2019 has been a busy time at the farm. From client wins and anniversaries, to new life and new recruits, here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to this year.
We marked our 20th anniversary as an agency. From humble beginnings the business has grown tremendously, and now the tea round is 23-strong and the client portfolio brimming.
Not only have we had some fabulous new client additions to the farm, including Ricoh AM, Goodyear Farm Tires and Nelson’s Distillery, we’ve also welcomed new life. 2019 was the year of the girls at 8848, welcoming four new additions into the extended agency family. Congratulations to account manager Sean and wife Danni, account director James Garrison and wife Becky, social media director Konnie and husband Dan on their new arrivals, and congratulations to digital account director Emma and partner Sam, whose baby girl is due any day now.
Three words that have remained prevalent this year for us at the farm are sports sponsorship activation. From darts, cricket and rugby, to motorsport and Team GB – it’s been a full-on but amazing year!
You only have to take a look at our social media feeds to see that at 8848 we love the darts! And the team have thoroughly enjoyed playing their part at tournaments for our client Selco. We are proud to have helped the brand on to the oche for a high-profile partnership with the Professional Darts Corporation which, in 2019, has well and truly hit the bullseye across all channels.
With our client Persimmon Homes, and its partnership with Team GB, we handed out more than £1 million to groups benefitting under 18s. The campaign ended with a celebratory event at York Racecourse, with special guests former Scottish rugby player and BBC Sports Personality of the year Helen Rollason award winner Doddie Weir and Team GB medallists Callum Skinner and Kat Copeland.
Did we mention we’re going global? This year, we partnered with Titan Europe to provide online and offline marketing and PR support to re-launch the Goodyear Farm Tires brand to the UK and European market. In November, our video and marketing team headed to Agritechnica in Hannover, following a successful brand launch. We’re looking forward to seeing the brand progress in 2020.
Our client Scotts of Thrapston attended RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court flower show, The West Brom opened a brand-new branch, we celebrated 18 years working with Higgs & Sons.
A lot has happened over the last 20 years for the agency: we acquired Seal in 2015, bought a farm in 2016 and at the same time changed our name to 8848, now offering a full-service agency with expertise in PR, social media, video, marketing, creative and digital.
We’d like to thank our wonderful clients, both old and new, and we don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!