Laura Graham, Dena Walker, Oli Richards, Dan Southern, Zaid Al-Zaidy, Ed Cox, Nicholas Ost, Jonny Ray, from left
LONDON’S
MOST-AWARDED FULL-SERVICE INDIE
How London’s only fully integrated indie is breaking apart agency silos to harness their collective power for brands with big ambitions – and having fun while they do it
Laura Graham, Dena Walker, Oli Richards, Dan Southern, Zaid Al-Zaidy, Ed Cox, Nicholas Ost, Jonny Ray, from left
LONDON’S
MOST-AWARDED FULL-SERVICE INDIE
How London’s only fully integrated indie is breaking apart agency silos to harness their collective power for brands with big ambitions – and having fun while they do it
What do you do best for brands?
We supercharge the world’s greatest brands through the power of collectivism. We are a modern, independent, creative collective consisting of four specialist agencies spanning creative (Above+Beyond), media (Yonder Media), strategy (Frontier) and production (Collective Studios). Our unique one-P&L-one-team culture enables us to build bespoke multi-disciplinary teams to deliver award-winning, effective, and fast-moving work.
What sort of clients are you best fit for?
We have extensive experience working with fast-moving retail, DTC, food, hospitality, and beauty brands. However, our collective experience goes far beyond that, and we are a great fit for any client who has the ambition to lead and disrupt their category, is open to deploying their resources in new ways to achieve an unfair share of the market, and who really enjoys working in partnership with their agencies.
How does your work transform a client’s brand?
Because we’re an integrated collective, we can flex in ways that support growth. Whether that’s laser-focus on a specific specialism such as media investment modelling that helps clients better forecast how their funds can drive growth, or with big brand platforms executed with culture-piercing creativity that leads to innovative, famous, and effective advertising like we did with ‘For A Cure’ for Alzheimer’s Research UK. We’re equipped to provide thinking across our entire bench without creating bloat or complexity.
What’s distinct or exemplary about the way you work? What about your people inspires clients most?
We don’t have a set way of showing up for a project, just a set of values that guide us, and clients regularly feedback about how refreshing it is for them. They feel heard, positively challenged, and talk about their renewed optimism about making great work that works. We are proudly open, warm, and collaborative and at the end of the day our ‘Beyonders’ are our best asset, so it’s a source of huge pride that we are a ‘Top 100 small company to work for’ in the UK.
How do you advance advertising as a lever for business growth?
We’re proud to be an IPA Effectiveness-Accredited agency; an endorsement that our culture is dedicated to driving positive impact powered by the greatest economic multiplier there is: creativity. We know that advertising works, with recent campaigns demonstrating ROI payback above 5:1, because we have an effectiveness culture running through everything we do. Grounding ourselves in data, pushing the sharpness of our insights, constantly testing and learning, and always staying abreast of what’s changing and evolving. We never rest on our laurels.
How do you use Worldwide Partners to expand clients’ businesses?
Membership of the Worldwide Partners network has helped to supercharge our capabilities as a business – both by expanding the markets in which we’re able to operate and the capabilities we can offer our clients. The ‘reverse holding company’ model means that clients only pay for what they need and the teams they work with are there because they want to be – not because they have to be.
What do you do best for brands?
We supercharge the world’s greatest brands through the power of collectivism. We are a modern, independent, creative collective consisting of four specialist agencies spanning creative (Above+Beyond), media (Yonder Media), strategy (Frontier) and production (Collective Studios). Our unique one-P&L-one-team culture enables us to build bespoke multi-disciplinary teams to deliver award-winning, effective, and fast-moving work.
What sort of clients are you best fit for?
We have extensive experience working with fast-moving retail, DTC, food, hospitality, and beauty brands. However, our collective experience goes far beyond that, and we are a great fit for any client who has the ambition to lead and disrupt their category, is open to deploying their resources in new ways to achieve an unfair share of the market, and who really enjoys working in partnership with their agencies.
How does your work transform a client’s brand?
Because we’re an integrated collective, we can flex in ways that support growth. Whether that’s laser-focus on a specific specialism such as media investment modelling that helps clients better forecast how their funds can drive growth, or with big brand platforms executed with culture-piercing creativity that leads to innovative, famous, and effective advertising like we did with ‘For A Cure’ for Alzheimer’s Research UK. We’re equipped to provide thinking across our entire bench without creating bloat or complexity.
What’s distinct or exemplary about the way you work? What about your people inspires clients most?
We don’t have a set way of showing up for a project, just a set of values that guide us, and clients regularly feedback about how refreshing it is for them. They feel heard, positively challenged, and talk about their renewed optimism about making great work that works. We are proudly open, warm, and collaborative and at the end of the day our ‘Beyonders’ are our best asset, so it’s a source of huge pride that we are a ‘Top 100 small company to work for’ in the UK.
How do you advance advertising as a lever for business growth?
We’re proud to be an IPA Effectiveness-Accredited agency; an endorsement that our culture is dedicated to driving positive impact powered by the greatest economic multiplier there is: creativity. We know that advertising works, with recent campaigns demonstrating ROI payback above 5:1, because we have an effectiveness culture running through everything we do. Grounding ourselves in data, pushing the sharpness of our insights, constantly testing and learning, and always staying abreast of what’s changing and evolving. We never rest on our laurels.
