So you’re looking for the right creative agency for you and your brand?
With over 2,820,000,000 results in Google for creative agencies, it’s a seriously time-consuming task to find the right fit for you and what you’re looking to achieve!
Not only that but there are agencies that best serve different types of business & offer individual services within the creative industry.
This is why we’ve created this article, to ensure you have a list of the most trusted and respected creative agencies in the UK that can take your brand to the next level.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
What Makes a Top Creative Agency?
You might be thinking, what criteria are used to select the agencies in this list?
As you know, a lot of agencies are all talk and no action. They can often be seen selling you the dream, but when you start with them, they’re unable to provide the results you were looking for.
Here are 3 key areas you should be considering before choosing an agency to work with:
Experience & Results
It’s important they know about your industry and have case studies within a similar sector, as this will allow them to implement the right strategy to deliver results from the offset.
They might be great at B2C businesses, but if you’re a B2B, that won’t guarantee they’ll know how to help you succeed.
Finding an agency in a similar growth or maturity stage to yours is worth looking for. Otherwise, there can be many challenges in the ways of working and team structure.
Values & Cultural Fit
Do their values line up with yours?
Working with an agency isn’t just about seeing good results. It’s important that you genuinely get on with their team, and there’s natural chemistry to build upon for a strong working relationship.
This also goes both ways. As an agency, they should only look to work with brands they feel are a cultural fit.
They aren’t just a service provider; they’re looking to work with brands for the long run, and this only happens when they love working with their team!
Communication & Transparency
A trusting relationship comes from both communication and transparency from your agency.
Are they quick to respond, upfront, honest & transparent with how they’ve communicated with you in the initial stages of the pitch?
The agency should feel like an extension of your team, where you feel comfortable being able to raise any concerns or thoughts and can reach out at any time to have a chat.
Now that you know what to look for when considering an agency, let’s jump into the Top Creative Agencies in the UK.
Top Social Creative Agencies
1. The Social Shepherd
The Social Shepherd is recognized as a leading Social Creative agency, having won Best Large Social Media Agency at the UK Social Media Awards.
They produce creative content for prominent brands such as Uniqlo, EasyJet Holidays, Premier Inn, 19 Crimes, and Mecca Bingo, among many others.
Their extensive case studies and proven results demonstrate their capabilities across various brand types.
The agency offers diverse services to help brands with social creative initiatives, including:
- Strategy – Creative strategy, art direction, content strategy.
- Organic Social – Social Content (Reels, TikTok), Influencer content.
- Performance Paid Social Content – Focusing on both direct-response and brand-led creative for Paid Social.
- Campaign Creative – strategy, planning, production and campaign activation.
- Brand development on Social Media – Their creative team can build an aesthetic & brand positioning for you on social whether that’s from a design perspective or TOV.
- Motion Graphics & 2D/3D Animation – Their talented team of editors can deliver incredible motion graphics & animation content for your socials and website.
You can see some of their recent creative work by checking out their service page with examples.
Key facts about The Social Shepherd team and agency include:
- 2,000+ videos produced in the last 12 months (includes variations, A/B tests etc.)
- A creative team that spans Creative Directors, strategists, planners, producers, videographers, designers and animators
- 65+ team size across the UK and US
- Award-winning creative team
Top Creative Branding & Design Agencies
2. Love Creative
Love Creative is a Creative Advertising, Packaging Design and Branding agency based in Manchester. Within that, they offer multiple core services such as:
- Brand Strategy & Design
- Activations
- Spaces & Experiences
- Identity Design
- Packaging Design
- Comms
- Immersive
They’ve worked with brands such as Guinness, Brewdog, Adidas, Botanic Lab, Johnnie Walker, and KitKat, amongst others. However, they work with small and large businesses so that they could be a fit for all companies looking for a creative branding agency.
3. Chaos Design
Based in London and Guildford, Chaos Design is a Creative Branding Agency focused on helping ambitious leaders who are determined to make their brand different, disruptive & distinctive.
Their expertise in creative lies within branding, brand strategy, internal comms, marketing comms, advertising and digital. They have experience in both B2C and B2B across many different industries.
Chaos by name, but not chaotic by nature. They have a process & methodology that takes each brand through a series of steps to ensure the success of their work.
- Investigation – understanding your market and business to get a 360 point of view.
- Insight – looking at observations, considerations, recommendations & audits that allow for creative development.
- Inspiration – this is where the brainstorming & workshops take place to start bringing ideas to life.
- Integration – they’ll look at the best distribution methods across their six communication disciplines to see where the campaign should be integrated.
- Implementation – everything then comes to life.
4. Pearlfisher
Pearlfisher is an award-winning Creative Design and Branding agency based in London & New York, founded in 1992.
They have recently won awards at the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, The DBA Design Effectiveness Award, the Sunday Times Best Companies To Work For, the D&AD Awards and many others.
Describing themselves as a ‘visionary group of futurists, strategists, designers & realisers’, their core focus is within seven areas of human living: Taste, Body, Luxury, Mobility, Leisure, Community and Nature.
Their client portfolio includes the likes of McDonalds, Seedlip, Bang & Olufsen, BYOMA, Wagamama and more.
5. Deep
Deep is a London-based design agency that produces effective brand, digital & print communications for brands with a global audience. Their design services help businesses specifically on:
- Branding
- Websites & eCommerce
- Design for Print
- Digital Campaigns
- Film & Photography
- Editorial
Top Creative Production Agencies
6. Happy Hour Productions
Happy Hour Productions were established over 15 years ago, making them a safe pair of hands for all creative production projects. Not only that, but they have experience with brands launching into the market and those who are already market-leading in their industry.
