
The last 12 months have been a hard year for marketing agencies. Budgets have been cut while staff have been marooned at home. But it’s also been a time of opportunity, as companies across the country began their own digital transformation campaigns. And the UK’s digital agencies have risen to the challenge.
At The Drum, we publish the voices and stories of digital marketers every day. But we wanted to grasp the impact of this year on the digital agency sector as a whole – and understand the state of the digital marketing nation. So, over the last few months, we’ve undertaken a new sector-wide research project: The Drum UK Digital Census. Our expert research team has polled digital agencies, clients and staff, in a comprehensive survey of the UK’s digital agency sector.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be revealing our findings – revealing which of the UK’s digital agencies have the best client relationships, the best reputation among rivals and the best creative performance, as well as a best-of-the-best reflecting performance across all three categories – and investigating how the UK’s digital agencies have adapted during this last year in a series of special reports.
cameron clarke – editorTop 50 digital agencies by peers UK 2021
Top 50 best award winning digital agencies UK 2021
Top 50 best client rated digital agencies UK 2021
Top 50 UK client rated digital agencies
It’s been a tough year for marketers across the world. Budgets have been cut and partner relationships strained, with all the usual methods for smoothing over differences and keeping allies on-side unavailable amid the pandemic. The agencies which have kept their creative output high and serviced clients in an affordable, consistent and transparent way – despite the difficulties of the pandemic – must be impressive outfits indeed. And who better to ask for proof of those achievements than the ones footing the bill – the clients themselves?
To find out what brands thought of their UK digital agency partners, we polled hundreds of advertisers up and down the country and asked them to rate their agencies on measures including; overall satisfaction; whether they’d recommend their agency to another; the effectiveness of their work; value for money; their teamwork and collaboration; the quality of their creative output; and the quality of their relationship management. We received over 700 recommendations from clients right across the country.
The ranked list below shows the agencies that scored the highest across the board.
1 |
Soap Media
North West |
North West |
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2 |
Brave Spark
Greater London |
Greater London |
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Digital Agency Census: the most innovative creative work puts people before platforms
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: Bind Media’s co-founder reveals secrets of its client service
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: demand for CX, e-commerce and data expertise rising
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: northern English firms explain how to weather economic trouble
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: the most competitive specialisms from British agencies
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: how Brainlabs beat industry giants to top talent
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: RocketMill’s CEO explains why agency models need to adapt
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: the best digital agencies in the UK according to their rivals
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: awards juries reveal the best digital agencies in the UK
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS
Digital Agency Census: clients reveal the best digital agencies in the UK
UK DIGITAL AGENCY CENSUS