LEITH
Integrated creative agency, owned by Cello
Not so long ago, Leith was winning plaudits for merely surviving within the wreckage of a much-damaged Scottish ad industry.
Such was the harshness of the recession that agencies north of the border found themselves having to rely heavily on severely reduced public-sector budge ts while fighting to stop their top talent – and their best accounts – heading south.
Today, Leith has the look of an agency that has come through its catharsis with a spring in its step.
The year not only saw it bedding down some sizeable accounts that chose to move away from London at the end of 2015 – Scottish Power, The Famous Grouse and the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Scottish retail business among them – but saw turnover up by 28% and profitability increasing by 34%.
And in what the agency claims to have been its most successful year since 2009, Leith is looking an increasingly confident player beyond its Scottish heartland.
Indeed, while 51% of the agency’s campaigns ran in Scotland during 2016, 34% appeared in England and Wales and 11% globally.
This last statistic seems reflective of a more international outlook. The agency now boasts staff from the US, Italy, Spain and Morocco. Last year saw Human Innovation, Leith’s new innovation consultancy, set up shop in New York and plans are afoot to enter into a twinning arrangement with an agency in San Francisco.
Today, Leith seems to be reaping the rewards for managing to hold firm on its self-belief and its consistent ability to turn out innovative and often feisty creative work, not least its huge building wrap on Glasgow Central station for Irn-bru Xtra, which made it into Campaign’s list of 2016’s top ten outdoor ads.