New Year's Honours

Advertising

Driven

The established behemoths McCann Erickson and TBWA\Manchester continue to impress with blockbusting client lists, and last year’s winner BJL and Manchester rival CBJWT should be commended for some excellent new business wins and ambitious staff appointments too. But one ad firm above all others in this region has found itself the talk of the town this year. Step forward Driven, spawned by the former BDH team who were left surplus to requirements as the agency underwent its TBWA revolution. For a start-up to receive such an accolade in its first year might seem surprising, but it shouldn’t be given the wealth of experience Driven’s partners – Graham Drury, Nick Brookes, Chris Lear and Neil Griffiths – combine and the insatiable thirst for new business they’ve exhibited this year. Vimto, snared from CheethamBell, Regatta’s Dare 2b brand and retailer Footasylum are just some of the clients to have appointed the Wilmslow agency since its launch at the start of 2008, while significant projects for Crown, Pernod Ricard and Westland have kept the burgeoning agency busy throughout the year. Driven might be new, but it’s already ruffled the feathers of the north west’s established advertising agencies and set the blueprint for ambitious start-ups to follow.

Design

Love

Despite winning this award for the second successive year, a large part of the agency’s recent success can be apportioned to Alistair Sim, its ex-MD who resigned following a criminal conviction in November. How the agency will fare without its figurehead in 2009, and whether it can keep this crown next year with fierce competition from impressive contenders Uniform, True North, Music and many more in the bustling north west design sector, only time will tell. What is sure though, is that the turbulence of Sim’s departure aside, 2008 has been another year largely worth celebrating for the Manchester agency, with an impressive spread of work in the fields of advertising, digital and most notably design. Its reputation was cemented with the award of North of England Design Consultancy of the Year in May and Love was the standout agency at October’s Roses Design Awards, where it took home seven golds on the way to the Grand Prix prize. The face of Love may no longer be there, but its award-winning studio team remains and deserves merit for its efforts this year.

Digital

Reading Room

While Code won the Agency of the Year award at October’s Dadi Awards – and can toast another excellent year of work and wins, topped with its appointment as digital communications agency to Mediacity in November – Manchester rival Reading Room also warrants recognition. Its team has brought a number of high profile accounts to the region – including Glasgow’s successful Commonwealth Games bid, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Leeds University. Also, creative director Kirstie Buchanan has proved a champion for both the industry and the region, not least through her involvement in the Manchester Digital association. The north west certainly isn’t shy of digital agencies who could compete for this award next year though – and some have already proved to be prized assets. Rippleffect started 2008 so brightly it was acquired by publishing firm Trinity Mirror in a surprise move, and the Liverpool agency remains a force with its strong portfolio in the sports market.

Media

MediaVest

After a barnstorming 2007, which saw the agency smash the £200m billings mark, the media giant was always going to be the focus of attention in 2008. It was the north west’s highest ranked agency in the RAR Top 100 list, beating rival buyer MediaCom North and last year’s top placed agency McCann Erickson Manchester, so its sheer scale deserves applauding – £220m turnover and counting. But despite still being the biggest of the north west’s big boys, a quieter year in terms of new business means it only just pips to the title leaner Manchester rivals Mediaedge:cia, Brilliant and Mediacom, who could all merit the award for the way they have each hauled in a wealth of new clients this year.

Below-the-line

If Agency

Many observers have expected good things of If Agency since its launch in 2006 thanks to the calibre of its protagonists, PDP founder and former Momentum CEO Brian Rees and ex-TBWA\Manchester board director Christian James. In recognition of If’s potential, and allowing for the experience of its helmsmen, our Honours list last year included the Altrincham-based agency as one of The Drum’s ‘10 Companies to Watch in 2008’. Now boasting a portfolio of clients that includes First Direct, Littlewoods and Matalan, few could argue it has failed to realise its promise.

PR

Paver Smith

Given that ‘consolidation’ has become one of the industry’s favourite buzzwords, Liverpool’s Paver Smith deserves recognition for the weight of its ambition alone. It completed the acquisition of PR firm Factory Communications, swelling its ranks to over 30 and also scooped a retained national PR brief with Shell after a three-way pitch against two London rivals. The region boasts a wealth of PR talent though, and CityPress, Biss Lancaster, Tangerine, Staniforth and last year’s winner Brazen are just a handful of the agencies who can consider themselves unlucky not to have won this accolade for their work in 2008.

