The Northern Ireland-based marketing and communications business, Ardmore, has climbed the rankings in the Top 30 Regional Agencies in the UK which is published by the advertising trade publication Campaign.
The only Northern Ireland firm to make the list, Ardmore, which employs nearly 70 people at its offices in Holywood, Co. Down, moved up four places from 28th in 2019 to 24th in 2020.
“To be named at all in this list of Campaign’s Top 30 Regional UK Agencies, let alone actually advance higher in the rankings, is an incredible achievement in light of the fact the UK is a global hub for our industry with literally tens of thousands of firms across the country. This success is down to the immense trust the organisations we work with have placed in us to help them navigate one of the most profound challenges they have ever experienced,” says Ardmore’s CEO John Keane.
“The relationships we have built with our clients over many years and the quality of our team is what enabled us to provide the advice our clients needed to make some very finely balanced business decisions at critical junctures. But it is the length, breadth and depth of our international networks and partnerships, that means we can garner the insights required to help clients make those decisions, that was, and remains, key to navigating these very uncertain times,” he adds.
Clients of the agency include Stena Line, Translink, Lidl, Dale Farm, Visit Belfast and Phoenix Natural Gas. In addition Ardmore is a partner and shareholder of the global network of independent agencies, Worldwide Partners, which allows it to collaborate with 70 other partner agencies across the world.
“Some of our recent big contract wins, including with national organisations like Network Rail, outside of Northern Ireland shows that a business from this wee corner of the world is competing with the very best marketing and communications businesses out there. We’re immensely proud to represent Northern Ireland at this level in our industry. We work hard to hire and nurture the best people we can possibly find, and this is why. Through all the difficulties of 2020, our team came together and showed incredible and unwavering creativity, resilience, and loyalty. We are all unified in the ambition to be a world class marketing and communications business, and it’s this approach, of making small, continuous improvements every day coupled with offering an exceptional client service, that enables us realise achievements such as this,” adds Mark Irwin, managing director of the agency.
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