The World Has Gone Flex; Cue The Buzz

Introducing The Buzz, The Flexible Marketing Agency That Is Answering Your Business’s Real Estate Needs

The Buzz is a nimble marketing agency offering flexible marketing resources for growing businesses in and around the world of real estate. Whether you are looking to outsource your entire marketing function or have a time-sensitive project to deliver, The Buzz’s approach is to work in partnership with you, adapting to your needs and requirements to create a solution that is right for you.

Set up by Leonie Cowton in late 2020, The Buzz comprises a team of collective trusted marketing experts with varying levels of experience and specialisms – Leonie herself has over 15 years of experience in real estate, across a breadth of retail, leisure, commercial offices, development and most recently specialising in the flexible office sector.

Below, Leonie shares her thoughts on the current landscape of the working environment, the ever-changing demands of employees and businesses, and how this ultimately led to the creation of The Buzz.

Background to The Buzz: The World Has Gone Flex

In 2020, the entire world underwent a huge change – people’s freedom and day-to-day routines were literally thrown out of the window. As a consequence, health and wellness have been pushed into the spotlight, and what was once just considered a trend for the health-conscious has suddenly become increasingly important for everyday life. This concept of health and wellness is now considered non-negotiable and people are infiltrating this core belief into their employment choices, along with flexibility.

With this in mind, employees are empowered by these newfound beliefs, acting as a catalyst for employers to revise their working models and forcing office landlords to adapt their propositions as a consequence – a true ripple effect. With hybrid working as a drawn conclusion of this, the writing is on the wall that the flex office market is going to see an accelerated growth period – the big players are already redefining their propositions as we speak and are understanding that an inevitable shift between traditional and flex leases is happening rapidly.

When it comes to real estate, the difference between traditional vs flex offices is now more significant than ever. Not just the literal difference, it is a different culture – it is not just customer-focused; it is completely customer orientated. Ultimately, there is a short time to retain custom due to lease breaks and shorter leases vs. the traditional longer lease, so retention and customer service is paramount. The pace is also significantly different in flex, everything evolves much more rapidly so landlords, their supply chain and employers must adapt quickly and continually think outside of the box – more akin to an entrepreneurial mindset.

If you are a supplier to the flex market, are you ready for what’s about to hit? How will you ensure you get it right, align with the new norm and differentiate yourself from the competition? This is where The Buzz comes in. The Buzz’s hands-on, knowledgeable approach cuts through the current market noise and enables businesses to be heard.

Cue The Buzz: The Inspiration & Proposition

The proposition of The Buzz was shaped from three major insights. Firstly, clients of The Buzz are looking for more flexible ways of resourcing the marketing within their businesses – whether it is the low-risk option in a rapidly changing climate, a specific skill set required for a set period of time, or a business establishing its full marketing function from the ground up, there’s a growing business need to have readily-recruited and trusted marketing resources available, in a flexible way.

Secondly, the inevitable acceleration of the flex office market has created a need for many businesses in and around real estate, to reassess their marketing requirements to take advantage of the emerging opportunities.

And finally, all members of the virtual team, whilst varied in every possible way, all had one thing in common: the desire for a more dynamic way of working – flexible times, projects, clients and locations. A key driving force for The Buzz is having the ability to work with a multitude of clients as it generates dynamic energy that simply gets the team ‘buzzing’.

Beyond The Buzz: What To Expect Next

Over the course of 2021 and beyond, the team at The Buzz expect to see workspaces arriving in more diverse forms that traditionally haven’t been seen before, such as within residential complexes, hotels and leisure facilities. The Buzz anticipate that there will be a weighting shift in the geographical position of workspaces too and will be working with their clients to ensure that they are at the forefront of this cultural transformation.

The market is already starting to see emerging opportunists who want their piece of the flex office industry, some may just succeed too – but for those who have worked in flex or office design or managed a start-up know that whether it’s the operations, customer management, acoustic design, tech support systems, service or many other components; it is not such a simple task.

To succeed, businesses surrounding and targeting this industry will need an understanding of the values of the flexible office market and absolute clarity of proposition and purpose to ensure cut-through. As businesses adapt, develop and shape their position they will require creative thinkers at every turn, this is where The Buzz comes in – If there is a time-sensitive project like a new website to be delivered, a more strategic approach to your marketing required, or a specific skill set or experience level missing within your team, The Buzz can answer all your needs.

What keeps The Buzz Buzzing: The Creative Revolution

As a start-up business, born out of a global crisis, The Buzz truly believes that a creative revolution is upon us – with opportunities arising in abundance, creative thinking is a necessity.

The Buzz are responsive, trusted, transparent and adaptable, offering a flexible solution to businesses at the different stages of their lifecycle.

The company ethos is clear: ‘Creative thinking is the key to business evolution and success’.