Welcome to our list of 50 of the top award winning digital agencies in the UK. Check out the web design agencies and web development agencies for inspiration, there may be a specific type of agency you are looking for.
This list of recommended digital agencies pack a massive amount of creative punch between them, the tally was conceived and composed to showcase the best of talent in the UK. All entries are alphabetically listed and not ranked in anyway against each other.
The imaginative digital agencies shown are hand picked from thousands of others from global awards networks, written up with a concise synopsis for you. Our aim for this article is that you might also consider us to work on your next project, to see our capabilities please take a look at our portfolio:
If you don't see the right agency listed and are looking for in a specific type of agency, look at the:
Top 50 award winning design agencies
We all know that AKQA are one of the UK best digital agencies and indeed probably the best in the world but what have they won (or haven't they won)… well, lets list some of their accolades:
I think I see a theme developing here… not much further I can say to try and persuade you that they are one of the best out there?!? Absolutely amazing work includes: Ferrari.com, Heineken.com, MTV, Nike and Xbox 360 Games, oh and I love their digital advert for the Pot Noodle christmas delivery, it is so funny.
AllofUs is an award winning interactive design and user-experience agency specialising in multi-platform product and service creation for the inter-connected age. They aim to improve the way clients and audiences connect by realising the potential of intelligent user-experience design, across an ever-expanding ecosystem of media, platforms, physical objects and environments. It is this new kind of integrated, interactive thinking and user-centred approach to interface that makes them different.
Their award-winning portfolio demonstrates how interactive design can add powerful new dimensions to exhibition, retail, product and brand communications. Such as their work for Nokia Phones, Sky Player and various Design museum projects. Accolades include Design Week Best of show for SONY/AIWA Website, featured articles in Computer Arts / Digital Arts Magazines and a double at Art Director's Club Awards 2013. Their client list is just massive and now that they have joined McCann Worldwide we shall hopefully see more awards coming their way.
What a funky name for a digital agency, I like it. Analog say it is so easy to turn off marketing these days (we all must have closed that annoying web advert, forwarded through commercials at some point, or just generally trying to ignore the stuff), and the work they produce is intended to make our human analog world better by letting us interact with and become part of a brand rather than being a passive viewer. This is the principles which their 120 talented analog folk live and work by 'using digital to make the analog world better'.
BAE Ai (formerly BAE Detica) are a giant which pull in tens of millions in digital related revenue each year by helping some of the world’s largest organisations to thrive SECURELY in the digital economy by protecting and enhancing their critical assets.
They design and build innovative digital platforms that deliver award winning secure user experiences to create more profitable and connected client businesses. The solutions can combine large-scale data organisation, 'intelligence-grade' security, simplify complex services and offer systems integration. This award-winning team of over 4000 creative and technology experts span multiple technologies to work with leading enterprises / government departments. Producing solutions to protect, secure and optimise their physical infrastructure, mission-critical systems, valuable intellectual property, corporate information, and enhance their reputation / customer relationships for competitive advantage and financial success.
PHEW, I'm glad I've got that techie garble is out of the way, lets get back to pure design :)
This one goes out to all you e-commerce fans out there! Born are an e-commerce agency in the leagues of the Javelin Group. Born (then Pod1) began in online retail in its infancy: a time when buyers went online only for things they couldn’t buy in-store and the low-tech environments did little for a brand. Today, they are pleased to be leading the charge in merging luxury with shop-ability and driving consumers online first. Now, Born are a full-service e-commerce digital agency focused on delivering next generation global flagship stores.
They are pretty darn good at it too, employing hundreds of staff globally to deliver the ultimate digital shopping experience on behalf of leading brands. Awards wise Born (under their previous guises) have won a D&AD Black Pencil, BIMAs, NMAs, IMRGs, IMAs, a DBA Effectiveness Award, FWA winners, DOPE Awards and numerous e-commerce Awards. All of these awards are attributed to retail websites for brands for almost all retail disciplines. Love the work for Filofax, Link of London, LK Bennett, Net-a-Porter, Denon, Harvey Nichols and Tag Heuer.
B-Reel is a mega digital production partner rather than an out and out agency, I have no idea why as their work is fantastic in it's own right, but then I guess it beats finding clients when other agencies can do that hard work for you. There 9 pages of projects listed on their website and some with a welcome humorous twist, such as digital for AXE (LYNX), Brightdance from Talk Talk, an excellent website for Perrier Mansion, you can drive a Mitsubishi from your desktop and go on a pleasure hunt with a Magnum Gold!.
Their awards are won in combination with some big name agencies but they all have the same unity, so you can see the creative from B-Reel coming through..
