Malta, January 27th 2020

Matthew Sammut is the executive director and co-founder of NIU, a full-service agency based in Malta that focuses on developing digital products.

He started the agency in 2009 and has experienced its growth since then, working with leading international clients such as ECCO and MFSA and creating a team of talented designers and marketers.

In an interview with TIA, Sammut described his regular day at the office and the challenges brought in by the pandemic.

He highlighted the creative culture of NIU, helping its employees in their personal development, and explained how the agency works with accessibility, making sure clients understand their recommendations.

What’s a regular day like on Matthew Sammut’s shoes?

I kick-off the day with a fun inspirational NIU team meeting to make sure that our day is set and all teams are in sync.

My main job during the day is to make sure that our operation is running smoothly and effectively, I also find time for networking and catching up with clients.

Most of the time I dedicate the late afternoon delivering digital marketing lessons at ICE Malta and I wrap it up with an end-of-day team call where we recap and celebrate our wins.

Could you explain to us briefly what’s your role as co-founder at NIU?

I oversee the day-to-day running of the business keeping close communication with all my team managers as well as focus on the business development aspect of our brand to ensure that we remain leaders of our game.

We are living the most important pandemic in recent world history. What challenges were you facing before the spread of COVID-19 and how are you dealing with them right now?

The pandemic has triggered even greater demand for eCommerce websites so deadlines are tighter and the number of clients who want to use our services continues to increase at a rapid pace.

For this reason, we have realigned our internal processes to be able to support our present clients and onboard new brands too.

How would you describe the creative culture of NIU?

Creativity is at the heart of everything we do – whether it’s designing, building or marketing a website we are known for our ability to innovate and throughout all stages, our goal is to ignite a creative thinking process in our clients as well.

Attracting and retaining talent is one of the constant pursuits that every great agency faces. What is your approach to motivating and developing talent?

We give our talent room to grow and invest in their personal development. We have a training program set that gives each employee the opportunity to design a learning plan aligned with company goals and their aspirations.

This together with the fact that we work hard to make NIU a fun place to work, makes our talent motivated, inspired and empowered to present their best work and increases their brand loyalty immensely.

Can you walk me through your development processes?

We are extremely proud of our development processes. Our talented team are specialists in different areas so there is no need for us to outsource.

Occasionally we do choose to collaborate with like-minded teams, just for fun.

Accessibility can be difficult to acknowledge, how do you ensure that your clients understand what you are recommending?

We developed our own accessibility module in 2018 to provide assistance for users with visual impairments and more. Here’s a snippet of how we explain the standard process we include and the advanced plugin we offer:

Accessibility. The website will be developed in compliance with the guidelines for websites’ accessibility. The site administrator(s) will easily be able to add tags to images allowing the visually impaired to go through the website. This also improves SEO. An optional module to enhance this further is also available.

Advanced Accessibility. Through this module, visually impaired individuals will be able to experience the website in a better manner. This module also ensures that the website Is compliant with the latest regulations related to accessibility.

What’s an interesting trend you’ve noticed in the industry?

Popularity in eCommerce websites has been on the rise because local companies are understanding that they are in constant competition with international brands as well as mega websites such as Amazon + eBay.

Apart from having a strong online platform, they are also coming up with attractive benefits for prospective clients such as free delivery and other perks.

What advice would you give to a new nonprofit startup that is looking to build a smart digital strategy?

Plan ahead. While in most start-up cases budgets are tight, ambitious teams have to understand the power and potential of a user friendly, highly intuitive, engaging website together with an effective, target driven digital marketing strategy.

They also must budget for ongoing website maintenance and an updated plan which will prove to be crucial to their growth.

What do you like doing in your free time?

I love spending time with my family and reading about the latest trends in my line of work.

Can you name a fun fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I really enjoy sharing my industry insight and expertise with the next generation of digital marketing talent. My teaching time is extremely rewarding.

Thanks Matthew!

Learn more about NIU

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