Agency roundup: Perfect Storm; Lucky North; and more

A Leeds-based digital agency has seen business boom, doubling in size over the last financial year ending 31 March.

Perfect Storm, which launched in 2016 with the aim of disrupting the traditional agency model, has recorded a turnover of £1.4m in the last financial year with an EBITDA of £469,000.

The agency has won several new projects from B2B, pharmaceutical and travel clients including TheCityUK, PGL Travel, Silverstone Events, and has also created a new hospitality website for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The business, which has offices at Calls Landing, has an in-house team of nine digital producers and directors who handpick a team from their network of specialist freelance partners to assist with specific briefs.

Director Dave Nutter, who founded the agency with Adam Errington, said: “It really has been an outstanding year for the business, for which we’re very grateful.

“Although obviously the backdrop of COVID-19 has been challenging for so many people and organisations, our lean and scalable agency model has meant we haven’t needed to implement any cost saving measures, and have been in a prime position to be able to scale up to help our clients with their digital challenges.

“We don’t see that abating, as we’re forecasting a turnover of £2m for 2022-23 and are already on schedule to hit those growth plans for quarter one of this financial year.

“The agency growth plan doesn’t mean following the well-trodden agency path of lots more staff and more offices either – in our opinion, headcount and number of offices is an old-fashioned success metric.

“The basis for our continued success going into 2022 will be expanding and refining our own proprietary system to help us run things efficiently and harnessing the incredible freelance talent which improves month on month.

“Our central team has continued to work extremely hard throughout the last year, and we are indebted to the talented people we work with, both in house and externally.”

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Specialist PR agency Lucky North, has invested in its senior team with the appointment of a new account manager, following a 87% increase in revenue and a series of new client wins.

The agency, based at Munro House in Leeds, has welcomed Jennifer Ogden as account manager, who brings with her more than six years’ industry experience.

Working alongside the directors, Ogden will be responsible for a number of accounts including sustainable composite decking company, Composite Prime and healthcare technology firm, Tunstall Healthcare.

The news follows the internal promotion of  senior account executive Jenny Marston to account manager; reinforcing the agency’s commitment to nurturing talent within.

Director at Lucky North, Kiran Watson, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Jennifer on board. Lucky North has gone from strength to strength since our inception in December 2019 and we feel our newest recruit is perfectly positioned to help us achieve our vision of becoming the most recommended PR agency in the north.

“2020 was a very busy year for the team and despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, we’ve seen an increased demand for our PR services which has meant essential expansion of  our senior team.

“It’s great to welcome Jen to the business and also congratulate Jenny on her well deserved promotion which is testament to her hard work and dedication to supporting our clients.”

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Leeds-based ilk Agency has been appointed by children’s cutlery brand doddl to refine and strengthen existing brand concepts as well as develop a new ecommerce website and a paid advertising strategy.

doddl’s products are ergonomically designed in a way that’s tailored to the smaller hands of children, and aim to make family mealtimes fun and rewarding rather than stressful and messy.

ilk’s brief was to help the brand better communicate the benefits and qualities of those design principles, as well as highlight a brand story based on authentic lived experience.

Following a successful new website launch in March, ilk now works closely with doddl on a paid advertising strategy to drive new and existing consumers to purchase products through its site in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Nev Ridley, managing director of the agency, said: “The great thing about this project was that it was all about enhancing and refining what was already there.

“At heart the brand’s origin story was a very personal one, and alongside the ergonomic principles we felt our job was to ensure the brand struck a balance between the credibility and reassurance of those design credentials and the empathy and resonance of that brand story.”

Laura Thomas, marketing director at doddl, added: “We were quite nervous when we started the project because there was lots about our existing brand that we liked and wanted to retain –  but at the same time we knew it needed development to match our medium and long term ambitions.

“What ilk were able to offer was the ability to look at our brand in the round; starting with a brand workshop that canvassed thought, insight and opinion about the past, present and future of the company, and then applying those learnings across all aspects of the brand and channelling it into a blueprint for meaningful comms.

“We’ve got big plans as a brand so there’s plenty more work to do, but we’re delighted with what we’ve achieved together to date, and excited about what’s to come.”