B-Reel have won awards from multiple institutions, these include:
Older awards include: Tomorrow Awards, SXSW Interactive Awards: Best of Show, Creative Circle Awards, Epica, Clio Awards, New York Festivals: Grand Trophy, AICP Next Awards, D&AD Black Pencil and a London International Advertising Award Gold.
Computerlove? Sounds like one should get jailed for something like that :-)
Award winning digital agency Code Computerlove collaboratively offer cross-platform digital solutions with a unique meld of human behavioural understanding merged with creative and technical innovation. They received Elite Status in The Drum's Digital Census in 2013 and are the top Elite Agency outside London, CCL also rank highly in the Design Week Top 100 2013 consultancy survey at number 28th overall and the 7th digital agency in the UK. Some of their best work includes re-launching HMV, Oxfam, the NUS and Greenpeace.
It's funny when an agency wins lots of awards, I've seen this before in my other article, they get to be award 'givers' themselves, this time it's extra funny though, they have an awards system to award their own work, the CMMYs, excellent. I nominate myself for the Design Intellect Award, now I'm an award winner too :-)
On a more serious side, they have won multiple: ADDY Awards, IMA and IAC Award wins, Masses of W3 Awards, Applied Arts Awards, CIMA Star Awards, had 2 sites honoured at Webby Awards, 2 IMA outstanding achievement awards and an OMMA Award for Integrated Online Campaign.
Back in Jan 2014, CM joined forces with its other Omnicom counterpart 'Agency Republic' under the CM banner. AR was an amazing agency in its own right having been voted Digital Agency of the year 5 times in its 13 year existence, it also won other awards to include: D&ADs, Cannes Cyber Lions, One Show, The Webbies, Campaign Big Awards, Creative Circle, an EPICA Gold and 2 APG Awards (the only digital agency to have won awards from the APG).
I love the Nissan, Infiniti and Adidas websites they have done – top work – lets hope they don't go beyond their critical mass and collapse :–)
Truth or Dare, which is it to be? Well the truth is that Dare is a fairly renowned digital agency, it was voted as Marketing's Digital Agency of the Year back in 2010, attained the title of Effectiveness Company of the Year also in 2010 from the IPA and was also Campaign's 'Digital Agency of the Decade 2000-2009'. Dare were noted on the Ad Age Agency A List back in 2010 and their film arm won 'Ad of the Decade' from ITV for the Hovis commercials.
The dare? There isn't really one as Dare have a strong grounding to build brands in a digital world but it would be nice to see what they have won recently as I think they maybe in hiding. I dare Dare to win some newer trophies :–)
No I've not gone mad or confused my articles up, as well as offering Corporate Finance Services, Deloitte also have a Digital Agency (and a rather good one at that) within their group. I'm guessing it was an in-house team that did well but who knows how it has become over a 200 hundred strong global team? Suggestions on a postcard please! The London arm opened it's doors in late 2012 and has not won any awards as yet but they soon will be as they jumped in at an impressive number 7 in the Econsultancy’s top 100 UK Digital agencies with billings of £27 million (I presume that was the group rather than just the UK arm).
Deloitte Digital are different in that they will evaluate a client's challenge from unusual angles by bringing in talent and skills from across their consulting businesses. Hopefully with the business acumen of a strategic advisor, the design capability of a creative agency and the engineering depth of a technology firm. One to watch me thinks!
We thought that it was only fair that having researched thousands of studios to bring you this article on the top 50 award winning digital and web design and branding agencies, that we’d insert a cheeky little advert for ourselves – Design Intellect.
Design Intellect are a nimble boutique design agency that have been around the block and back, we’ve been going strong since 2003. We combine small agency focus with big agency thinking to provide a complete range of branding, design for print, packaging, web design and strategic services to clients over a wide range of business sectors. We love working with businesses to help bring their communications to life, drive growth and deliver beautiful thought-provoking design solutions with the perfect blend of creativity and effectiveness. We are down-to-earth, friendly, approachable and efficient.
We work with marketers, marketing departments and individuals to provide all the creative services they need. No job is too big and no job is too small, we have experience in working with huge blue-chip clients and we have also worked with 100s of smaller clients on a wide range of projects – from small artwork jobs to larger projects encompassing branding, print and web.
Whomever we work with, we apply the same level of creativity, attention to detail and passion on their project to make the marketing material look awesome and work hard.
Digitas are massive, they are the largest independent marketing and technology agency in Europe and have access to over 2200 digital professionals (700 in London) around the planet that can blend insight, media, creativity and technical expertise together for leading global brands, so you can be sure they are the mutt's nuts in the award arena.
In their original guise of Digitas LBi (Lost Boys Interactive) are one of the most awarded marketing and technology agencies with wins that include: BIMAs, Webby Awards, One Show Awards, D&ADs, Eurobest, Cannes Cyber Lions, ADDY Awards and London International Awards. Love the work they have done for BT, Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB, Oxfam and Volvo.
