invited to explore full-service agent drp’s new expanded facility in Worcestershire. It was a trip that would leave me with two notable headaches: one a result of the champagne, and the other knowing where to start with describing such an agency in just 450 words.
In context, after the first 50 words and with 400 to go, I could perhaps compare my perceived plight with drp’s CEO and founder, Dale Parmenter.
If anyone needed inspiration on how to succeed from scratch then Parmenter’s story is a good place to start.
Starting off as a videographer in the early 1980s, Parmenter demonstrated true entrepreneurial spirit by taking on ambitious projects. He was occasionally burned, learning quickly that in order to succeed he needed the best people and full control of any given project.
His operation began to swell, and by 2001 employed 25 people. The 11 September attacks proved testing, with tough decisions needed to survive. It did, and then survived again after the recession in 2008. Parmenter is not afraid to admit that he had to take drastic action to keep the doors open.
Since then, though, drp has boomed and today the company employs over 100, and the facility they have at their disposal offers no indication that it began in a shed with a Betamax recorder.
But what do they do?
I’ve put this off for 227 words because it would be easier to say what they don’t do. And even then I’m sure they’d come back to me and say: “actually, Martin, we do do that too”.
The first thing of note is that everyone who works there clearly enjoys it, hardly surprising when you see the scale of the kit they have. I want to call it a design studio, but it’s a huge open plan mezzanine in an old warehouse, with hardware stretching from wall to wall. From the creative department and the motion-capture video man dressed in cables, to the 3D virtual venue creation board and the venue finders, the expense beggars belief.
Downstairs there is a huge workshop for set building, a printing lab, storage facility, three studios and even a dedicated outdoor space for pyrotechnics testing. And then there are three event spaces, including a nightclub.
Parmenter prides himself on the full delivery of a product. From the concept to the finished article, his team takes full control of the entire project.
They call themselves ‘The Possiblers’ – they say anything is possible. And when you consider that they have flourished 150 miles outside of London, who can argue?
After 30 years of graft Parmenter has achieved what he set out to do, and 450 words later, so have I.
