Nielsen billings 2017: n/s
Declared income: £13.3m (2016)
Total accounts at year end: 29
Accounts won: 7 (biggest: n/s)
Accounts lost: 2 (biggest: M&S Bank)
Number of staff: 151 (+1%)
Key personnel: Lucy Doubleday, managing partner; Mobbie Nazir, chief strategy officer; Alistair Campbell, executive creative director; Elie Adamson, head of client services; Jim Coleman, chief executive
Star player: Tom Ollerton, innovation director
It’s been a year of steady, though not dramatic, growth for We Are Social – an achievement not to be sniffed at during a time of industry unpredictability. The agency picked up seven accounts and grew its work with existing clients YouTube, Adidas, Samsung and Netflix. This has helped offset the loss of two major clients: M&S Bank and Heineken.
The agency’s leadership has remained relatively stable, with the exception of executive creative director Graham Jenks’ move to Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. Jenks’ shoes were filled swiftly by Alistair Campbell, who joined in February from Guardian Labs.
The agency has also doubled down on its innovation proposition, led by innovation director Tom Ollerton. Domino’s appointed We Are Social as its innovation agency, while its Future Tech team has the task of ensuring the agency remains on top of the latest technology.
As part of this innovation focus, the agency launched an Alexa Skill for Domino’s that allows users to order a pizza by asking their Echo devices to feed them. We Are Social also pioneered Snapchat’s animated geofilters on behalf of Samsung for Christmas Day.
Diversity is something the agency claims it has been championing since long before its rise to the top of adland’s agenda. More than half (53%) of its staff are female and three of its five most senior employees are women (Lucy Doubleday, Mobbie Nazir and Elie Adamson).
The agency has also set up #WeAreShe – an internal group to help empower its female employees – and launched an internal diversity task force. All in all, a solid year.
SCORE THIS YEAR |
SCORE LAST YEAR |
SELF RATING |
| 8 | 6 | 6 |
Agency's year in a tweet
We sent pizzas by voice and persuaded Diane Morgan to try falconry. We sold boots with Becks and made a grime video. Weird, wonderful 2017.
Score key: 9 Outstanding 8 Excellent 7 Good 6 Satisfactory 5 Adequate 4 Below average 3 Poor 2 A year to forget 1 Survival in question
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