NORTH EAST

Advertising

Drummond Central

Launched just four short years ago Drummond Central has quickly established itself on the Newcastle integrated creative communications scene as a real contender up against the established agencies of Robson Brown, Different and Guerrilla. The agency, headed up by MD Julie Drummond and creative director Steve Drummond, has begun to pull together a diverse range of clients which includes Bet365, Sage, Dunelm, Hooker & Young Hair Salons, Science Live, SPA Cosmetics and Newcastle Building Society among others. The agency itself has recently moved to a new 3,000sq ft office location and bolstered its staff numbers by four recently showing the ambition of this very welcome addition to the north east marketing scene.

Digital

Th_nk

Th_nk is a real digital success story and a shining star in the north east corporate arena. Now numbering more than 60 and with a turnover of £3.7m, Th_nk was recently ranked as the fastest growing technology company in the north and the sixth fastest growing nationally. Headed up by MD Tarek Nseir, the agency’s client list reads like a Who’s Who of blue chip clients including BBC, BUPA, Sage, Northern Rock, Trinity Mirror, ITV, T-Mobile and Anglian Water. In April 2008 the agency launched its London office and shortly after appointed MT Rainey of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe as the agency’s non-exec director, a real sign that Nseir aims to take Th_nk to even greater heights in the future.

Design

Sumo

Founded in 2000 by Jim Richardson, Sumo is a design business specialising in the arts and cultural sectors and, as its name suggests, appears to be letting nothing get in its way of cementing its reputation as one of the leading design businesses in the north of the country. Another example of its specialist credentials came recently when the consultancy was appointed to work with the Natural History Museum after a tendering process, which included 400 other companies. Other moves for the business in the last year saw Anya Bramich appointed to the new role of director of strategy from Tyne & Wear Museums. Wins include Northumbria University’s Gallery North and Graduate Studios, Tyne and Wear Museums and the Climate Dome, a new public education project launched in Newcastle Upon Tyne. All in all, another solid year for Sumo.

PR

Robson Brown

It’s surely only a matter of time before O Communications, the young and dynamic Newcastle consultancy, takes this title, especially after winning a host of prizes at this year’s CIPR North East awards. For now though, with a nod to the experience it has amassed as it celebrates its 25 year anniversary, wily regional giant Robson Brown takes the acclaim. Although often thought of more for its advertising work, Robson Brown’s PR arm has worked with clients including Sport England, Deloitte and latedeals.co.uk. Its projects - Fresh campaign for a smokefree North East, reaching for the business community and the launch of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation - all received recognition at the CIPR awards too.

YORKSHIRE

Advertising

An Agency Called England

While some members of the Yorkshire ad fraternity will lament 2008 as their annus horribilis – not least the 42 staff made redundant as Poulters closed – others can talk of a year of progress. An Agency Called England started the year toasting their legal victory over Fuse8 and its ex-England employees and ended it toasting mobile marketing work which will help police forces safeguard the public from their own brushes with the law. Winning Halewood’s Tsingtao beer brand and Cartridge World affirmed England’s pull when it comes to advertising and marketing disciplines, and continued work with Leeds City Council, a range of place branding duties and its burgeoning mobile division have all combined to ensure England has pushed forward while others, like Poulters, have failed. As well as nurturing England’s development, in October, its founder and chief executive, Tony Stanton, also found time to launch Blue Crocodile, which specialises in commercial opportunities in the sports market.

Digital

Numiko

It has been a good year for Yorkshire digital agencies, and given their client lists both MadeByPi – with its ongoing Asda, Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor projects – and Swamp – which has completed sites for Heinz Salad Cream, England and Wales Cricket Board and Macleans – can count themselves unlucky not to be honoured. But Leeds’s Numiko has come into its own since changing its name from New Media Collective in summer 2007 – and this year has seen it enhance its portfolio further with websites for notable BBC and ITV programmes including The Culture Show, Britannia High and I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. In September, Numiko also made the appointment of Darren Navier as creative director, which affirmed Numiko’s standing among the cream of the county’s digital agencies.

PR

MCG PR

MCG was established six years ago and is still run by its co-founders Christine Mortimer, Sarah Chadwick and Kate Gray, who together combine 50 years’ experience of the PR industry. The agency has already been marked out for recognition this year as well – it was named outstanding public relations consultancy at November’s PRide Awards for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. With a client list including established names Mamas & Papas, TONI&GUY and Veet, MCG’s awards success seems entirely just.

