1999 was a massive year. There was a total dud called Y2K. The Euro. Enron. A United treble. Napster’s debut. Bhutan got TV for the first time. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world, and Tori Murden the first women to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat. It was also the year eatbigfish started and officially launched the concept of a “challenger brand”.

This photo was taken in San Diego the night before the Account Planning Group conference, where we had a sort of coming-out party for the US operation. Adam and Peter had already brought some challenger mojo to Ragu. Adam and I had just pitched challenger to Kellogg in Battle Creek and we were about to run a workshop for a start up with John Sculley and Steve Hayden. Somehow, we got Rob Poynton there, too. Not a bad start.   

There was no investor deck, no robust five-year plan. But the reaction of the Kellogg’s receptionist when told that “eatbigfish” was in the lobby was priceless enough for Adam to know he’d found a distinctive brand positioning and a compelling way to start a different kind of conversation. We’ve been doing exactly that ever since, with anyone who’ll listen.

While Field has gone on to become a legend in his, umm, field and Poynton has managed to turn his biggest life skill into a popular book, eatbigfish has somehow turned twenty. The four of us had a commemorative lunch a few weeks back. No bunting, just great stories. We had a lot to catch up on.

It’s horribly cliched to say how blessed we’ve been at eatbigfish, but we have. The original partners are all still here, and we’ve built a wonderful little company that attracts top talent and does great work for blue-chip clients all around the world. 

Eating The Big Fish is in its second edition, there have been four additional books, and “challenger” is a widely embraced (if not entirely understood) business concept that we still enthusiastically obsess over.  

We’ve talked challenger with an amazing client list, as well as a few celebrities, a General, Lords, and even a Prime Minister. We’ve helped get things started, turn things around, and inevitably we’ve messed a few things up, too. But what a fabulous adventure.

Business beginnings are often excessively mythologized. But building a successful brand from scratch is a very difficult thing to do, keeping it going harder still. And so, while there’s no legendary garage in our past where it all started, there is a bar. None of us can remember its name, but we all remember how we felt back then — that we had something powerful, durable and valuable.

Here’s to the next 20 years.

Cheers!

It’s twenty years since the concept of ‘challenger brands’ was introduced to the world through Eating The Big Fish. To celebrate, we’re reflecting on its history and talking to a variety of industry leaders and experts to get a deeper understanding of how the concept has grown and evolved in our ‘20 Years of Challenger Brands’ series.