2022, what a year so far: Octopus Group up for the treble and going for gold

Who we are:

Octopus Group is an agency passionate about B2B. Previously independent, we joined Publicis Groupe in 2021 to supercharge our Brand To Sales agency model to new levels within the largest agency group in the world. We’ve achieved significant fee income and profit growth while maintaining our phenomenal culture and being named a Campaign Best Place to Work.

There are three key reasons why we entered the UK Agency Awards in the agency of the year categories.

• Commercially, we’re flying. Our band of experts are the B2B leaders in the world’s largest marketing company (and we’ve got the growth figures to prove it).
• We now work with some of the biggest names in the B2B world, from finance to tech to energy, and have played a pivotal role in helping clients respond to change and thrive amidst the upheaval of today’s world.
• And we’re doing all this without ever losing sight of what makes us special: our people. We’ve brought our heart, grit, humour, and talent to a global stage, and we can’t wait to see where we go next.

What we’ve entered:

Being shortlisted for three awards (B2B Agency of the Year, Marketing Agency of the Year, and Integrated Agency of the Year) at the UK Agency Awards is an accomplishment in itself. We’re thrilled with the recognition that our outstanding work this year has granted us. As we draw closer to the award ceremony in September, let’s take a closer look at what we have achieved so far.

Together, we’ve engineered an explosion of growth and creativity for clients old and new while continuing to launch bigger and better campaigns bolstered by our expanded Publicis Groupe capabilities.

We work with many of the world’s biggest B2B brands from ACI to Zivver, and we’re delighted to bring B2B thinking to traditionally consumer brands like Nestle, Premier Inn, and Logitech. And our clients love the way we work too, given our 75% retention rate across the board last year. Some of our newest clients have become our largest to date, including Schlumberger, Rolls Royce, Synamedia, and Uber for Business.

Always keen to lend a helping hand, we’ve earned the trust of colleagues in Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sapient, Digitas and Zenith by becoming the B2B experts for their clients, too.

Another huge achievement is maintaining our industry-renowned culture throughout the year. Our Octopedes are everything to us and we do everything we can to make OG a home for them. Having recruited 27 more people in 2021, we felt it was important to re-codify our core values and set out our stall for the future in our Business Brains Needed initiative.

2021 saw us voted as a Best Place to Work by Campaign Magazine for the second year running. Also, our annual summer festival, Roctostock, was quite the celebration!

We’re also really proud of our collab initiative – #INSeries – run with some of our fiercest B2B competitor agencies, where we put rivalries aside to come together and host discussion events with guest speakers for our collective 1,000+ employees around important inclusivity topics.

How we feel about being shortlisted:

Chief Executive Officer, Jon Lonsdale, had this to say about being shortlisted for the UK Agency Awards.

“Being shortlisted for such prestigious awards is a true testament to a great year and all of the excellent work we have accomplished throughout the year. From our outstanding client work to our industry-renowned culture. It’s been a year we’ll never forget, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for us.”