Croud celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021. Its in-house team is made up of almost 280 digital specialists spread across offices in the UK, US and Australia, and the agency works with clients across the full spectrum of digital channels, including PPC, SEO, Amazon, creative, programmatic, paid social, content, ecommerce and analytics. Croud also has a network of on-demand digital experts known as ‘Croudies’.
In 2021, it expanded its in-house teams and Croudie network in line with new business wins, recruiting more than 100 new starters. It developed its digital marketing services, building out key departments such as data solutions and ecommerce and focused on international growth.
The ongoing development and training of teams has also been front and centre to its plans over the past year. In April 2021, Croud rolled out revamped ‘Career Development Frameworks’ for each employee, which involved employees and their line managers working together to complete a self assessment to identify both strengths and gaps. As part of its commitment to providing true equity to its employees, Croud also launched a new infrastructure, the ‘Croud People Matrix’, which re-evaluated all existing roles within the company to ensure equal pay for like-for-like or similar roles, and addressed any inconsistencies. It also made D&I a priority, launching an inaugural D&I report.
Globally, Croud saw its revenues increase by double digits and the judges said the agency had a clear impact on its clients’ businesses and that its thought leadership contributed to the wider industry.
Silver: Journey Further
Based in Leeds, Manchester and London, Journey Further’s growth continued throughout 2021, with marketing activity playing a key role in the agency’s organic growth and its new business drive over the last 12 months.
Social media is a key part of the brand marketing, led by a weekly vlog, Join the Journey, which provides a behind-the-scenes look at the agency. Journey Further also launched its own podcast, which speaks to business leaders, marketers, authors and journalists about the wrong they want to right. Guests to date have included Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland, Uncommon’s Lucy Jameson, Shamil Thakrar of Dishoom and Seth Godin.
Over the last 12 months, Journey Further has also run a number of brand marketing campaigns, which have included the launch of what t says was the UK’s first ever crypto treasure hunt and XV21 - a marketing event which included talks from Andrew Bloch, Grace Beverley and Abba Newbery from Habito.
Bronze: Assembly (formerly Forward PMX)
Assembly set itself a mission to deliver significant year-on-year revenue growth across Europe, whilst also repositioning the agency to become ‘the number one data and technology-driven marketing services company’ in the region. It reimagined its agency structure and global business brief through the creation of three core pillars that represent its global DNA - Products, Partners and Purpose. To ensure its salary bandings and progression rates were competitive against the market, Assembly built a dashboard to track salary levels and progression.
Shortlisted:
Impression
Impression’s response to Covid-19 helped make the agency’s relationship with its clients stronger than ever and it secured and retained business with market-leading brands. It also implemented new processes and ways of working to ensure that it attracts and retains the very best people and made progress in regards to its D&I commitments.
Tug
Tug won several new clients over 2021 and committed to promoting diversity and inclusion at every level of the organisation, with its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion steering group. Its in-house proprietary tools helped innovate and automate to drive results for its clients, and there are more tools currently in development.
The Kite Factory
Notable campaigns across 2021 included executing a media plan to maximise reach, drive fame and talkability to celebrate tennis in the UK on the back of Emma Raducanu’s US Open triumph and building awareness for White Claw - a hard seltzer brand. The agency has also focused on creating a diverse workforce in line with the IPA’s diversity targets.
Merkle
In 2021, Merkle achieved exceptional growth, through new business wins, cross-sales and new client investment. It enhanced its business by hiring key leadership and launching tech consultancy services and strengthened its CXM offer, helping clients to connect engagements across all consumer touch points.
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