Independent Agencies to Watch
Prolific North's inaugural Independent Agencies to Watch list showcases 15 rising stars from the North's independent agency sector.
Prolific North’s inaugural Independent Agencies to Watch list for 2023 recognises 15 fast-growing and rising agencies across the North.
Sponsored by Verlingue and compiled by Prolific North’s editorial team, the list was exclusively revealed at an event hosted in Manchester at Colony One Silk Street on 14 September 2023.
Although not definitive or a ranking, this list follows the success of Prolific North’s inaugural Tech Companies event last year. The Independent Agencies to Watch list reveals just some of the incredible independent agencies doing phenomenal things whether it’s a big focus on sustainability, soaring growth with revenue, staff or clients in just a year or two, or making waves with diversity.
Prolific North’s Independent Agencies to Watch 2023
Northern Artillery
Green Ginger Digital
Founded: 2020 / Key Clients: MKM, Modern Milkman, Warpaint Cosmetics, Face the Future / Location: Hull
Founded in 2020 before the pandemic with no clients and just £500 in the bank, this Hull-based performance marketing agency has established itself as a key player over the past three years. With an annual turnover approaching seven-figures, Green Ginger Digital works with the likes of Modern Milkman, MKM and Face the Future to deliver profitable online growth. One of the agency’s most significant achievements for 2023 is being announced as a Google Premier Partner and creating a positive working environment for its team of nine to grow and develop through investment in training and development.
We are Syn
Founded: 2019 /Key Clients: Dr Martens, Under Armour, adidas / Agency location: Leeds
Creative agency We are Syn is a rising star on the independent agency scene, growing 50% over the last 12 months. From working with global brands like Dr Martens, Adidas and New Balance to campaign product launches for Life Fitness, the agency hasn’t forgotten its roots in Leeds, continuing to work with local brands such as Boost Drinks and Cloud9. With a mantra of ‘give a sh*t and do good sh*t’, We are Syn credits its talented team as its biggest achievement.
Brazil Street
Founded: 2015 / Key clients: Icelloly.com, Coop Midcounties, Scenic Cruises, Optegra / Agency location: Manchester
In the last 12 months, Brazil Street has grown its revenues by 47% following year-on-year growth to £10m and has just moved into new offices in Cheadle Hulme following a raft of new business wins. Launched by Chris Brown and Peter Greenhalgh, the founders are proud of the agency’s 100% client retention rate, continuing its commitment to growing the team through hiring senior talent at the top of their game.
Aubergine
Founded: 2018 / Key clients: Filippo Berio, Vitamin Angels, Hope For The Future / Location: Leeds
Driven by two former journalists Emma Gardner and Verity Clarke, this sustainability-focused creative PR agency develops campaigns across food, health and tech sectors. Over the past 12 months, the company has achieved a 50% increase in turnover to a six-figure profit and is on track to achieve turnover of £1m by the end of 2023. With a ‘modern’ approach to working, the team embraces remote working with freelance talent and earlier this year, hired its first full-time employee.
Six & Flow
Founded: 2015 / Key clients: Red Cross, Smeg, HubSpot / Location: Manchester
Flying the flag as a ‘Manchester born and bred agency’, Six & Flow reports healthy year-on-year revenue growth despite the impact of Covid. With a “team-first” ethos, the agency credits its greatest win as bringing a diverse team together across multiple regions after expanding to London, Ireland, Canada, Japan and Mexico. The growth marketing agency has been HubSpot’s independent global partner of the year for the past two years and has recent annual revenues of £2.6m.
Bottled Imagination
Founded: 2022 / Key clients: Bynder, Fenwick, Protein Works, Victoria Plumbing / Location: Manchester
Founded just over 12 months ago by a trio of former Rise at Seven employees, this digital PR agency is already making waves on the independent agency scene with a turnover of £500,000 in year one. Standout achievements include winning a project with Puma in the agency’s first year and 100% staff retention. After winning top contracts with big brands and competing with bigger, more established agencies, Bottled Imagination’s future growth plans include investing its profits into a new office space, social events and staff training.
One Day Agency
Founded: 2019 / Key clients: Raventos Codorniu, Jordan Tourism Board, Unidays / Location: Manchester
Founded by CEO Ricardo Seixas, this advertising and marketing agency has significantly expanded over the past three years adding further offices in London and Philadelphia. The agency won a large-scale multinational pitch with Jordan Tourism board at the end of last year, to activate Jordan’s new “Kingdom of Time” out-of-home campaign across 10 European countries including the UK. In 2022, One Day Agency announced £3.5m turnover and moved into a new 2,000 sq ft HQ in Manchester City Centre.
