Matheson: Reconsidered virtual presence while staying true to brand

As part of our 10 opinions for 2021 report we interviewed Simon Fullam, Communications Manager at Matheson. Matheson are the largest law firm in Ireland. They service the legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland. They have advised the majority of the Fortune 100 companies.

Talking about digital, what was your biggest challenge in 2020? If there were no challenges, what were your biggest learnings?

During 2020, COVID-19 highlighted the need for us all to quickly transform how we worked. Developing a more agile approach to day-to-day planning was the most obvious challenge that businesses experienced during the year. Just as we saw in our personal lives, throughout the business world, a digital or online focus needed to be quickly applied to almost all activities and events, which meant a shift in skills and an emphasis on innovation.

With that in mind, we reconsidered our virtual presence and how we could continue to reach audiences in both the domestic and international markets, while staying true to our brand promise. One of the most significant projects we invested in was the redesign of the Matheson website, refreshing not only our digital brand aesthetics and the technical architecture, but also significantly improving its navigation. A project like this came with its own challenges as it required structured approaches, constant collaboration within the project team, as well as continuous assessments, reviews, and analysis to ensure that expectations were met and that we could creatively execute our plan.

Some of the biggest learnings came from how we approached different tasks, including research, the use of data and analytics, the implementation of new tools used in the process and the overall time and capacity planning across the variety of expertise within the team. Oh, and all of this was all achieved whilst working remotely! Ongoing communications and agile collaboration were also critical to the success of the launch of the new website, and in this the Matheson project team had access to a number of different tools which proved to be invaluable when aligning our priorities and identifying solutions.

Where you are now, what do you think 2021 holds for you? In other words, what will your focus for 2021 be in terms of digital?

For 2021, we plan to continue to evolve and sharpen our digital focus. Like everyone, we are almost one year working in this new environment and have already built up a bank of new learnings and insights. We will continue to unveil further insights, create more value for our audiences, seek even better ways to work and challenge the status quo. We also recognise that this means the members of our marketing team will be constantly improving their skills. There is no digital team – it is the one marketing team with very strong digital skills.

From an audience reach perspective – we will continue to put a digital focus into our campaigns and events, albeit the approach may need to be a hybrid digital and physical world model. It will be important that we continue to create new learnings, embracing data and the relevant feedback gathered from our marketing initiatives and audiences (both direct and indirect), so that we better understand their needs and are ahead of the curve in terms of what is happening in our industry. This collaboration/partnership model will continue to be at the forefront of our plans, as it has now been proven to deliver results.

Where you are now, what do you think 2021 holds for you? In other words, what will your focus for 2021 be in terms of digital.

At Matheson, we strive to make a meaningful contribution to our community - our clients, our people, and our society. We take pride in what we do and consistently deliver excellent services. We invest in developing our people, we seek to give back to society and we are strong advocates for our economy.

Similarly, in digital we are inspired by companies that just like us challenge the status quo and seek better ways to work, to create value for their clients and to empower their people to innovate. Two companies that inspire us at Matheson are Ringsend & Irishtown Community Centre and Jobcare. Both organisations are helping other people to get improve their personal situation and achieve more. During the pandemic they, like many others, had to find their way to continue being there for their members. We are glad to see that they successfully managed to do so, and by adding little things, such as a live online Christmas events, fun family quarantine quizzes, online courses, and webinars, they were able to remotely offer support their members when it was most needed it.

Read about Central Bank of Ireland, Dublin Airport, Ibec, Samsung, VHI or learn more about the other opinions by downloading our report.

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