Media

Brilliant Leeds

Brilliant’s Leeds office started 2008 with a bang. In the first weeks of January, the team announced account wins for blinds manufacturer Thomas Sanderson and Floors-2-Go, worth a combined £8m. Brilliant opened a new office into Birmingham at the end of 2007, headed by ex-Universal McCann chief Paul Bramwell, which is already paying off with a number of new wins. Not everything has gone Brilliant’s way though. A considerable blow was the loss of the £18m account with Homeform Group to Brilliant’s rival across the Pennines, Manchester’s MediaCom North. Any defeatism was quashed, however, when the agency announced it was to handle the launch campaign for G03, featuring David Beckham. And it still has retail giant Asda on its books – a £12m coup in 2005.

Design

Elmwood

While the likes of Leeds agencies Thompson and B&W Studio and Sheffield’s Iris Associates can attest to a year of great work, there remains one Yorkshire design agency to which many others still aspire. While outlining a global blueprint which is expected to see it open further offices in Delhi, Dubai and Hong Kong to sit with its addresses in New York and Melbourne, Elmwood continues to be masterminded from its Guiseley base. From there, it has completed branding, design and packaging work for Barr’s and PZ Cussons, and been appointed to tasks by the COI and Opal, the business-to-business division of The Carphone Warehouse.

Below-the-line

JDA

JDA’s parent company, The Direct Marketing Group, won this award last year, in a nod to the way regional super-groups had exerted their dominance in 2007. But now, JDA deserves recognition in its own right. 23 years since the agency first opened its doors, its website promises the agency won’t bore you with ‘the awful lot of guff talked about direct marketing’ as others apparently have a tendency to do – and its straight-talking style has obviously proved a hit with clients if its portfolio is anything to go by. Tombola, BT and the RSPB are just some of the businesses to have plumped for JDA’s no-nonsense approach.

SOUTH WEST

Below-the-line

TDA (The Direct Agency)

Branding, targeting, response, creativity – these once mutually exclusive words are more often heard in perfect harmony by clients of TDA. As an independent, direct response agency the agency provides everything, from mail-packs to press, radio or TV commercial. Making the top quarter of the recent RAR Top 100 Marketing Agencies Outside London, the last 12 months, despite the financial difficulties faced by everyone, have been good to TDA. This is largely down to the fact that its client list covers such a wide range of sectors. From St Dunstan’s, Derbyshire Building Society, Help the Aged and The National Trust, to recent acquirements The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Norwich Union, Parkinson’s Disease Society & Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, TDA have provided solutions to a host of big name businesses over the last year.

Digital

Inbox

The South West of England is a competitive market for digital and online services, with a number of renowned names operating from this stronghold. However, over the last year Bristol’s Inbox has worked with a raft of clients that would make any agency jealous. From K-Swiss to Vodafone and from Blackberry to Fiat. The list of blue-chip, household names is endless. Doing everything you would expect of a traditional full-service agency, but only working in digital, Inbox offers strategy, creative and technology, using the core principles of advertising and DM to deliver its digital communications.

Design

McFaul

McFaul is a boutique design agency on England’s south coast with a global reach – its creative team is represented in London, Paris, Barcelona, New York and Dubai. Hell-bent on pushing the boundaries of design in its broadest sense – graphic design, animation, online, film-making, art direction – and taking on any material, any surface, any challenge, McFaul is defining the spirit and form of contemporary design. Its portfolio reads like a who’s who of global high-fliers with Nokia, Lucasfilm, Sony, Toshiba, Nike, Vodafone, Carhartt, Samsung and Orange all among its devotees. Current and recent projects include branding a new city (Al Wasl in Saudi Arabia); constructing a pioneering website for Nokia interactive; merchandising the new Indiana Jones film; and the agency is in the middle of a book, which is essentially a six-months ‘in the life of’ documentary of the agency, which will launch next summer in London, Manhattan and Tokyo. Busy!

Advertising

Thinking Juice

Thinking Juice is an award-winning agency, packed with experience, and seemingly overflowing with ideas. Since its launch in 2003 the Bournemouth agency has been busy building it reputation further, working with a list of high profile clients. It probably comes as no surprise then that The Drum named the team in our Top 10 UK Creative Agencies to Watch in 2008 – and they’ve more than proved us right. Big name advocates of their brand of creativity include American Express, Barclays, Heineken, JP Morgan Chase, NHS and WeightWatchers, with a host of new business adding to the list over the last year, including David Beckham Football Academy.