Is DAN the man? I wonder… Well DAN is the is the global digital network of TBWA and a formal global structure for how they integrate digital with the TBWA’s media arts philosophy. The core competencies of TBWA\DAN include creative technology, UX, e-commerce, social media, content, mobile, IP / Platforms, analytics, search, audience behaviour and finally production.
Clients can get access to the best of local (London) and global talent, best-of-breed specialists, resources and IP through one local entry point, quite a unique differentiator they say… You will have to work that one out for yourselves, but if you need access to over 700 digital specialists unified within a network across 6 continents and 18 countries then you might want to give them a shout, or you might not :-)
Sorry E3, it's not my fault you are following DAN on an alphabetical list :-) Not that anyone actually needs 700 staff to be good… In fact E3 are the Big Chip Digital Agency of the Year 2013 so that proves a point of sorts! Working with a smaller agency (or indeed a freelancer :-) ) always has it's benefits, indeed E3 pride themselves on their personable approach by saying if they don't bring a smile to your face then they know something isn't right. The personalities of the e3 team, from the directors to the designers are what make their work special and different to anything you'll find anywhere else. E3 don't 'just get a job done' they put every droplet of passion, creativity and pleasure they have into each and every project, large or small.
You could also try an agency of similar name called E3, they have a similar ability but just don't have the word creative in their name :-) I wonder which of the two appear in the Drum's Top 100 as they both claim too… Will the real E3 please step forward?
Web companies always amaze me, since the internet is so young, then so are the companies that work in the field. Fi, in web terms is old hat, they have been around for 12 years, how funny. Founded in 1999 in a small Swedish town called Soderfors, it has now grown to be ranked 3rd in Imagine Publishing’s list of most inspiring companies, just behind Apple (1st) and Pixar (2nd). Fi has been awarded .net Magazine's Design Agency of the Year in 2008 and the Best Interactive of the Year by CommArts. Their other web accolades are: 37+ FWA Awards and counting, to include: 2x FWA Sites of the Year, 5x FWA Sites of the Month! Fi was also proud to be the first inductee into The FWA Hall of Fame and gain the People's Choice Award at The Webby Awards.
I love their work for HTC, Range Rover, Fox, AOL, EA and the Nintendo Wii.
Their awards list is as long as my arm, well longer in fact, or else my arm would be dragging a long way behind me... the list includes, numerous FWAs, Dope Awards, CommArts Awards, Hive Awards, Webby Awards, Summit Awards, FITC, W3, OMMA, Davey Awards, Adobe, WMA Webawards, Pixel Awards, MITX Interactive Awards, IMAs, Cannes Cyber Lions, Andy Awards, LIA, Clio's and even old Macromedia Awards going way back to the year 2000.
Love their work for M&Ms, Pepsi, IBM, Publicis, Ford, Nokia and more... this agency is the digital daddy after being the first born in the industry.
If Firstborn is the daddy, then Forsman Bodenfors is the grand daddy of digital agencies, let me show you some numbers:
They must get really bored going to award ceremonies don't you think, at least they have a sense of humour, their website has a link to the webcam in the trophy room, made me laugh anyway! Notable work includes Ikea, Volvo, unicef, e-on and Findus.
It's time to complete the family trio, GS&P is the mother of all things web and digital, they were the first ever interactive agency of the year at the One Show, a digital agency of the year at the Cannes Lions, gained multiple D&AD Yellow Pencils and named Agency of the Decade by Adweek! Love the work for Nintendo, GE, HP, Specialized and Häagen-Dazs, any chance of a freebie ice cream?
I’ve included the very specific Grand Visual as they specialise in Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Advertising, the time is upon us where certain areas of our larger cities are beginning to look like the film sets of the Blade Runner Film with moving advertising everywhere (outdoor digital now represents over 20% of all out-of-home media spend in the UK 2013). Outdoor digital communication is still in it's early stages, but new technologies are advancing very quickly making it an exciting rich medium filled with unlimited creative ways for agencies / brands to connect with consumers. We all must have seen or heard about the BA Digital Billboard which cleverly pointed at planes flying overhead at Heathrow. Just think of the possibilities!
Recent Grand Visual award wins include: 4x Cannes Lions: a Gold, Silver and 2 Bronzes, a Silver Creative Circle Award and an EPICA Silver.
Within the web industry there is always a good story of people setting up global organisations from tinkering with technology in their bedrooms (don't laugh), Hi-Res became famous from a self initiated project in flash - www.soulbath.com - which gained attention from the world and led to that all important, first commercial project, which in their case was a website for the film 'Requiem for a Dream'. Since then they have achieved awards from the D&AD, Cannes Cyberlions, Clios, One Show, BAFTA and Webby Awards.
