Agency roundup: Zelst; Perfect Storm; Xpand; and more

Zelst, a Harrogate search marketing agency launched in 2006 by Peter Van Zelst, has begun 2022 with two new client wins in January.

It comes after 12 months of growing demand for the agency’s online search marketing services, which has already created three new jobs.

The firm, which now employs a team of 12, made three new appointments in 2021 in response to the boost in new business which also saw fee income rise by 40% over the year.

Its latest clients are a Peterborough-based modular buildings provider, Elliott, and My Student Halls, a UK-wide student accommodation search engine.

Peter Van Zelst said: “The mass migration to online that was triggered by the pandemic looks to be here to stay, as web traffic levels remain high long after lockdowns have ended, and that means it’s even more essential for organisations to be seen and get found.

“Although, like every business, we’ve come up against all sorts of challenges over the last two years, I’m really confident Zelst is in a great place to continue to grow.

“We’ve got a great, passionate and highly skilled team on board and we’re excited about driving forward the growth and momentum we’ve built together in 2021.”

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Leeds-based digital marketing agency, Perfect Storm, has appointed Dan Svikis to a new role of strategy & effectiveness director.

He brings with him 20 years of digital marketing experience and spent the last 10 years at HOME Agency (now IMA HOME), working as a client services director, agency operations director and most recently, marketing integration & effectiveness director.

Svikis has been briefed to expand and refine Perfect Storm’s digital strategy offering, as the agency continues to grow.

Adam Errington, who founded Perfect Storm with Dave Nutter in 2016, said: “We previously worked with Dan at HOME and we have seen first-hand how talented he is.

“He brings with him a huge wealth of experience, which will be a major asset in terms of assisting the team internally, and our clients, helping us to take Perfect Storm and the brands we work with to the next level.”

Svikis added: “Digital marketing brings many opportunities, but the challenge for brands is often where to focus and which choices to make in order to drive commercial success.

“I’m incredibly excited to be able to bring my experience to our client’s brands, helping them to drive the use of digital marketing within their organisation.”

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Saltaire-based digital marketing agency, Xpand, has been appointed by two Yorkshire businesses to lead on the development of a seven-part marketing strategy to grow their digital presence.

The contracts, both of which were won in the same week, are with health and safety training provider, GEM Compliance Training and contractual cleaning firm, Carroll Cleaning Company.

Xpand will use its SOLAR 7 Strategy Model – which has recently been trademarked – to audit both firm’s current positioning, messaging and marketing activities and go on to provide tactical steps the firms can take to bolster their digital marketing efforts.

GEM Compliance Training provides health and safety and first aid training courses to organisations and individuals looking to achieve compliance requirements. It’s sister firm, GEM Safety, provides construction site workers with access to health and safety training and CSCS tests to obtain their mandatory CSCS cards.

The Carroll Cleaning Company is a contract cleaning company working across the North and Midlands.

It wants to modernise its approach and develop a marketing strategy which demonstrates its values, commitment to the community and employer brand.

MD at the company, Nick Carroll, said: “Our directors are certain Jag and Xpand Marketing will ensure the future growth and continued success of Carroll Cleaning Company having demonstrated a real passion for the company during initial meets.

“In their initial pitch, the team spoke about the principles that drive the team at Xpand as they work with clients to understand their business, identify core values and review existing marketing.

“We knew immediately the team would deep dive into our business and develop a strategy that would yield the results we were looking for.”

Jag Panesar, founder at Xpand, added: “We are honoured to take on these strategy projects for two clients who are already well established within their field.

“Strategies are what we do, and we’ve used our years of experience to hone our process, ensuring we can provide meaningful strategies that bring value to our clients.”

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Leeds-based PPC agency, Circus, has been named a 2022 Google Premier Partner, putting it in the top 3% of agencies in the UK.

This is determined by a number of factors including client growth, client retention and annual ad spend.

For the agency, this means it now has exclusive benefits such as access to the newest products betas, advanced Google Ads support, and executive experiences with Google leaders and fellow Premier Partners.

Operations director, William Cheng, said: “Google really ramped up the requirements needed to achieve Premier Partner status this year, and for us, it indicates we’re doing the work needed to be recognised by arguably the most well-known and well-respected company in the PPC landscape – Google itself.

“We’re extremely proud of the work the team have done to achieve this status, and we believe it will help us to continue to deliver and improve outstanding paid advertising services to our clients.”

The achievement comes following a record-breaking year in 2021 for Circus, which saw it hit its first ever £10m year.