They’re known to produce creative for TV Commercials, Corporate Videos, Brand Films and Animation. But, they can do much more than just the production side, as they understand the value of storytelling & scriptwriting to ensure your creative lands with your advertising goals.
As well as production, they help with:
- Brand positioning and campaign strategy
- Competitor analysis of both brand and product
- Profiling customer data to identify target audiences and pen profiles
- Defining messaging and tone of voice
- Creative conceptualisation (for specific channels or integrated campaigns)
- Copywriting and scripting
- Storyboarding and directors’ treatments
- Seeding content in social channels
7. Create London
Create London is a creative production studio that specialises in event production & brand activations. Having worked with the likes of Coca-Cola and Tiffany & Co., they understand how to propel brands to another level.
They work with other agencies & brands to deliver on:
- Experiential, Stunts & Social Experiments
- Pop-up Shops & Retail Management
- Festivals & Outdoor Events
- Press and Product Launches
8. Lobster Creative
Lobster produces creative for content-hungry brands. Focusing their production across TV, Social, OOH, Stills, Films, Print, Rich Media, Banners and In-Store.
Their aim is to deliver a number of creative assets from all shoots, as they understand a singular 30-second video just doesn’t cut it.
Clients include Dove, Nutella, Flora, Tanqueray, Glenfiddich, Standard Chartered and others.
Top Creative Advertising Agencies
9. Leopard Co
Leopard Co is a new agency with 20 years of experience, combining Big Cat and Spotty Dog Communications. They have talented strategists, advertising creatives and communications experts based in Birmingham.
Their creative advertising campaigns aim to interrupt, influence, make people laugh and create action using social, digital & PR to distribute that content.
They’ve evolved into a multi-disciplinary creative agency focused on working with hospitality, leisure, retail, public service and not-for-profit businesses.
10. Rascal
The services offered by Rascal range from:
- Creative Content – Conceptualisation, Motion Graphics, Video Production, Design and Artworking, Photoshoots and Live Streaming.
- Strategy – Digital, Social, Activation and Creator Management.
- Digital PR – Link Building, Product PR, Newsjacking.
- Paid Media – Paid Social and PPC.
11. Aura Ads
Aura Ads is a creative agency that produces assets designed to convert users using Paid Social for DTC brands.
Based in Cardiff, their agile team produces short-form videos, UGC, statics and videos for various clients, including Huel, Wild, Freddies Flowers and more.
Their core offering is retained creative, so you can keep your Paid Social creatives fresh every month, with packages starting from £1,500 per month.
Top Creative Communication Agencies
12. Top Banana
Top Banana believe in creating tight-knit relationships with their clients to truly understand their business challenges and how they want their audiences to feel upon seeing their brand and creative.
With over 40 employees and 20+ years since their existence, they’re recognized as one of the UK’s most trusted & reputable creative communication agencies.
Their services include:
- Live and Virtual Events
- Venue Finding
- Strategy and Insight
- Film
- Incentive Travel
- Design and Creative
- Digital Solutions
- Campaign and Activation
13. Strata
Strata is a brand experience & creative communications agency.
They believe in creating true engagement through brand experiences that connect and captivate, focused on driving “Return on Experience”.
14. Stripe Communications
Stripe is one of the leading integrated creative communications agencies delivering on brand, social, PR and digital.
But what do they actually do? Here are their service areas:
- Comms, Brand & Digital Strategy
- Creative Content Generation
- PR
- Sponsorship & Events
- Social Media
- Employee Engagement
- Influencer Relations
- Measuring Success
With offices in Edinburgh & London, they’re a great choice for any brand looking for a creative communications agency in the UK.
Top Creative Agencies (General)
15. Rise at Seven
Rise at Seven is a young agency, having only just turned 3, but has had some of the fastest growth seen in any agency across the UK in recent years.
They label themselves as the Search-first Creative Agency that helps brands rank #1 on Google by facilitating & driving search activity from their creative activations & digital PR.
With offices in Sheffield, London, Manchester and now New York, their team of 90+ employees sits across Campaigns, Technical SEO, Digital PR, Creative Content, Reactive Marketing, Social Media and Paid Media Marketing.
16. Huddle Creative
Huddle Creative is a London-based branding, digital & content agency that helps businesses become meaningful brands.
Their creative services are centred around transforming brands that have closer relationships with their customers, split across:
- Branding Services – find your brand’s proposition, realign your positioning and redesign your visual identity.
- Digital Services – design and define your UX, UI and overall web design.
- Content Services – captivating copy that engages and informs your audience.
17. Engine Creative
The final agency on our list is no less than award-winning Engine Creative.
Based in Northampton, they create innovative digitally-led creative campaigns for large and small brands in the UK that entertain, inform, delight and inspire your customers.
Their services have been crafted to build brand engagement, and they have worked with the likes of Camelot, Coca-Cola, BBC, Tesco, Disney and more.
With any creative campaign or project, the investment is typically a considerable amount, so you want to make sure you get the right people for the job to deliver the results you’re looking to achieve.
Hiring one of these top agencies will result in a seamless working relationship, creative delivered as you’d expected and on time, and leave you satisfied with the outcome of your decision in that agency to propel the growth of your brand across social, digital, PR, events & comms.
