Agency roundup: Definition; Trio Media; Flaunt Digital; and more
Definition, a national brand alignment consultancy based in Leeds, has reported a record start to 2024 with 19 new major client wins in quarter one, worth £700,000 in revenue.
The roster of new clients spans national and international names including Orange, Save the Children, Apliqo, Campari, Marstons, Chester Racecourse, Greater London Authority, Linklaters, MedicAlert, RedKite, Unite, Dual, TransPennine Express, The NEC, and Hyperion Dev.
The wins cover the full range of Definition’s services including insight, brand strategy, customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), marketing, PR and video, with a number of the clients working with more than one of the agency’s specialist teams.
In November last year the agency consolidated its seven group brands under the Definition name, with an integrated team of over 100 specialists now working at offices in Leeds, London, Manchester and Cape Town.
Louise Vaughan, chief client officer and co-founder of the agency, said: “These results underline the growing appeal of the Definition alignment model.
“It means businesses and organisations get to work with highly specialist, award-winning teams across multiple disciplines, to deliver meaningful and measurable commercial results.
“We have almost 300 clients worldwide and around 60 of these are tapping into multiple services. We’re adding new names to this month on month.”
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Dr George Bargiannis, Professor Mauro Vallati and Dr Emmanuel Papadakis
A new partnership between academics and a Yorkshire firm is exploring an innovative use of Artificial Intelligence in the marketing world.
AI experts at the University of Huddersfield Centre for Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (CAIS) are bringing their knowledge to the collaboration with Trio Media, a digital marketing agency based in Leeds.
The aim of the project is to build a conversational and generative AI tool that will help improve internal processes for the marketing agency, which in turn will help it improve its service to clients and become more profitable.
Dr George Bargiannis, Professor Mauro Vallati and Dr Emmanuel Papadakis, of the university’s Department of Computer Science, are working together on the project.
The key innovation will be to combine knowledge graphs with generative and conversational AI to automate and enhance the client briefing process. This will enable the tool to ask the right follow-up questions and learn over time to improve the quality of the briefs being produced.
The partnership itself is through a 27-month-long Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) which is expected to start in September.
Dr Bargiannis said: “The main idea behind this project is to bring together different branches of AI to deliver a solution that is both performant and explainable.
“To achieve this, we combine knowledge-based AI, which is the technology behind Google knowledge panels with generative and conversational AI, which powers ChatGPT and similar groundbreaking tools.
“Knowledge-based AI allows us to tap into the collective knowledge and expertise of marketing experts at Trio Media to ensure they remain at the heart of the tool to be developed.
“Generative and conversational AI will then allow users of the tool to interact using natural conversation, facilitating the marketing brief process and increasing Trio Media’s productivity.
“The first step is to understand the process at the marketing company, creating a human- understandable and machine-processable knowledge graph.
“Then in the second phase of the project, we will be building a chatbot that will leverage the knowledge graph we created to make it an expert in marketing, designed to understand and produce text that is marketing related.”
A graduate associate will be recruited by the University to be based at Trio Media for the length of the partnership.
Claire Daniels, owner and CEO of Trio Media, created the initial idea for the KTP project.
She said: “As a forward-thinking company, we have been keen to understand how we can adopt AI in our organisation in a way that will make us more productive and efficient.
Clare Daniels
“Whilst the market is swamped with AI marketing tools for content creation; we’re not interested in tools that are trying to replace our jobs. What we’re really interested in is how we can be more efficient and more effective.
“We looked for issues that were common in our own company, along with in other agencies. We found that scope creep, misaligned expectations and unclear briefs all added up to more hours spent on a project than needed.
“We searched to see if there was a tool to improve this process, and when we couldn’t find one, I decided we should build our own.
“While we have significant in-house expertise in delivering web and digital projects, we are missing skills, knowledge and expertise in AI, in terms of designing, developing, training, testing and deploying intelligent systems.
“The University of Huddersfield is uniquely placed to address these skills and knowledge gap, through the collective expertise of the CAIS research centre.”
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Contemporary garden solutions and paving expert, RF Paving – The Complete Design Solution, has appointed Leeds-based digital agency Flaunt Digital to help expand its online presence.
Following a rebrand from RF Landscapes at the beginning of 2024, the business has set its sights on bringing its Complete Design Solution concept to the market, offering products such as matching steps, cobbles, cladding and tiles to create a cohesive home and garden design.
Flaunt Digital has been tasked with driving brand awareness for the business following the rebrand, working across a number of different digital strategies including Digital PR and SEO.
Lora Thornton, head of PR at the agency, said: “We are happy to be working with RF Paving, they have got ambitious growth plans for this year, including moving into new areas of garden solutions and we are thrilled to helping them in their journey, and shaping their Digital PR strategy.”
Amy Andrews, director of RF Paving – The Complete Design Solution, added: “We are really looking forward to offering the complete design solution to the UK market and beyond.
“We are very excited for our future and our collaboration with Flaunt Digital, who share the ethos of putting care for our customers at the forefront.”
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Huddersfield-based marketing agency, Browndog, has extended its partnership with Calderdale College.
Following a rigorous tender process, the agency has been selected as the exclusive provider of extended marketing services to the college.
With a history of collaboration with the college spanning seven years, Browndog has been providing specialised marketing solutions, including graphic design support, Google Ads management, website design, development, and hosting services.
Alexis Bradbury, owner and strategy director at the agency, said: “Our ongoing collaboration with Calderdale College has been incredibly rewarding, and we are thrilled to continue serving as their exclusive marketing partner.
“We are dedicated to leveraging our expertise and experience to support the college in achieving its strategic goals, driving increased student engagement and enhancing brand visibility.”
Head of marketing at Calderdale College, Emma Lister, said: “We are pleased to be renewing our partnership with Browndog after working with the business for almost a decade.
“Strong partnerships are crucial to our success and Browndog continue to be recognised as an integral part of our extended marketing team at Calderdale College.
“They offer outstanding support which is a perfect fit for us as we uphold our title as the best marketing team in the north of England.
“Our marketing campaigns continue to go from strength-to-strength as we celebrate what makes us the hub of lifelong learning for our community. I am pleased that Browndog can join us on this journey as we invest in skills to transform lives.”