PR

Man Bites Dog

Man Bites Dog is a new breed of PR consultancy specialising in “ideas-driven communications for the knowledge economy”. Specialising in content creation and communications for blue chip companies across three industry sectors – professional services, technology, property & environment – Man Bites Dog offers a team of senior level practitioners with deep industry knowledge. They create UK, European and global thought leadership campaigns for some of the brightest minds in business. The last year has seen the trophy cabinet crammed as they added the PRWeek Award for New Consultancy of the Year, European Sabre Awards’ Best European Corporate Communications Campaign, and Best Marketing Campaign from the MPF European Practice Management Awards, among others. And if awards fail to impress then a quick glance at their client list (BT, Adobe, FugiFilm, IBM, Microsof, O2) should do the job.

MIDLANDS

Advertising

Big Communications

Leicester’s Big Communications had already been muscling in on the region’s well-known players – McCann Erickson, RBH, Cogent et al – before this year, and few agencies across the region would turn their noses up at Big’s haul of new clients in 2008: E&J Gallo, Samsung Mobile, Calor and Blacks Leisure to name just a few. It is Big’s work with existing clients which really caught the eye this year though. As well as seeing work for Lil-lets and Jewson honoured at the Cream Awards in Birmingham, the agency took home the night’s big prize, the Grand Prix, for its vaunted WKD executions.

Digital

Clusta

The Drum marked Clusta as one of its ones to watch in last year’s Honours list, noting its ‘rapidly growing profile’ – and what a profile it boasts now: Toshiba, Kellogg’s and BT have all entrusted the agency with recent projects. Affirming Clusta’s repute for cutting edge style, it was appointed to design this year’s CoolBrands website – the annual brands survey. Other clients include Umbro International, Birmingham City Council, Carphone Warehouse and Sony BMG/Columbia. With 10 years’ grounding in design and online projects, Clusta has already established itself as one of the region’s most respected digital agencies. Having marked its territory with significant client wins, observers will be keeping a keen eye on its office in Los Angeles, which has now been open little over a year.

Design

Purple Circle

The Nottingham agency retains the title for a second successive year but has competition from the likes of Leicestershire’s Stocks Taylor Benson – which has counted Next, Tesco and bmi as clients – to be ranked top in the region. Purple Circle has handled its own fair share of high profile businesses though, including Speedo, Boots Botanics and the House of Commons’ Earthcare & Energy department and has tackled branding briefs for Marstons Pub Company, Student Living and The Health Store. The agency, which also has an office in London, followed its success at last year’s Cream ceremony – where it picked up two golds – with honours for work with Nottingham City Council and Nottingham Partnership at this year’s event.

PR

Willoughby PR

Willoughby wins this award having already been named the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ outstanding consultancy of the year for the Midlands. It was launched 15 years ago ‘from a team of two sharing a phone and a desk’ and now has a team almost 30 strong and a turnover in excess of £2m. The consultancy focuses on half a dozen different divisions – home and lifestyle, B2B, retail, property, industrial and trade and the interestingly named ‘space’, which is apparently designed to ‘get customers to engage and interact with brands in ways they would simply never expect to’. Clients to have interacted with Willoughby include Mothercare, TJ Hughes, Bullring and WKD.

SCOTLAND

Advertising

The Union

The Scottish above-the-line sector is a unforgiving sector to be in and the dwindling number of agencies have spent the last year with one thing front of mind – securing a place on the Scottish Government’s roster. At the close of the year the roster was revealed and many breathed a sigh of relief, particularly those ad agencies that have over the last three year relied heavily on the Government’s turnover. One such agency is our Scottish Ad Agency of the Year – The Union. The Union has become one of the Government’s lead agencies during the last five years and has used this relationship to cement its position as a powerhouse of Scottish advertising. The agency’s creative awards cabinet continues to grow and on the new business front MD, Ian McAteer, and his team have had an impressive year adding clients such as National Australia Group, News International, The Dalmore, Scottish SPCA, Energy Savings Trust Scotland and Guardian Glass, based in Detroit. It would, however, be very unfair not to mention Newhaven in this category too. If truth be known there is little to choose between these two Scottish agencies, but, as the saying goes, there can only be one winner.

