Building the media agency we wanted to see. Building Piqniq

Starting an agency from scratch gives you something increasingly rare: a blank sheet of paper.

No legacy structures. No inherited ways of working. No “but that’s how we’ve always done it.”

When we launched Piqniq in 2024, we wanted to use that opportunity to build the media agency we believed should exist today. One that could be commercially ambitious without losing its humanity, where fresh thinking was encouraged and ‘doing good’ wasn’t something bolted on once the business became successful.

Being new has become one of our biggest advantages. We have the freedom to shape Piqniq around what clients actually need from a modern media agency: agility, senior expertise, entrepreneurial thinking and genuinely close collaboration. We want to feel like an extension of our clients’ teams, rather than an agency sitting on the outside.

Less than two years later, that idea has grown from three founders into a team of 15, working with brands including Seiko, the England & Wales Cricket Board, Protect Your Bubble, Premier Stores, the FA and Big Issue.

So being shortlisted at this year’s UK Agency Awards for both Best New Agency and Media Buying Agency of the Year feels particularly meaningful. One recognises the business we’re building; the other, the work that sits at the heart of it.

Doing things differently

Piqniq is majority female-founded and owned. When we launched, there wasn’t a single majority female-owned media agency in the UK’s Top 50, and that remains the case today.

As founders with young families, we also knew first-hand that traditional agency structures haven’t always made it easy to combine ambitious careers with caring responsibilities. Rather than accepting those trade-offs, we’ve tried to build something different. That includes enhanced parental leave, which is equal for both parents. This is alongside a flexible work model and ambition to move towards a four-day week/nine-day fortnight model.

Earlier this year, that wider commitment to balancing people, purpose and profit was recognised when Piqniq achieved B Corp certification with a score of 91.8.

Putting our values into practice

One of the initiatives that best demonstrates the type of agency we want Piqniq to be is the Piqniq Patch Programme, which gives socially valuable organisations access to media support they may not otherwise have.

Since we launched, we’ve supported organisations including The Felix Project, Headway East London and Big Issue, using our expertise and media partnerships to amplify important causes. It’s part of our wider belief that responsible business shouldn’t be something you come back to once you’ve reached a certain size, it’s how we operate today.

And seeing purpose translate into profit

This approach has shown us that leading with purpose isn’t a distraction from business goals, it’s a catalyst.

Launching in a tough market required focus from day one, yet in less than two years, we’ve worked with more than 40 brands, grown revenue by 325% and entered year three with even greater ambitions. It turns out, clients aren’t just looking for a media agency anymore. They’re looking for a real partner that matches their values and their ambition. That growth has given us confidence that the kind of agency we wanted to build is also one that clients want to work with.

What being shortlisted means to us

There are plenty of milestones you celebrate when building a new business: winning the first client, your first employee, moving offices, hitting a revenue target.

Being recognised by the industry feels slightly different. A shortlisting for Best New Agency is recognition of the business and culture our whole team has helped create in a relatively short period of time.

In less than two years, we’ve grown from three founders to 15 people, outgrown our first Soho office, become a B Corp, achieved full IPA membership and built relationships with brands we’re incredibly proud to work with.

A further shortlist, for Media Buying Agency of the Year, means something slightly different. It shows we’re not simply being recognised for being new, but competing on the quality of our thinking, buying, and the work and growth we deliver for our clients.

We’ve achieved more in our first two years than we expected, but we still feel like we’re only just getting started.

Piqniq website: www.piqniq.co.uk
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/piqniqmedia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piqniqmedia