Manifest’s Manchester brand services team is set to triple to six over the next two years as the agency appoints Lauren Preece brand services director having more than tripled its branding services fees over the past twelve months.
Manifest will also doubling the size of its design team overall in response to the record growth in its brand services work over the past year.
Preece will join longstanding chief design officer, Martin Farrar-Smith in leading the global branding team, which covers brand tracking, brand strategy and brand design. Based in Manifest’s London studio, Lauren’s role will involve working directly with the agency’s regional directors in the UK, USA, Sweden and Australia to coordinate a team of global designers, strategists and researchers.
Alex Myers, Founder & CEO at Manifest commented: “Brand strategy and development has always been at the heart of our proposition, and over the past two years, we have seen this aspect of our work experience explosive growth. It’s exciting to see Lauren join Martin in heading up the department globally as we continue to invest in growing our team and capacity, as well as our creative horizons in 2025 and beyond.”
Manifest’s unified brand communications offering encompasses brand consultancy, creative services, and campaign delivery, and according to Preece, this holistic mindset sets the agency apart when delivering brand work.
“There is an increasing appetite for brand work that is conscious of how the brand will be used in practice across the marketing mix,” she said. “As an agency not just responsible for building the brand but, in most cases, also taking it to market, our proprietary approach goes further than the usual brand creation process to consider communications and marketing efficacy at quite a detailed level.”
Preece’s holistic brand and marketing experience is one of the reasons she was appointed to the position, having taken up in-house brand roles at Virgin, where she was brand special projects manager, and as experiential marketing manager at BrewDog, alongside agency experience at Urban Nerds and before that, an original stint at Manifest between 2012 and 2015.
Martin Farrar-Smith, Manifest’s chief design officer and the other half of the brand services senior leadership team said: “Lauren’s appointment isn’t just a reaction to the growing scale of our brand consultancy work at Manifest, it will provide a driving force for our continued evolution and innovation. Our branding work has always had an integrated mindset, but Lauren brings with her a critical eye around the application of our branding work that ensures efficacy and impact across our clients’ entire marketing ecosystems.”
Manifest’s global client roster includes Diageo, Reckitt, Universal Music Group and Logitech, with their agency’s ‘unified’ approach allowing brands to consolidate agency support under one roof.
The agency also recently appointed Rowena Vithlani as its new managing director in the UK, where it operates studios in London and Manchester, while longstanding team member Helen Kenny stepped up to chief operating officer for the group in January.