Design

Three Brand

The Scottish design scene continues to be as competitive as ever, but in a year where one client – The National Galleries of Scotland – scooped three Grand Prix awards for its Baxter’s Cans work, it is clear that the balance of power is shifting in Scottish design. It was also a year that saw Third Eye Design rebrand to Marque and cement its position at the front end of the Scottish industry with some stunning international work. However, this year’s recipient of the Design Honour is Edinburgh-based consultancy Three Brand, which has in the last year delivered on the promises it has been making since it launched as a breakaway from Tayburn back in 2004. Under the guidance of directors Campbell Laird, Nick Cadbury and Gary Fortune-Smith the agency, now based on a house boat in Leith, has put out some stunning work and compiled a client list that includes brands such as Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff, Findus, Aunt Bessie’s, Philips and Silverburn. In the ever changing landscape of Scottish design Three Brand has in a relatively short amount of time squeezed itself onto the top table to sit alongside the Tayburns, Navyblues and the Elmwoods of the sector, enjoying a turnover of more than £1m after its third year of trading. That said, the agency remains totally focused on creating high quality work for a high quality client portfolio, which would not look out of place within any international design community.

PR

The Big Partnership

Since the turn of the Millennium there has really been only one Scottish PR consultancy that has been consistently growing and thrusting itself onto the UK-wide PR stage – The Big Partnership. After a challenging 2006, which saw one of its founding directors Graeme Isdale leave the business, remaining directors Alex Barr, Neil Gibson and Zoe Corsi have continued relentlessly on their journey up the UK PR league to become the sixth largest independent PR consultancy outside London. The company’s year will have been topped off nicely by securing a place not only on the Scottish Government’s PR roster, but also on the Government’s design roster. New clients this year include Bauer Radio, Black Grouse, Glasgow: Edinburgh Collaboration Initiative, DiMaggio’s Restaurants and EC Harris.

Media

Mediacom Scotland

Scotland’s media specialists remain among the most competitive agencies north of the border with Mediacom Scotland, Feather Brooksbank, Spirit Media and The Media Shop battling it out for most media business. That said, as the Scottish Government’s media business has become increasingly important, the media specialist that handles that huge budget in Scotland is the dominant player. And few will need to be told that Mediacom Scotland currently holds the Government’s cards and therefore is the big kid on the block. That said, Mediacom Scotland has not rested on its laurels, picking up new business from Sportingbet, Interactive Sports, Scottish Enterprise and Energy Trust Scotland while also brokering a deal in Ireland, which saw it launch a new Mediacom office in Dublin during 2008. The agency was also named Digital Media Buying Agency of the Year at the DADI Awards in Leeds, which, as the industry, moves increasingly online will be a feather in the agency’s cap as it moves forward.

Direct Response

Story

Once again the agency headed up by Sue and Dave Mullen continues to be respected across the UK for its advertising and direct response credentials. Now as part of The Mission Group, Story has gone from strength to strength picking up new business from AEGON, Glenmorangie, Scottish SPCA, Scottish Malt Whisky Association and the University of Edinburgh. The launch of a London office has further boosted the Story offering across the UK and moving increasingly into the digital arena saw the agency collecting a DADI Awards for Best FMCG Website or Campaign for its client Ardbeg.

Digital

Line

Digital continues to boom north of the border. In a busy year it is difficult to highlight just one outstanding team... While Civic, Whitespace and The Union Digital were all retained on the Scottish Government roster, the likes of Dog Digital, Story, Innovation Digital, Golley Slater, Storm ID and The Gate Worldwide joined them. The big guns – the likes of Realise and Equator – continue to work with a strong and diverse list of clients, and Bigmouthmedia’s world domination continues. However, once again, it is Edinburgh team Line that has caught the eye. Despite creative director Andrew Massey leaving the agency (for personal reasons), with Rufus Spiller joining from Good to team up with Steve Foulds, the agency has been growing quickly, both in terms of staff and clients. Recent wins include Snowsport GB, Tickall, Eden Court, Aegon and tech giant SCC.

OTHER AWARDS

Launch of the Year (England)

Driven/Banana Kick

How different things could have been. Had Love offshoot Twodays not fallen through due to plans being revealed too early by er... The Drum (oops) this category might have had a different winner entirely. As it is, two agencies share the spoils. Driven, for a relentless first year that saw it justly win our north west advertising honour, and Banana Kick, launched by Gary McCall and Nick Goring as their previous agency, Poulters, was closing its doors for the last time. In times when leaner agencies may prove more agile in dealing with uncertain budgets and nervy clients, Driven and Banana Kick may have laid down business models for others to follow. The former remains nimble by bringing in freelancers where required to complement its four directors and a handful of senior staff, while Leeds’s Banana Kick has outlined a vision to be a specialist in the sports and leisure fields. Driven’s successes are well documented, but Banana Kick had no trouble hitting the ground running either. No sooner had it swung open its doors this summer than the Yorkshire Committee for London 2012 and Yorkshire County Cricket Club enlisted the fledgling agency’s services.

