The Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies 2017

[ JUMP TO THE TABLE ]

Today we unveil the 2017 edition of the Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies, the definitive listing of the North’s largest digital agencies spanning SEO and PPC, web, content, mobile and e-commerce.

The Top 50 Digital Agencies initiative complements other ground-breaking Prolific North research features including the Top 50 PR Agencies, the Top 50 Integrated Agencies and the Top In-house Communicators.

The ranking is now firmly established across the North’s marketing services community as the yardstick for the digital sector.

Prolific North would like to thank our headline partners for this initiative, search marketing agency Click Consult and the hosting company iomart.

And as with our other research-led rankings, Mustard Research has managed the research underpinning the compilation and has ensured that the process has been rigorous and the results entirely independent – unlike some rankings which are predicated on financial subscriptions and payments to be included.

[ JUMP TO THE TABLE ]

Research methodology

Working together with Mustard Research, one of the UK’s leading independent research companies, and the financial reporting company fame BVD, we looked at the accounts of over 150 digital agencies which are either based in or have offices in the North, and we also asked the agencies themselves for supplementary financial and related data.

The initial long list was ultimately whittled down to the final 50 in this ranking.

Agencies were not offered the option to be included or not.

Prolific North and Mustard would like to thank all the agencies concerned, whether ultimately included or not, for their time and effort in helping us to compile this unique compilation and we look forward to new agency names joining the ranking next year.

In order to secure the full and transparent co-operation of all the participants – not just those where we were able to secure full financial data – we agreed with those agencies filing abbreviated accounts that we would not disclose the financials of any company in the compilation. This allowed these agencies to submit to us accurate information about sales and profits but also enabled them to retain a degree of privacy about their financial affairs.

Stickyeyes’s HQ in Leeds. The agency retained its No 1 ranking

 

The algorithm employed by Mustard is weighted on turnover, balance sheet and/or shareholder funds, ptp, growth over the past two years and headcount. Our information is not assessed over a given calendar year or period but simply reflects each company’s latest filed information. This does mean of course that an agency’s size and financial performance effectively take precedence over other factors such as expertise or specialisation.

Summary

Yorkshire agencies are once again on top, taking up four of the top five places on the list.

Leeds-based Stickyeyes retains its number one ranking, with Amaze the leading Manchester agency at number two. WMG, twentysix and Epiphany complete the top five.

Yorkshire agencies CDS Digital, Summit Media and Branded3 also land top 10 places, while Visualsoft at number six has bases across the North. Code Computerlove, which was acquired by MediaCom in December, is the only other Manchester-based agency in the top 10, at number nine.

Across the 50 as a whole, virtually every corner of the North is represented, including Newcastle’s Orange Bus (17), York’s Isotoma (39), Sheffield’s Joi Polloi (49), Lancaster’s Fat Media (22) and Liverpool’s Mando (23).

The Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies 2017

in association with Click Consult and iomart

* ICS-digital LLP has invested in two other businesses over the past year and expects to realise initial profits from those ventures in late 2017/early 2018.

See our other research tables:

The Prolific North Top 50 PR Agencies

The Prolific North Top 50 Integrated Agencies

The Prolific North Top 100 Brands

The Prolific Northerners Top 100

The Prolific North Top 50 In-house Communicators