Now part of the larger Syzygy Group, they still plan to remain small and do great work. Look out for some really nice premium luxury websites for Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, Mappin & Webb and the Economist. That is, once they have redesigned their site.
Whilst your here looking for an award winning digital agency, you may as well pick up a contact for an award winning seo company. iCrossing is the only entry in this article for a digital marketing agency specialising in search marketing (SEO) and are an example of one of the UK's leading seo agencies which have won numerous accolades, including having been ranked the number one ranked agency for both paid search (PPC) and natural search (SEO) in a Forrester Wave Report.
They build integrated search, social and creative digital programmes for some of the world’s leading brands, including Coca-Cola, BT, Toyota, Chelsea, M&S and Barclays. Of their 82 clients that completed their last customer satisfaction survey, ALL said they would recommend them. Enough said.
Isobar are now a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network and push the mantra 'Ideas Without Limits', well we can see that their ideas can have almost unlimited award wins too, having won 300+ major awards in the last 3 years including 13 Campaign Agency of the Year titles, 12 Cannes Lions, 7 Webawards, a Gold and 6 Silver W3 Awards.
Slightly limited portfolio at the moment as they have a new website design, but expect more soon from clients the likes of Adidas, Autotrader, Google, Kellogs, Sony and Toyota.
Retail is facing a challenge and needs to have a unified face across the high street and digital to survive, we call this cross platform: Omni-Channel Retailing.
The Javelin Group can come to a retailers rescue as they are Europe’s leading specialist firm of e-commerce and omni-channel retailing, their consultants can integrate store retail systems with the web seamlessly, and will advise retailers on strategy, operations and the technologies to develop and build large-scale e-commerce solutions in the UK, Europe or even globally.
You only have to look at their client list of shopping chains in the UK and Europe to realise that they do what they say on the tin, so if this is your niche then you don't need look to shop elsewhere!
Triple W3 award winning Jaywing are a mini digital network that has 5 agencies around the UK which primarily cover digital brand communications, helping to unlock your brand’s story and bring it to life with content, campaigns and conversations.
The unique feature of Jaywing (and why they are on the list) is that they can back up their extraordinary multi-channel brand experiences with customer service from a state-of-the-art UK based call centre. Their highly trained agents are unscripted and have human freedom to hold more natural conversations, speaking to customers one-on-one on the phone (or by email conversation) can be the ultimate human expression of your brand. With this voice, your organisation can make relationships that have a massive effect on what someone thinks and whether they buy from you. When you engage in one-on-one conversation it’s a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate what your brand is all about and create opportunities when the real and digital worlds collide.
Jaywing has set up and run digital back up contact centres for brands with famously excellent service, such as First Direct, Egg and American Express – winning awards for work with the likes of Vodafone, Autoglass and The AA.
Keepthinking it? I haven't even thought of it yet! Another specialist digital agency here, Keepthinking uniquely combine a digital design agency with their own backend software (Qi) for museums, art galleries, libraries, magazines, archives, councils, schools or any other organisation wanting to manage and present information digitally. Their beautifully conceived user interfaces are combined with solid technology, strong usability and accessibility principles that help clients manage and present digital information on mass. The work has received numerous awards and has appeared in publications worldwide. Useful if you have lots of information to deploy on the web – keep thinking it or forget it!
Kokokaka was once quite heavily sitting in the pocket of Forsman & Bodenfors as it's digital partner, as a consequence, they had won many awards in conjunction with them, but now a major player in their own right, they have continued to win on behalf of their own clients, namely Wrangler, Burberry and Ikea. Wins include multiple Guldägg Awards, Dope Awards, FWAs, Eurobests, LIA, EPICAs, Cannes Cyber Lions, Clio Awards, One Show and Webby Awards. Oh and if you are wondering why my screen grab is the wrong colour, the whole sites colour scheme changes frequently.
Lightmaker? I have one of those, it's called a torch :-) But then I guess their idea of a light maker is more like a light sabre than mine! LM were founded in 1997 and became successful through pioneering the use of Adobe's flash technology (then Macromedia Director) and cornered the then niche market, and established themselves as a global leader in the development of flash based solutions. With the advent of Apple not allowing flash on it's mobile and tablet iOS then this has forced them to change and expand their offerings.
Lightmaker continues to showcase Flash websites but has diversified its service offerings to cover all the new standard compliant technology, as well as everything else you would expect from a digital agency in 2014. Their portfolio is great and it's no surprise to see they have wins like these examples:
2x IMA Outstanding Achievement Awards, 3x Best in Class Award from the IMAs, 2 Pixel Awards, CSS Website Of The Year Award 2010, Plenty of Adobe Sites of the Day, An NMA Effectiveness Award, Plenty of FWA Sites of the Day and A People's Voice Webby Award.
