Velo feeling victorious as they have been shortlisted for the UK Agency Awards

We are thrilled to announce Velo’s shortlisting for the UK Agency Awards 2022, following recognition of our work throughout this year.

Who are we? 

We’re a 30-strong team of design whizzes, campaign crafters, storytellers, marketeers and creative experts, shaping B2B marketing for the world’s leading businesses across the professional services, technology and industrial sectors.

Velo’s story is best described through its journey. In 2011, Managing Director Paul Crabtree realized he wanted to build an agency from the ground up that championed people, quality and meaningful customer experiences. Velo was born, following a namesake that honoured Paul’s realisation that at his old job, all he wanted to do was ride his bike. Shortly after, current Creative Director Matt Scutt traded the freedom of freelancing for the buzz of agency life, and consequently built the foundations for a now 30-strong team.

Velo’s mantra focalises on crafting marketing that our clients will be proud of. This isn’t just a slogan- it’s a way of life for us, and a concept that has seen our work adopted by some of the world’s leading enterprises, including Cisco, Sage and JLL. The quality of Velo’s work has also propelled another characteristic: we’re almost entirely built on recommendation. Word-of-mouth, alongside a methodology of iterating to excellence has seen Velo win clients such as the Financial Times, McGraw Hill Education, and Savills. We deliver quality work, underpinned by communication and transparency, leading to feedback such as the below quote:

“We really like your forward thinking and the execution approach that you bring above all other agencies. Your clear communication and professionalism, on top of the proposal, is why we decided to go with you. We are really looking forward to it and making this relationship really fun and successful for all.” – TLC Lions

We know we’re not the biggest agency, but we strive to be the best, by recruiting in-house talent who truly understand the why-factor behind successful marketing. We pride ourselves on consistency, applying a formula of three core components to everything we do: customer experience, integrated marketing, and brand communications. Combining these elements allows us to ensure our clients connect with their audiences to drive loyalty, and that their customers are nurtured towards a sales goal.

Furthermore, we’re equally as proud of our talent retention as we are if and when they choose to leave. Many ex-’Velonauts’ have gone on to work for big corporations such as LinkedIn and Apple- and they all have great things to say about us! In fact, on GlassDoor we’re rated as the number one B2B agency to work at. Read some of our employee feedback here.

Great work often leads to recognition (and so it should do!), so it should come as no surprise that Velo’s work has gained a lot of acknowledgements. Highlights for us include winning The Drum Recommends award in 2020, The European Agency Awards in 2020, and securing finalist slots in the UK Content Awards and the Global Marketing Awards. Equally, we’ve seen our people-championing culture celebrated by a finalist position in the UK Company Culture Awards this year. 

This year, we are thrilled to have had our hard work recognised through becoming a finalist for the UK Agency Awards in the category for Best B2B Agency. This award will recognise our recent successful projects, listed as follows:

Live Well at Velo

Stress is like an infection. Without treatment, it won’t improve. In fact, unaddressed stress becomes perpetual; and in the workplace, often leads to burnout and fatigue. To address the challenges elicited by the COVID pandemic and its impact on well-being, Velo launched a ‘Live Well’ initiative. Through this, we delivered a series of educational talks and events on improving well-being, including advice on getting those all-important sleep hours, eating nourishing brain food and how to avoid general burnout. The talks were interactive and allowed our team members to have their say and gather all-important insights from professionals. You can read more about Live Well at Velo here.

Miles for Smiles

Did you know the average office worker spends five years of their life sitting at their desk, and the average step count sits between 3,000 to 4,000 per day? Movement is vital- not only for general happiness, but also for maintaining a work-life balance. This was recognised by the leadership team at Velo, and correspondingly caused us to launch our Miles for Smiles initiative in 2021. Through this, Velonauts are encouraged to walk, run or cycle as much as possible over the course of a month to raise money for charities close to their hearts. In 2021, we raised over £1,000; and as we continue the initiative this year, we anticipate taking that figure even higher!

McGraw Hill Client Work

We’ve been working with educational-publishing giant McGraw Hill for over four years and are proud to continually be their agency of choice. This year, we launched the Harrison’s Principle of Internal Medicine, a medical handbook used globally by clinicians. With sales forecasts over 1 million globally, our work has helped medical professionals heal and care for millions around the world. 

Sage Client Work

Velo has been the agency of choice for Sage since 2018, covering everything from advocacy and video projects to long-form content, and everything in between. Our work with Sage has seen nominations for a whopping six awards, whilst we’ve crafted over 55 success stories over the course of this year alone. 

Don’t just take our word for it; hear what our clients have to say:

“Velo is more than just an agency, their engagement and approach make them a part of our extended team.” Tomasz Gambus, Cisco “You can trust Velo for any type of campaign in any part of the world. They adapt to your products, your target and your needs and they design the most suitable campaign to guarantee the best performance.” Soraya Gomez, McGraw Hill ” It’s a pleasure to work with Velo. Their final product is outstanding – I couldn’t have been more pleased. And it was a direct line to get there: they listen, they ask good clarifying questions, and they put everything to use that they’ve heard. I found Velo to be a great creative partner and I look forward to continuing to work with them. “  Peter Sprague, Anaplan