FINALIST: CREATIVE AGENCY OF THE YEAR EMEA
Backstory
Tin Man was founded nine years ago by ambitious consumer PR wizard Mandy Sharp with a laser focus on creating “communications with heart” that has endured as the agency has grown from its consumer brands heartland to expanding into digital and corporate work. The agency’s work is grounded in its own evidence, from its Heart Score measurement and evaluation tool, that the power of emotional connections can change behaviour and make a real commercial impact on brands. It works across sectors, from entertainment and education, to travel and leisure, to healthcare and tech platforms, to food and drink, devising campaigns across earned, shared, owned and paid media. In 2022 the agency continued to innovate, growing Oh My! – the in-house film and production agency launched in 2020, which now produces content for all Tin Man clients as well as its own – as well as creating its own proprietary behaviour change model, Science of Emotion, in collaboration with behavioural scientist and author, Richard Shotton.
Locations
Tin Man is based in London and, through its Tin Man International Collective, is active in markets including Spain, France, Germany and the US.
Performance
Tin Man’s annual growth has averaged 36% since its inception, and its profit margin has always been over 20%. In 2022, the agency grew revenues by an impressive 46% to fee income of £4 million, with 22% margins. New clients included Vodafone, Virgin Atlantic, Amazon Alexa, Gumtree, Magnet Kitchens, Luton Airport, Warner Brothers Studio Tour London, and Royal Canin (Mars Petcare). The agency retained 92% of its clients, with a roster that includes Mondelez, Unilever, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Guide Dogs, Plenty of Fish, Megabus, Brown Forman (Jack Daniels, Chambord, Fords Gin), Smart Energy GB, Barclaycard and LNER. The agency’s influencer marketing tool, Tinfluence, was one of its biggest growth areas, bringing in £700,000 in revenue last year from the likes of Unilever, Gumtree and Actimel. The team grew 47% to 47 people, with staff retention of 88% over the year.
People & Culture
In 2022, Tin Man realised the power and potential of the predominantly female-run agency, which has an 80% female board, with its inaugural Tin Women Collective event, bringing together senior female talent in the agency and from its clients to network, share experiences, enjoy dinner and drinks and listen to inspirational speakers. Sharp is also a Women in PR mentor, helping young, diverse female talent take on senior leadership roles in the comms industry. Tin Man also tailored policies and initiatives to support the team, from miscarriage, fertility and parental leave to divorce, menopause and gender transition. The team is now 15% Black, Asian, mixed race or ethnic minority (with a target of 20% this year), 10% LGBT and 11% neurodiverse. To seek out young applicants from diverse backgrounds the agency’s PRosper outreach programme works with schools and universities outside of London with a high proportion of BAME students, and has already hired three interns through the scheme. Tin Man’s apprentices come via the Taylor Bennett Foundation and The Industry Club’s Marketing Debuts BAME apprenticeship scheme. The agency has a blind recruitment process and has invested heavily in external D&I training, from agency wide inclusive language training to unconscious bias and inclusive leadership. Every one of Tin Man’s team say they feel the agency has an inclusive and fair culture and feel comfortable being their true selves at work.
Thought Leadership & Work
Tin Man was shortlisted for five SABRE awards for its 2022 work, including two for its inclusive Virgin Atlantic campaign to remove gendered uniforms as part of its new gender identity policy, featuring Drag Race star Michelle Visage. The agency also helped Gumtree join the cost-of-living conversation and celebrate the second-hand thrift economy by opening a pop-up shop where everything on display was completely free of charge, leading to an 11% uplift in traffic to the Gumtree’s ‘Freebie’ pages. And its campaign for Cadbury Fingers and the National Deaf Children’s Society, working with former Love Island finalist Tasha Ghouri, who has a cochlear implant, and Giovanni Pernice, Strictly Come Dancing partner of deaf contestant Rose Ailing-Ellis, to highlight the exclusion often experienced by deaf people and encourage more people to learn British Sign Language had off-the-scale levels of engagement and 5.5 million video views.
— Maja Pawinska Sims