This was a hotly contested category, featuring a high standard of entries and scoring. Judges were impressed with The Romans’ commercial results and its creative work.
The Romans’ year has been characterised by fast growth, across revenues, profits and headcount. In 2021, it launched a specialist Sports and Entertainment division, landed impressive new business wins, grew organically and doubled its headcount. Around 30% of its work now spans Corporate and Public Affairs work, a new growth area for the agency.
The Romans also overhauled its approach to diversity by committing to being an actively anti-racist company, with policies on every page of its website. A quarterly audit is carried out across the agency’s people, its supply chain, the influencers it works with, the charities it supports with pro-bono work, social posts and decks, to ensure the agency is meeting its aims. It is also addressing representation at every level of its business; its management team is currently 80% female and 40% non-white.
Stand-out campaigns from 2021 included ‘Let’s Do London’, aimed at showing tourists that London’s shops and restaurants were open and that the city was open and safe to visit. Londoners including nurses, cabbies, celebrities and the Mayor of London took over tannoys on the tube for a month and used Underground announcements to tell the world what they’re missing out on. The campaign featured Mayor of London Sadiq Khan having breakfast at drag artist Bimini Bon Boulash’s favourite diner. The agency also worked with Lloyds Register and Sports Direct.
Silver: PrettyGreen
In 2021, PrettyGreen continued to deliver on its philosophy of being ‘Less Ordinary’, working with brands that want to get out of their comfort zone. It launched a standalone influencer division called What They Said, having identified this as a growth area for the business and delivered campaigns including ‘My Hair Won’t Be Silenced’ for Pantene and Black British History for Snapchat.
Its approach to ESG championed the sustainability of creativity, with PrettyGreen committing to being fully carbon neutral across all business operations by May 2022. The agency was also awarded full Blueprint diversity status in October 2021 and it has created a Culture Newsletter which is shared with clients, educating their teams on how to affect real change across all areas of DE&I.
Bronze: Hope&Glory
Hope&Glory thought bigger and better for 2021, creating work on a global scale and delivering better-than-ever returns. Client satisfaction levels were at their highest ever and the agency added a significant number of new clients, whilst maintaining and growing existing relationships. The agency also invested in talent, making a significant number of internal promotions, continuing with its internship programme and launching two new agencies into the PR landscape.
Shortlisted:
Tin Man
Across 2021, the agency continued to heavily invest in its people and policies and widened its offering to clients. It increased profits, retained the majority of its clients, recorded higher than ever staff satisfaction scores and grew its headcount by 20%, emerging from the pandemic in better financial shape than ever before.
Engine MHP + Mischief
2021 saw Engine MHP + Mischief bounce back from the uncertainty of Covid to record a stellar year. It grew revenue by 11%, winning 40 new clients and improving client quality and retention rates. The agency made no redundancies and invested in top talent by promoting 54 colleagues.
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
The agency recorded a strong year of growth in 2021 and increased its headcount by 20%. Its campaigns included creating a fictional TikTok influencer with Skipton, a petrolheads perfume for Ford and a virtual RecRoom community for Soap & Glory. Over 2021, the agency also made improvements to diversity and representation.
Taylor Herring
The agency led the charge for ‘PR with purpose’ with its responses to mental health challenges and diversity. It also dramatically increased the percentage of retained versus project-based clients, which has allowed it to make long-term investment decisions. 2021 saw the agency produce some of its best work and exceed projected agency revenues.
W Communications
The agency focused on a philosophy of ‘People over Profits’, ensuring that everyone in the agency felt emotionally and physically supported. Every member of staff received a pay rise over the 12 months, talent was recognised with promotions, and bonuses were honoured. The agency also committed to learning, providing mental health first aid training.
Take me back to the 北京赛车pk10 Agency of the Year Awards winners list