Made by Pi, The Life of Pi, Who ate all the Pi(es)? Well I didn't eat them… so why is everyone is talking about Pi? Well Pi were ranked the 'Most Efficient Design and Build Agency' in the Drum Digital 100 back in 2012 and have also won a few awards for their work including a Revolution Award in 2012, 4x DADIs and a Fresh Award in 2009. But the biggest of all their wins was 6x DADIs in 2010 including 'Digital Agency of the Year' and 'Creative Team of the Year'. Pretty good hey! MadeByPi (formerly Pilot Interactive) are a specialist digital design agency that delivers award-winning websites, social media applications, mobile optimised sites and iOS applications.
There is an absolute heap of portfolio pieces in the work section of their website from clients such as: HSBC, First Direct, Channel 4, Pot Noodle, the BBC and Disney.
Naked is an award winning creative agency best known for disrupting the global advertising business at the turn of the century with the simple idea that a brand is not the sum of its advertising. Today they are a global network of diverse talent focused on creating integrated strategies and creative marketing solutions for the digital age.
Their website doesn't give too much away at all, but then I guess with their reputation then they don't have too :-)
Clients listed include Burton, Sony, Cadbury, Virgin Atlantic, Nike, Unicef and Coca Cola.
Another one from Sweden here, do you think with all those dark winter nights they have grown up tinkering with computers or something? Again, their awards list is pretty big:
The work they have done for Adidas, Toyota, Coca Cola, Vodafone and GE is great!
I originally inserted Pancentric on this list back in 2010 as a one to watch and thankfully they have proved me right as they have beed voted RAR full service digital agency of the year for three years in a row, featured in the eConsultancy Top100 digital agencies and have won a prestigious BIMA award :-) As an integrated digital agency born in 2003 they now work with some of the best-known global brands across insurance, financial services, property, leisure and tourism – providing creative and strategy using the latest technology to deliver great web experiences and effective online campaigns.
They are passionately committed to driving new levels of stand out creative for their clients with a consultative approach is led by design thinking to ensure customer needs are understood and met. Clients to look out for include the tallest building in Europe –The Shard, Silverstone Race Track and Cigna. Expect to see more good things from them…
What an ace name these guys have, another digital agency that collaborates with the other agencies that have the clients that they can perform their digital magic with. No chasing after business, they are no fools :-) Perfect Fools have helped the likes of Forsman & Bodenfors, BBH, DDB, Droga5 and farfar (yes, they are another Swedish agency). They are unashamedly... technology geeks, are obsessed with the power and potential of digital technologies, and the ability to create joyful, highly-engaging relationships between brands and consumers. Considering the web is only 6000 days old, I wonder what we should expect to see from them in the next 3000?
Their wins include:
Poke, isn't that an old redundant Facebook thing? Well it seems these guys give the web a poke in the eye every time they design something, an example is their campaign for Orange, a flash based balloon race called balloonacy, it certainly deflated the competition (sorry) and wiped the board with almost all the web awards that year. They've also done some nice award winning work for Ted Baker, Everything Everywhere (EE), Manchester City FC, Mulberry, Diesel, Skype, and they even have a Guinness World Record to their name for the ‘Most people tagged in an online photo’ back in 2010.
But the site they have done that I like the most of is 'The Global Rich List', a website that shows how rich we are in the western world in relation to the other 7 billion people in the planet and encourages us to donate to good causes. Find it by typing RICH into your search engine of choice, or of course: www.globalrichlist.com
Possible, is it really? Well according to them everything is possible with their full-service award winning digital agency, as a creative agency that cares about results all of their ideas are backed up with hard-core data for solutions that make a measurable difference, so I suppose it is possible. I wonder how many times I can say that word in this synopsis :-)
They use the power of collective intelligence to transform the industry and are not interested in keeping up – they want to lead the way, with over 1100 minds that can work together across the globe, then I guess this is possible...
The best part about them though is the fact that every project they work on has to pass the same question: Does it work? Every project has to work before it leaves the agency. Possible or Impossible, you decide!
Does it feel like a trip to the library reading this article, well things are about to get interesting if you are looking for one of the best full service digital and web design agencies in the UK, as the Reading Room are one (as far as my list goes anyway) and if your not convinced then some of the many accolades they have won in their time include:
It was named the Top UK digital agency in an independent agency reputation survey conducted by YouGov for design services, coming second overall with product designers Seymour Powell who took the top spot in 2011. Not bad for a business that started with a staff of two from a flat in north London in 1997...
