Steve McComish

An interview with Motive's founder and MD.

Motive's founder Steve McComish has decades of experience in journalism and PR. Let's get to know him a little better:

Steve, welcome to your Q&A. Can we start by asking your full name?

My full name is Stephen McComish but almost everyone calls me Steve. That's it, no embarrassing or amusing middle names to share I'm afraid.

Can you say a little about your career path to date?

Well I did a social sciences degree at NTU and graduated in the early 90s without really being sure of what to do next. After a succession of character building jobs I ended up in journalism at the Nottingham Post. That was a great training ground and really good fun. From there I went on to the Daily Mirror for six years from 2001 to 2007. After that I started working for myself and eventually founded Motive in 2008.

Who is the most famous person you met as a journalist? ‍

There are lots. I met many public figures while working at the Mirror including Margaret Thatcher and King Charles (or Prince Charles as he was then). There were also sports stars such as Wayne Rooney and actors such as Bruce Willis. I shared a burger with him at Planet Hollywood which was a little surreal. Then there's my former editor at the Mirror, who has become quite famous in his own right (Piers Morgan).

Why did you move into PR?

For many reasons. Journalism can be great fun but working in news can be very exhausting and you can suffer burn out. I think I got a little fed-up with covering crime stories and hard news. Switching to PR meant I could focus much more on positive stories which has been very rewarding.

How did it go from you working for yourself to the agency Motive is today?

‍I never set out to create an agency, the idea at the beginning was just to work for myself. As it grew and got to the point where I couldn't do everything by myself I had to hire others to help me out. As time has passed we have worked hard to professionalise the agency and build the culture we have today.

Why does the agency have such a digital focus?

We started out with a more traditional media relations offer but as the years have gone by we naturally specialised in e-commerce and that has developed into a model where online coverage and SEO links are KPIs which many clients value. We have also found that having fun and coming up with the kind of creative campaigns we love here has led to fantastic outcomes for our clients around digital PR so it's become quite a natural progression for us to specialise in this area.

Can you tell us more about the agency culture?

I'm really proud of our team and the dynamic we have built here. We have a defined culture of Collaboration, Kindness and Respect and those aren't just buzz words. We really do live by those values. Having come from busy newsrooms, especially on newspapers in the 90s and early 2000s, there was quite a macho style culture, where the only thing that really mattered was getting exclusives. I consciously wanted to build something opposite to that where people felt nurtured and valued. I believe people do their best work when they feel looked after in that way.

Why should PR professionals work at Motive rather than at another agency?

There's the obvious stuff, we offer more freedom and flexibility than other agencies with benefits such as working from home three days a week and flexible hours, but really the main benefit is the culture and the team. Then there's our focus on fun work. We're not a stuffy, boring agency like so many others. Our client list is more fun than most other agencies too.

Above all we focus on PR and doing it brilliantly. So many other agencies try to do everything and PR becomes a somewhat neglected and under-valued strand. So if PR is your thing, especially digital PR, then you should definitely think about joining us.

Finally, what's your favourite movie and why? ‍

Hard to name one fave so I'll give you my top three Pulp Fiction, with my mate Bruce Wills, Jerry Maguire and A Hard Day's Night. The order changes but those three generally stay at the top of my list.

Pulp Fiction for Tarantino's story telling, Jerry Maguire for the business wisdom of Jerry's mentor, the late great Dicky Fox and A Hard Day's Night for the train scenes and the music.

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