Summer 2026 - Returning customers and growth

Above - Niki Roach interviews Angela MacOscar for Planet Possible Spotlight at the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival

It was a great pleasure to head up to Newcastle Racecourse for the third year in a row to continue our working relationship with Northumbrian Water. Each year they trust us to tell the story of their Innovation Festival in a new way. 

This year they came with the creative answer themselves. The theme for the festival was 'The Power of 10' (since the festival is ten years old) and in our initial meeting they suggested the idea of speaking to ten different voices from around the festival to get across the breadth of what is covered and achieved here.

Great idea. Simple and effective.

I remember learning early in my career that sometimes your job is to get out of the way. This was a case in point. Our job is to tell the story of the festival in a new way each year... not come up with a different (and probably not as simple or effective) idea just for the sake of it. We come up with great ideas and so do other people. It doesn't have to be OUR idea that is the best. So we cracked on.

It was easy to find 10 different voices, especially when working with someone like Planet Possible's Niki Roach whose effortless ability to connect with and interview people is so useful in a context like this. The above interview (with Northumbrian Water's Head of Innovation, Angela MacOscar) is a great example of how - with the right creative treatment - it's possible to get strategy across in an engaging way.

At last year's Innovation Festival we were approached by OFWAT (the water sector regulator) to talk to them about finding new ways to tell the stories of all the great groundbreaking work going on in projects funded by their Innovation Fund. I'm delighted to say that work has now started on that project and is hugely promising already. To be discussed further in a future post.

It's very encouraging to be able to write a post about returning and new customers. The need for innovation (in all areas of business) is higher than ever, and we are happy to be helping more and more companies and organisations innovate in ways that deliver increased impact, higher revenue... and often both.