Visit England, Help for Heroes, Ministry of Justice, Glenlivet and Skoda UK are one of their nicer sites to look out for in their portfolio. Oh, and in case you aren't sold already – they design all of the Royal Families websites, you can't get a better seal of approval than that really :-)
The digital act above would be hard to follow, but follow we must, Red Bee Media has nearly 400 accolades / awards (mostly in TV and Motion Graphics but have now expanded across all forms of digital media). After you have read this far I think you deserve a rest, so I won't list them as you can look at the awards link on the about us page on their website instead, you'll see they have 8 years worth of their design wins listed and neatly categorised.
Red Bee are known for connecting viewers to visual content using a powerful blend of creative, technical and strategic expertise to drive demand for your content, delivering it to the widest possible audience. I would want these guys on my side when playing in the media game!
Delve into their hefty portfolio of work and you will see they do a lot of specialist digital media work promoting television content, television graphics and the tech heavy back-end content handling and streaming. Look out for the fantastic re-brand of the 'Dave' channel, in case study format.
Well done if you are still reading, your almost three quarters of the way through this article and now you've reached Red Interactive, I like the URL the've used but think it might go over some clients heads, although it would make them look clever once they had explained it :-) So clever in fact that they have won quite a few awards, to include multiple FWAs, multiple W3 Awards and Best in Show at the W3, 3 Webby Awards, multiple Horizon Interactive Awards, Best Agency and Best in Show at the Pixel Awards, 3 WebAwards and are multiple FITC winners.
Their web site is a fantastic example of their digital work, look out for some nice web sites for clients such as Polaroid, Honda, Ford, Disney and Sony Pictures.
R/GA are a monster award winning agency that works at the intersection between creativity and technology. The London office is the European hub of the R/GA network and is a market leading global digital agency providing innovation for business and for people. They encourage a new way of thinking and have a central purpose to ‘make things that matter’ – challenging clients to change the way they approach both their business and technology practices by transforming how people interact with brands, they work by asking “What do consumers want?” and then follow wherever the answer leads in whatever medium is required (which can mean inventing something new).
It’s this entrepreneurial spirit combined with creative vision and a willing to do things differently that sets R/GA London apart. This spirit has guided the creation of an award-winning body of work for global brands that has quickly lead to the agency becoming recognised as a pioneer and thought leader. Even in the past year alone (2013) R/GA have slam dunked the following:
These awards above are only some of 149 won last year, in previous years the tally adds up to well over 533 awards of the same calibre (80-2012, 63-2011, 25-2010, 41-2009, 11-2008, 27-2007, 54-2006, 46-2005, 61-2004, 88-2003, 21-2002 and 16-2001). Told you it was a monster!!
Poor little fishy :-( Having to swim behind the likes of R/GA is going to be hard work, thankfully Salmon are a specialist digital agency dealing with e-commerce and multi-channel operations. They must be pretty good too as they have designed, built and ran some huge websites for the likes of: Argos, Boots, Game, Halfords, Homebase and Morrison’s. For those of us in the UK, we know how large these retail organisations are and the massive stock inventories they hold, so it must be a huge task that gains my respect and of course a few specialist online retail awards as well.
Clients like Salmon for its 'on-time, on-budget' ability to build and integrate business-led systems that add measurable competitive value and improve day-to-day commercial operations / bottom line.
What's that coming over the hill? Is it another monster? Yes indeed it is with over 12000 staff worldwide, Sapient Razorfish are absolutely huge and one of the Largest Digital Agencies Worldwide (Ad Age Agency Report) and I think they probably have designed half of the internet at that size! They are this large as originally Sapient Nitro (9000 strong) joined forces with Razorfish (3000 strong) to become the mega agency that is Sapient Razorfish – you'd need to bring in a small country's GDP just to cover their salaries!
What makes them so good? Well in an always-on world where perpetual connection has revolutionised daily life and unhinged the effectiveness of traditional marketing approaches, it is critical for clients to think about their customer's complete brand and buying experience as a single landscape, a never-ending narrative that offers an everywhere, anytime experience of their promise and message, be it attraction, engagement or transaction. This new reality requires dissolving the lines between the physical and virtual world.
Sapient Razorfish have changed the game by creating a new way of sending out a brands message that is not held hostage by any medium but inspired by a changed world and passion for making an impact, with sapience (wisdom) and insight.
Of course this is what most agencies have begun to realise in the past few years, and a lot of them sing the same song, Sapient Raozrfish back this up with some interesting award wins, well, not some but hundreds! Their awards list is massive, I'm already aware that this page is getting very long so I'll try and keep it short (as much as I can):
In the old guise as Sapient Nitro they won:
That and hundreds of awards including:
ADDYs, SXSW Awards, Revolution Awards, IMAs, Web Awards, W3 Awards, Cannes Lions, Mobius Awards, IAB International Award, HIVEs, Campaign Big Awards, MITX Awards, Eurobests, London International Awards, OMMAs, EPICAs, D&AD Black Pencils, ANDYs, One Show Pencils, IACs, Webbys, Clios, DMAs, EFFIEs, IABs and finally New York Festivals Awards.