How do you use Worldwide Partners to expand clients’ businesses?
Membership of the Worldwide Partners network has helped to supercharge our capabilities as a business – both by expanding the markets in which we’re able to operate and the capabilities we can offer our clients. The ‘reverse holding company’ model means that clients only pay for what they need and the teams they work with are there because they want to be – not because they have to be.
QUICKFIRE
Three words to describe your agency?
Independent, integrated, inventive.
Most useful question you ask clients?
What is the real problem and why haven’t you solved it already?
The thing that will impact advertising that most people haven’t yet realised?
Brands need to think in ecosystems, not campaigns, and deliver functionally and emotionally, everywhere, all the time.
Most exciting thing about the future?
It’s going to be a lot of fun creating playbooks to help brands thrive in the new world. In fact, it already is.
Best thing about AI?
Automating the mundane so we can focus on the big stuff.
Best thing about being Indie?
We can always do the right thing for our clients and our business – we’re not beholden to anyone and staying true to ourselves can change shape as the world evolves.
Your culture means...?
Everything. You can recognise a ‘Beyonder’ because they’re front-footed, wickedly smart, rigorous about the work, fun to be around and always asking “what’s next?”
The thing you'll do for the first time this year?
Reboot an iconic 1980s track alongside an unmissable music video for our client Jam Shed and make it the song of the summer.
Advertising can…?
Create a better future for our clients, our people, and the planet.
QUICKFIRE
Three words to describe your agency?
Independent, integrated, inventive.
Most useful question you ask clients?
What is the real problem and why haven’t you solved it already?
The thing that will impact advertising that most people haven’t yet realised?
Brands need to think in ecosystems, not campaigns, and deliver functionally and emotionally, everywhere, all the time.
Most exciting thing about the future?
It’s going to be a lot of fun creating playbooks to help brands thrive in the new world. In fact, it already is.
Best thing about AI?
Automating the mundane so we can focus on the big stuff.
Best thing about being Indie?
We can always do the right thing for our clients and our business – we’re not beholden to anyone and staying true to ourselves can change shape as the world evolves.
Your culture means...?
Everything. You can recognise a ‘Beyonder’ because they’re front-footed, wickedly smart, rigorous about the work, fun to be around and always asking “what’s next?”
The thing you'll do for the first time this year?
Reboot an iconic 1980s track alongside an unmissable music video for our client Jam Shed and make it the song of the summer.
Advertising can…?
Create a better future for our clients, our people, and the planet.
THE WORK
THE WORK
ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH UK:“Change The Ending”
We launched the charity’s new brand platform, ‘For a Cure’, with a two-minute animated film and our media team accelerated it with cherry-picked media spots. We used the fairy-tale trope of a ‘happily ever after’, flipping it to depict our prince as he’s struck with symptoms of dementia. With a release within Channel 4 News at 7pm, the film created a snowball of support, including from celebrities Olivia Colman and Richard Branson.
ACCOLADE WINES, HARDYS:“The Joy of Certainty”
Hardys needed to reposition itself globally to a younger audience: out-of-home could reach the target in our key opportunity areas, improving desire to trial. We bought some of the most premium, large-format digital sites in cities around the world, with a programmatic layer accessing a range of premium digital formats. We conducted a campaign effectiveness study that showed ‘Want to try Hardys’ increased from 16% to 70% post-campaign.
AMAZON: “Good Jobs”
As part of Amazon’s corporate reputation push, we created a campaign that highlighted how Amazon’s benefits package makes a difference to employees’ lives. The documentary-style film showcased real stories and the range of benefits on offer. Directed by Scott Perry and produced by Collective Studios, the campaign ran in the UK, France, Belgium, and Germany with hundreds of assets produced across digital, social, and online.
ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH UK: “Change The Ending”
We launched the charity’s new brand platform, ‘For a Cure’, with a two-minute animated film and our media team accelerated it with cherry-picked media spots. We used the fairy-tale trope of a ‘happily ever after’, flipping it to depict our prince as he’s struck with symptoms of dementia. With a release within Channel 4 News at 7pm, the film created a snowball of support, including from celebrities Olivia Colman and Richard Branson.
ACCOLADE WINES, HARDYS:“The Joy of Certainty”
Hardys needed to reposition itself globally to a younger audience: out-of-home could reach the target in our key opportunity areas, improving desire to trial. We bought some of the most premium, large-format digital sites in cities around the world, with a programmatic layer accessing a range of premium digital formats. We conducted a campaign effectiveness study that showed ‘Want to try Hardys’ increased from 16% to 70% post-campaign.
AMAZON: “Good Jobs”
As part of Amazon’s corporate reputation push, we created a campaign that highlighted how Amazon’s benefits package makes a difference to employees’ lives. The documentary-style film showcased real stories and the range of benefits on offer. Directed by Scott Perry and produced by Collective Studios, the campaign ran in the UK, France, Belgium, and Germany with hundreds of assets produced across digital, social, and online.
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