Agency round-up: Fox Agency; Diony; CreativeRace; and more
Leeds-based B2B technology marketing specialist, Fox Agency, has bolstered its digital credentials with the appointment of Michael Dean as head of digital.
Dean brings 25 years of digital experience to the role and joins from Youwe (formerly SuccessFlow), a full-service digital agency implementing marketing automation and e-commerce solutions, where he held the position of head of marketing and technology.
Starting out his career as a front-end web developer after graduating with a degree in computer science, he has built digital teams and headed the digital function in a number of agencies, maintaining a strong focus on strategy and execution throughout his career.
He will drive forward the expansion of Fox Agency’s digital offering by bringing together technology, data and insights to deliver demand generation, through to lead capture and nurturing, and conversion.
He said: “As well as having known about Fox Agency and seeing its impressive work in the global B2B tech space, I was attracted to the role by the scope of the opportunity.
“Being able to add my digital strategy skills into an established agency which has a wealth of creative resource, and by tracking and understanding the end-to-end digital journey, we will execute the best strategies and campaigns to deliver the greatest outcomes.”
Ben Fox, director at Fox Agency, said: “Michael clearly has the digital passion and expertise to use technology to devise strategies that help organisations transform, while engaging prospects to become customers and then advocates.
“His appointment is a significant part of our agency growth roadmap and we are thrilled to have him onboard.
“We look forward to seeing the campaigns, executions and all-round digital greatness he will deliver.”
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Hull-based performance marketing agency, Diony, has appointed people to two key roles at a pivotal stage of the firm’s development – Ana Watts as marketing manager and David Lucas as head of strategy.
The agency has tripled its sales from 2019 with a growing client base of large local names and multi-nationals in online retail, fashion, renewables, manufacturing, professional services, and real estate to name a few.
Alistair O’Sullivan, managing director, said: “At the beginning of the year we predicted that Diony would have reached a whole new level by the end of 2020.
“Despite the challenges of COVID-19, our predictions have been realised and we are actually further on than expected in terms of sales and the size of the team.
“Now I want to double the team to twelve by mid 2021, retaining the local talent in the Humber region.”
Watts joins from an in-house position in Beverley where she gained a broad range of experience in marketing.
She said: “Personally, I enjoy creating content, visuals and brainstorming new campaign ideas.
“One of the best things about working for a marketing agency is seeing inside a variety of businesses and helping them achieve their vision, it’s very rewarding.”
As well as heading Diony’s internal digital marketing, she will work alongside Lucas to produce and manage a range of campaigns.
Lucas joins Diony after building a reputable digital agency in Pocklington. He brings clients and great experience.
He said: “I’ve worked in marketing for six years but consider myself old-school!
“I focus on what makes people tick, the psychology behind how they behave and respond to great marketing.
“It helps me create effective strategies in highly targeted sectors, whilst making the most of the latest tools and platforms.”
Over the summer Diony delivered Recover; designed to help businesses hurdle the effects of the pandemic.
O’Sullivan said: “The Recover initiative has been huge for us and recruiting Ana and David is a resulting step-change for our business.
“Recover launched in July providing a free service including digital audits, webinars and strategy consultations for businesses wanting to drive sales through what is a difficult economic situation.
“It confirmed that brands understand performance-led digital marketing is now more important than ever before and off the back of it we have created great client relationships.”
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Independent agency CreativeRace has announced a number of key hires in 2020 to support the delivery of its growth plans, including expanding its service provision to include a dedicated PR and social integrated agency proposition.
Newcomers include Rebecca Jones, previously client services director at communications agency Finn.
She has joined as communications director, a newly created role for the business.
With over 20 years experience in PR, social media and influencer marketing, she brings an understanding of local and global activation, having led the development and implementation of strategic campaigns for many well known brands.
Her appointment at Leeds-based CreativeRace follows other senior leadership hires in 2020, including Andrew Hovells as strategy director and Joel Kent as group finance director.
Hovells has previously worked for top media agencies including TBWA and PHD media and has more than 20 years experience working on strategies and executions for brands such as WM Morrison, Castrol, ghd, and Nissan.
His role at CreativeRace is to lead client strategy, helping clients navigate their challenges by focusing on real life behaviour and logical brand solutions.
Kent is responsible for overseeing the strategic investment of the business navigating the expansion plans, having previously supported the significant growth of Home Agency for the past six years, helping to increase its turnover by nearly £14m during his time in the business.
Lauren Blackburn has been brought in to head the agency’s internal marketing. She joins from Enjoy Digital, having also worked in marketing management roles at Mamas & Papas, Sherwin-Williams and Farrow & Ball.
As a result of increased client activity, the agency has also recruited account manager Emma Singleton to support the delivery of increasingly innovative and forward-thinking projects.
She joins from Jaywing, having worked with brands such as Goodyear and University of Sheffield.
Rob Shaw, who was appointed CEO back in September, said: “The calibre of the hires we have made recently speaks for itself.
“There will be more high-profile industry names joining us early in the new year and we finish 2020 announcing a raft of production roles that we will be bringing on board in the coming months across SEO, PPC, Digital PR, Digital Content and Account Management.
“We are fortunate to work with clients that expect support from people at the top of their game and we will continue to attract the very best into the new year.”
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Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, Leeds-based digital transformation agency Calls9 has reported 29% growth over the last 12 months representing its most successful year of trading since its formation.
The business has also strengthened its global customer portfolio over the same period through new customer engagements across the legal, education, marketing and healthcare sectors.
CEO and founder, Adam Roney, said: “We are extremely proud of the significant growth we experienced this year, and I would like to thank the team for their hard work and resilience that delivered this growth even during this unprecedented global crisis.
“This growth is a result of our passion to help professional services businesses accelerate the speed at which they can transform, to not only survive but thrive in this digital age and beyond.”
To support the continued growth of the business, Calls9 is hiring for new key roles across the business including account management, project management, business analysis and software development.
Roney added that by scaling its business, Calls9 is able to deliver on its mission of digitally transforming more professional services businesses around the world.
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Independent full service agency, Chapter 81, has announced an adaptation to its offering alongside a new client win.
The Leeds-based collective, which predominantly supports independent hospitality businesses, has expanded to provide digital support to workspace designers, Building Interiors.
The agency which says it “suffered during lockdown” and was reduced to skeleton staff, has seen the business bounce back recently.
Simon Fogal, founder of Chapter 81
“We’re really excited to be working with our new client, Building Interiors, because it adds another string to our bow and they have a great vision for their brand that we are able to bring to life. As we move towards 2021, Chapter 81 will be looking to build on this recent success and continue to expand.”
Jeremy Poole, sales director, said: “Chapter 81 was one of three companies we approached in our search to find a company that would be able to show an understanding of the strategic journey we are on and promote our re-brand completed six months prior.
“Simon and his team immediately showed an enthusiastic and creative approach to what we were trying to achieve, along with demonstrating a good understanding of our marketplace and competitors. It became clear that they were the company that would help us maintain a professional but quirky online presence which is key in our industry. We are excited to be working with C81 and are looking forward to seeing the results in the months ahead!”
Fogal added that the agency has continued to broaden its offering and is now making feature films in-house.
He concluded: “We have a lot of great things in the mix at the moment and we are really grateful to everyone who chooses to work with us. 2021 is definitely going to be a busy year as the hospitality sector opens up once again.”