Razorfish (not Sapient yet) was the only digital agency to be on Advertising Age’s Agency A-List in both 2012 and 2013.
And Razorfish had over 200 international awards from the: Web Awards, Mobi's, OMMAs, FWA, Vibrant Awards, Webby Awards, IACs, Davey Awards, Communication Arts, W3s, IMAs, Horizon Interactive Awards, One Show Awards, Addy Awards, Clios, Best of the Web, Create Awards, NMA Effectiveness Awards, Mobius Awards, American Design Awards, AGDAs and the DTC.
There is more but I'm bored of typing and am sure you are getting bored of reading, so one last mention that these awards are since 2008 so you get my drift...
Look out for the job they did for Queensland Tourism Board for 'The Best Job in the World' it is a really ace and effective campaign. Some good stuff out of the 220+ case studies is for Volvo, Mars, Coca Cola, Foot Locker and there is some extra great personal promotional work.
A recently re-branded group (their old ident was awful), they have a new website and they haven't ported over all their old content, so unfortunately it doesn't give a huge amount away in terms of their award wins, but trust me, they wouldn't be on this list if they didn't cut the mustard, so to speak. Especially as I can't even pronounce their name!
Take a quick look into their portfolio and you will see that they were instrumental in producing the award winning website for Private Banking at HSBC. Another of their websites for Mercedes-Benz: Chronicles of Narnia which won 19 awards in total. It was nominated at the ADC and at the New York Festivals Innovative Advertising Awards for Best Consumer Targeted Website, Best Design, Best Use of Music/Sound and Online Advertising. That was just 2 of their digital projects, they have been going for 15 years, so you get the idea... I love the Mazda and the De Beers Forevermark work.
It's all in the name, or at least it is in this one – I guess what they do? Fishmonger, neuroscience? Nah it's your average trusty App developer! Well not actually average as a specialist mobile software company they are ranked as number 1 in the UK for the best best digital agency with under 50 staff in the Elite category of The Drum’s 2013 Digital Census, not bad for an agency that is four years old!
Not only that, they achieved seventh place in The Drum Mobile Top 50 and are one of the only app development and software companies to feature there, which to be honest is not surprising as the 2 founders used to work with Apple and Steve Jobs on the iPhone launch previously, now they are working alongside big names like Sony, Sky and Mercedez-Benz.
I think this is a good one to watch and not in the watching paint dry sense :-) Think have been consistently climbing up the Drum and the NMA (E-Consultancy/NMA) lists since their humble beginnings in the North West. Now with their added London office they have achieved 2nd place in The Drum’s Top 50 London Agencies Report 2012.
Back in 2011, Think topped the Digital Agency Reputation Survey carried out by YouGov and commissioned by Pitch Digital in conjunction with Marketing Week and New Media Age, this was when UK digital agencies were rated on everything from strategy to creativity and value for money.
I think their success is set to continue as they are both the fastest growing digital company in both the UK and Europe. Following some success at the BIMA awards in 2013, their year was topped off with a massive award win at the DADIs as they romped off with the Grand Prix.
Think Jam, is that like a mind block? Probably more a digital agency for students to idolise here as Think Jam are a highly specialist digital agency that just helps to launch global entertainment brands (aka blockbuster films).
Launching successful and award-winning digital campaigns is reliant on a team of imaginative designers, meticulous developers, dedicated publicists and a highly experienced management team to produce a wide range of digital creative and publicity work for the entertainment industries. Think Jam have managed over 600 digital marketing campaigns in the last 8 years alone.
As you can see we are heading to the bottom of our alphabetical list here, but by no means are we entering the bottom of the pile, Tribal DBB are one of the worlds best digital agencies, or as they put it 'the greatest digitally centric global advertising agency'. Tribal DDB combine creativity and technology to make work that moves people and builds businesses with enough creative horsepower to help our clients outrun economic downturns and help challenger brands flourish.
Awards wise they have won a heap of D&ADs, Cannes Lions, One Show pencils, Clio Awards, W3 Awards, Webby Awards, FWAs, IAB Awards, Effie Awards, British Arrows, MOMAs and are the Webby Awards Agency of the Year 2013.
Tribal are good, would you like to be in their tribe amongst the calibre of VW, O2 and Guinness? I really love the Monopoly City Streets viral game they did for Hasbro!
Twentysix? I'd love to be 26 again, especially knowing what I know now! So what do I know about Twentysix? Well for starters they have more than 26 working for them as they have a headcount of over 100 and growing strong across their 4 offices. They are definitely one to watch in the future as so far they have won: 3 FWAs, a Campaign BIG Award, 2 DADIs, 2 Chip Shop Awards, 3 RAR Awards, a BIMA and a New Media Age Award (sorry guys but your 5 Cream Awards don't count as they are only regional). They have attracted the attention of the Design Museum and the Design Council as clients they must be heading in the right direction.
