Marcus Richards
DRUM is a digital media agency, creating sustainable websites, apps, motion and marketing that is accessible to all.
Our mission is to create sustainable digital media that everyone can enjoy. With an emphasis on accessibility and digital sustainability, we help not only the planet for the future, but people for today.
Tell us about yourself?
Digital marketing has always been my passion since leaving university but we set up DRUM in 2006 after working for an agency that didn’t have the same morals as I felt people deserve. Great customer service in my opinion, costs nothing.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
It’s not necessarily advice for myself entirely, but lockdown made everyone completely reliant on digital for connecting to friends and family, shopping, working etc. This reliance once highlighted how inaccessible the digital world is.
We consumed more and more data, increased digital carbon emissions and isolated even more people. So I wish the industry had taken note of the issue pre pandemic and took a stand earlier.
What problem does your business solve?
DRUM creates digital marketing that is accessible to as many people as possible. Currently, over 95% of websites are inaccessible and with 20% of the population having a disability, that is a huge missed opportunity for brands.
Businesses lose £2 million a month by ignoring disabled customers so at DRUM we are here to help guide them into this market.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Kaye, Managing Director, has been working in the digital media industry since 2002.
I lived and breathed digital marketing day in day out, but in 2020, I suffered a brain injury and since living with both a very visible hemiplegia disability, I also have multiple invisible disabilities that highlighted to me very quickly that both the physical but also online world isn’t very accessible or welcoming.
What is your magic sauce?
At DRUM, we differ from competitors in the fact that yes, we are a digital agency providing innovative marketing and design ideas but we think differently.
We think about all the possible users your website might have, the viewers of your video, the followers on social media, the delegates at an event and their potential impairments to accelerate your conversion rate and therefore your ROI.
We think about the impact this campaign could have on carbon emissions and provide advice on how we can reduce this and make your brand as green conscious as it can.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
That is a big question!.
I’d love to be able to audit and consult with as many businesses and charities on their accessibility as possible and see people with disabilities being able to buy a gift online, book a table at a restaurant or a doctors appointment, read an email, obtain the same brand presence through social media as everyone else.
The list is endless and the possibilities are endless.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Everyone I speak to 100% agrees that it is a basic human right to access, shop, research or book in the same way as everyone else and that it should be commonplace but unfortunately until you, your child, your parent or grandparent require a little more understanding, it’s hard to really see the barriers that people constantly face every day.
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
People buy into the hard facts.
Although there are 14 million disabled people in the UK, brands also need to consider not just the person with accessibility needs, but their feedback to other people. Their poor experience may mean you also lose their friends and family as customers too.
Over 50% of people have someone in their close network with a disability. If they have a poor customer experience it affects their opinion with that business too. This brings the number of people who aren’t loyal to your brand to a staggering 40% population.
Accessible marketing isn’t something for ‘people with disabilities’, it’s for every human experience with your brand. Everyone should be included in a positive brand experience.
There’s a preconception that ‘accessible’ content is unexciting and featureless but with over 16 years experience of digital marketing, website design and motion graphics we can utilise our experience with advisory recommendations to aid you in creating a digital presence that is on brand, compelling for your target audience whilst also being as accessible and sustainable as possible to reach a wider audience.