Launch of the Year (Scotland)

MightySmall

Compared to the year gone by, new launches and start-ups have been relatively few and far between in Scotland. But one new agency which has certainly hit the ground running was MightySmall, launched by former 1576 creative director Adrian Jeffery and former colleagues Brian McGregor and Tamsin Andell. With offices on Leith Walk, the agency launched in October 2007 with six clients with the promise to those clients that the people who plan and create campaigns will be the people that they deal directly with. The agency has gone on to pick up clients such as Scottish National Heritage, Murray Group, Vitalli, Jewel & Esk College, Fettes College, HBOS and Spiral Healthcare. Its healthy new business record is testament to the fact that the business is out there if you go looking for it.

Deal of the Year

Frame MBO

Since the untimely death of Alan Frame in 2007, the future of one of Scotland’s up and coming creative companies had been uncertain. However, that was finally settled in September 2008 after a deal was reached between the family of agency founder Alan Frame and four of the company’s directors - George Cumming, Keith Bolton, Gary O’Donnell and Angus Walker. Under Frame’s guidance the agency had really begun to emerge as Glasgow’s advertising force, perhaps even beginning to usurp The Bridge in profile. But his sudden death meant that that momentum was interrupted for a period, until the agency found its feet again. Since then the agency has gone from strength to strength, cementing its relationship with key clients such as Subway, Gala and Bulmers. With the new management team in place, and after recently winning a place on the Government’s roster for the first time, Frame is well placed to continue its growth.

Best new office

Kommando

Over a year in the making – well, actually, almost two years in the planning, razing, rebuilding and designing – (just-outside) Glasgow-based Kommando has finally moved into its new home. And the experiential team launched its office in style with a party at it’s plush new country retreat. From the unique Timorous Beasties wallpaper to an MD’s room that would put even Tony Montana’s ‘boardroom’ to shame, as well as a walled garden that will, no doubt, be BBQ heaven come the summer months, the office certainly creates some impressive first impressions.

Brand launch of the Year

Illamasqua

There’s nothing quite as exciting as a new brand launch and it’s even more exciting when the company behind the launch is an agency on The Drum’s patch. In November Leeds-based agency Propaganda launched its new cosmetics brand Illamasqua at Selfridges in London and the early indications are that sales are going well and the brand is set to be rolled out across the UK in the New Year. Around £3m was invested by the directors of Illamasqua, spearheaded by Propaganda’s chairman Julian Kynaston, and that money has been used to create a dynamic and exciting brand that, despite being a new addition to the enormous cosmetics arena, has an authentic brand heritage structured around 1920’s Berlin and legendary cosmetic manufacturer Kryolan. It is still early days for the brand, but with heavy investment and a defined UK roll out plan Illamasqua is set to be shaking things up on the make-up scene for some time to come.

TEN TO WATCH IN 2009

Five by Five: The digital arm of Lawton. The agency is attracting a host of big name clients to its Southampton home and has just opened in London. Stiff Rowlands: The brainchild of creative partners James Stiff and Simon Rowlands, Stiff Rowlands was born in 2007. The team have dispensed with niceties to get back to the nitty-gritty... and create some creative, erm, creative. Size: Size was launched in July 2008 by the former Omnia Edinburgh launch directors Graham Walker (a former Scottish Designer of the Year) and Katrina Berry with Stewart Spence also joining the team. Wolfstar: A public relations consultancy offering counsel in public relations, social media and word of mouth marketing and communications. Clients include Sony Ericsson, Philips and the NHS. Bubble: Its figurehead, Liz Birkbeck, has returned from maternity leave and has ambitious plans for the forward thinking Manchester agency. The Raft: Reuniting former BDH\TBWA heavyweights Roger Ward and Martin Anderson could prove a masterstroke and make the Wilmslow firm a force to be reckoned with. Blue Crocodile: Tony Stanton will be expecting his new sports agency in Leeds to follow in the footsteps of celebrated ad firm An Agency Called England, where he is CEO. O Communications: With several PRide awards this year and an ambitious young team, publicity of its own can’t be far away for the Newcastle PR firm. Ghost Creations: This Staffordshire creative agency has built an excellent portfolio since its launch in 2001 and wider recognition should not elude it next year. Fudge Studio: The Bolton-based agency is already impressing with a solid roster of branding and digital clients and further progress is expected in 2009.