Unit 9 is a multidisciplinary production company combining directors, writers and technologists that work collaboratively to create content, advertising, utility and gaming for outstanding digital experiences across mobile, physical installations and the web.
As a digital partner to the big agencies, Unit 9 is an award winning powerhouse as they are declared by Campaign Magazine as 'online’s finest' and are one of Creativity’s top interactive production companies, Board Magazine also said they are the 'best interactivists', so it's not just me that rates them then :-)
Their work is consistently recognised by major national and international awards schemes for both creativity and effectiveness, they are inducted to the FWA Hall of Fame and are very proud to be listed in Creativity’s Production A-List for the third consecutive year – 2011, 2010 and 2009.
As a digital production partner, they have worked for the likes of Tribal (above), Mother, Fallon, AMV BDO etc... so I guess these awards below must be shared with the respective agencies (for details, look at the awards section on their website). Take a deep breath and here we go:
9x Lovie Awards, 2x Effies, 5x CLIOs, 2x Epicas, 4x BIMAs, 6x Campaign BIG Awards, 11x Davey Awards, 8x W3 Awards, 16x One Show Award Pencils, 13x Cannes Lions, 6x New York Festival Awards, 5x ADC Awards, 2x ANDYs, 5x D&AD In-Book and 1 Silver Pencil, 24x Webby Awards, 3x IABs, 5x E-Learning Awards, 4x Creativity International Awards, 3x Creative Circle Awards, 5x London International Advertising Awards, 3x NMAs, 2x IVCAs and the lesser daily 89 FWAs / 12 Awwwards.
Of course, the other digital production company that major players use are The Mill – www.themill.com
Ustwo are digital product and interaction designers combining strategic, conceptual and creative to develop interactive tools for modern media platforms, from smart television through to mobile devices. Sorry that was a bit if gibberish, writing these reviews must be taking it's toll :-)
It would probably be better for you to take a look at their website, as an example they have designed the user experience for the new Hudl tablet from Tesco where they focused on it's first time use, iconography, widget design, wallpapers, sounds and ‘Getting Started’ guides to help teach users about their new device from a new brand in the tablet market. Another example of what they do is the user experience for 4oD YOUVIEW, working with Channel 4’s Future Media & Technology team to design and build its YouView portal user experience, from front-end user interface and interaction design, through to full stack development and technical integration.
So if it's decent user interfaces you are looking for, then you might as well follow the likes of Google, Sony, Barclays, J.P.Morgan, h&c, ebay, BT and American Express, as they trust them!
Self proclaimed as 'possibility engineers', if a solution to an idea doesn't currently exist they can create it! I like the sound of that ethos… VML also say they are authentic, driven and fearless collaborators who deliver smart ideas to drive clients’ businesses, regardless of channel or geography with innovative thinking with no boundaries.
Originally called GT (Good Technology), the operation re-launched as VML London in 2010 with expanded staff and a wider range of digital marketing capabilities. The growing enterprise delivers creative, technical and strategic digital solutions for some of the most recognised brands in the world, including Premier League, Xbox, the British Library and Colgate-Palmolive.
VML has a plethora of award winning creative, recent wins to include:
All these awards are adding to an ever growing collection of: Webby Awards, Web Marketing Association WebAwards, Cannes Cyber Lions, IAC Awards, ADDY Awards and International Academy of Visual Arts Awards (aka W3 Awards).
Who is the Wunderman? No idea but notes taken from their website cites that Advertising Age ranks Wunderman as the #1 digital and #1 CRM agency in the world.
Wunderman are rather large and have 170 offices in 60 countries with specialist teams in social, mobile, data and analytics that add depth and breadth to a full range of digital, direct client solutions.
Informed by analytics and insight, Wunderman develop content to engage the whole consumer—as participant and even critics and in the always-on conversation for clients like: Citibank, Coca-Cola, Ford, Land Rover, Levi’s, Microsoft, Nokia, Novartis and Telefonica with a process of mapping, influencing and measuring the network of conversations that lead to purchase.
383 was born in the digital era and as a result, their approach to all communications is digitally minded by nature rather not obligation. They have a nimble team of thinkers and makers who sit in the sweet spot between advertising, digital and design. This, coupled with a deep understanding of technology and how customers use it allows them to create experiences that attract - rather than interrupt customers time.
383 were named Digital & Creative Team of the Year at the DADI Awards at the end of 2013, beating off some stiff competition from Realise and Equator to win the award. Other awards include some Fresh Awards and Social Buzz Awards in 2012.