Serotonin
Founded: 2019 / Key clients: ASSOS of Switzerland, Grainger PLC, NQ64 / Location: Manchester
Clair Heaviside and Dom Carter teamed up to launch the agency, formerly called The Light, in 2019 before rebranding to Serotonin in August 2020. In year three, without receiving investment, the digital marketing agency reached a turnover of £2.7m. The team has grown to 18, attracting top talent from big agencies, and has produced award-winning work for a range of international clients. Co-founder Heaviside was also recognised as one of the top ten female entrepreneurs to watch by The Telegraph and Natwest.
Ride Shotgun
Founded: 2022 / Key clients: HSBC, ASDA, Studio Retail / Location: Leeds
Following the merger of two independent agencies, Cry Havoc and Born + Raised, this agency is already riding the waves of success and has doubled in size since launching in January 2022.
In a strategic move, Ride Shotgun’s recent acquisition of tech-driven CGI content production specialists Creative Content Works (CCW), brings the team to over 160 people, with offices in Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester in the UK, as well as Sofia, Bulgaria and Portugal. Now with a combined annual turnover of around £12m, over the last 12 months Ride Shotgun has already expanded its services with an in-house CGI team and has a number of specialisms including brand strategy, animation, digital and social, to name a few. The agency was recently appointed by Studio Retail, part of the Fraser Group, to handle its home and leisure content production in a multi-year deal.
Edison Media
Founded: 2019 / Key clients: JD Sports, 3rd party brands including Nike, Adidas and Regatta / Location: Salford
Inspired by Thomas Edison’s philosophy, this female-led agency co-founded by Nicola Orrell and Jodie Howe has seen remarkable growth over the past four years with its vision to make media work better for clients. In the last six months, the agency’s digital department has doubled in size while working with global brands to deliver media and digital campaigns including the Nike Jordan takeover of 30 stores across six countries. The agency also advocates for supporting, inspiring and guiding women in similar roles to tackle challenges women face in the business world.
Jensen & Jensen
Founded: 2018 / Key clients: David Morris, MSDUK, MEFA, Artemis, Tyron Ash Real Estate International, Site Visibility / Location: Leeds
Set up by brothers Bradley and Myles Jensen, the duo are proud to have established a black-owned agency with a diverse team of at least 50% in Leeds. Jensen & Jensen’s journey of growth, from a bootstrapped start-up to an influential player in the creative industry within just a few years, has led to the team working with clients such as Manchester City Football Club, Burberry and CBRE. A standout achievement over the past 12 months is the agency’s successful collaboration with high-end jeweller David Morris with the Paris launch of its 2023 bridal campaign.
The Big Bamboo Agency
Founded: 2019 / Key clients: Greif, HE Simm Group, Cloud Nine, Safety Shield Global, Pandrol / Location: Harrogate
This marketing and communications agency was launched by Nicola Stamford, starting out with just two employees during the pandemic. The agency has since rapidly expanded to a team of 15 now working with global clients across a range of industries including rail, engineering and packaging. The Big Bamboo Agency came in at number 26 in Prolific North’s Top 50 PR Agencies for 2022 and ranked second in Prolific North’s Top 20 fastest growing PR agencies.
Soar with Us
Founded: 2019 / Key clients: The Essence Vault, Bee Inspired Clothing, Art of Football / Location: Leeds
Starting out while co-founders Joe Marston and Olly Hudson were still at university, this ecommerce growth agency is already flying high on the independent agency scene. As both co-founders recently celebrated their 26th birthdays, within three years the duo have scaled their company from £0 to £2m in annual recurring revenues. With over £30m spent on ads and nine figures in sales generated, Soar with Us has also become TikTok official partners and has helped to train the global social platform’s own internal team to do ads.
Bonded
Founded: 2021 / Key clients: One Utility Bill, Regital, OddsMonkey / Location: Newcastle
Launched in Newcastle by four ex-network agency figures each with more than 15 years experience in big network agencies such as Dentsu, Carat and WPP, this digital and media agency has gone from strength to strength in a short period of time. Picking up a trio of trophies at 2022’s Prolific North’s Champions Awards including Small Independent Agency of the Year, Bonded moved into new headquarters on Grainger Street in May to house a growing team currently at 18 staff. With a big emphasis on company culture and inclusivity, Bonded has ambitions to become one of the best places to work in the UK.
