Manchester-based independent media agency Love Sugar Science is kick starting the New Year by rebranding as Notorious Communications.
The agency, founded in 2019, has become one of the most renowned indies on the growing Manchester scene having delivered delivering inventive work for brands such as Chester Zoo, River Island, Crown Paints and Butchers Pet Care.
Originally backed by Goodstuff, through their Startstuff initiative; as the agency enters its fifth year, co-founders Nik Wheatley and Jessica Scott have taken full control of the business through increased shareholding, and total responsibility for directing product and output including the process of developing in-house buying capabilities.
In 2023 the agency doubled revenue and tripled headcount, now employing 18 people with further growth planned in for Q1.
This included key hires, such as former Zenith digital transformation lead, Jennie Geagea, to lead development of the agency’s digital and biddable product, Felicity Scott as finance director and former Stagwell Assembly digital client director Robin Wooller.
Additional hires in social and search specialisms will see the agency formally launching its own Biddable capability as part of the rebrand.
The team also ended 2023 with significant additions to the client roster, including Crown Paints, Liberty London, The Works, PGL, Clogau and Luxury Cottages.
The launch of Notorious Communications marks the next evolution of the agency, with significant developments to the brand and ambitions focusing on three key priorities: Greater clarity and focus on product and proposition – not just against the networks but vs. a maturing indie cohort; significant commitment through resource and structure to build the agency around a new wave of entrepreneurial digital talent, complementing established broadcast capabilities, and establishing buying infrastructure to trade as an independent entity.
Wheatley and Scott have been supported in setting the agency up to succeed as an independent entity by Lindsey Cook, former managing director of dentsu’s Amplifi, whose input has focussed on capability, structure, processes and buying.
The new Notorious Communications branding is represented by a new visual identity created with support of Manchester creative agency Meanwhile and brought to life by designer Rob Hemus. The brand is inspired by the agency’s philosophy of supporting ambitious brands, unafraid to go bold, using fully custom hand lettered logo type, bold colouring, and brush strokes to create the sense of movement as well as to bring an energy and passion to how we show up.
Wheatley said: “With the launch of Notorious Communications, we’re asserting a clearer more confident position in the market, underlining our ambitions to create an agency that competes on a level with the best in the UK wherever clever problem solving can make a big difference.”
Scott added: “We want to be famous for being the UK’s most exciting media agency; clever creators of surprising work, that works incredibly hard. Doing this now, five years after we first set up was important for Nik and I, to restate not just how ambitious we are but also what we expect of ourselves, our team and what we produce for our clients. Together we become notorious.”
