Origin Stories: 25 years of ilk.

We’re 25 years old this year.

A quarter of a century of us doing our thing.

A quarter of a century of clients and projects.

Some one-offs, some regulars, a few that became retained clients for over a decade. But when you’re looking back at past work, the memories are never just about the work.

Besides the excitement of new logos, fresh campaigns, film shoots, event activations, web launches, press coverage and whatever else a project might deliver, it’s also about context. About who we were as fresh-faced newbies and/or grizzled old pros, and where we were as a business at the time.

With that in mind – and while we’re in a misty-eyed anniversary mood – we’ve picked out a few milestone projects…

2001 – AirTours

So old that pictures from the period reveal our MD to have curtains, channelling a sort of Oasis-meets-911 vibe via a britpop-album-cover fisheye lens. Lovely!

It’s here not because it’s vintage work but because, for a small business trying to find its feet, it was a big deal.

Not only was it a brand of note (back in the day, obvs!) but it was the sort of boost to the fledgeling coffers that suggested this business might just be going somewhere….

2007 – ABP

This really was a big one for us.

Our first really ‘big’ client. Though determinedly low profile in terms of general awareness, ABP was, and remains, a large international company.

At this point we were a team of seven, working out of a small office in Batley. But winning the account was a seminal moment and, as the account grew, so did we.

The fact that we’re still working with them today, over 17 years later, shows the extent to which ABP has been part of our story.

2010 – BrewDog

Hard to believe, but in 2010 BrewDog was just a little start up near Fraserburgh.

But it was pretty clear then they wouldn’t be a little start up for long.

As their PR agency (via our London office) we helped them ahem get noisy.

For us, it was a first taste of major consumer cut-through, with our work helping to build a brand that became hugely successful over the following decade and more.

2012 – Tooway/Eutelsat

This was our first major international client – the point at which Manifest (as we were still called then!) stepped out beyond UK shores.

Tooway, purveyors of satellite broadband, took us to nearly every country in Europe, working with domestic agencies to deliver creative campaigns.

Later we’d be off to the US in the name of coffee, Germany for craft beer and Athens for fantasy football, but way back in 2012, this was a new frontier.

2013 – Barratt Developments

This one because a) Barratt is a huge brand, b) because it supercharged our PR team and c) because it was a really competitive pitch… which made getting the nod even sweeter.

It set us up for a really long partnership with Barratt, and like ABP and BrewDog, one of those relationships that’s still thriving today.

2016 – Leeds Kirkgate Market

2016 was a busy year for us. Not only did we rebrand and move offices… but we changed our name too. It was goodbye to Manifest and, like the beginning of so many pitch docs since, the start of Hello, we’re ilk!

Kirkgate Market was a rebrand project that stretched across that busy time. And it was a great one too – one where we finally got the chance to do something really prominent in our home city, engaging with both the council and the market traders along the way.

It’s a city centre monument to what we do, as well as a major marker in our company history.

2020 – Aardman Animations

Aardman is here because, well, it’s Aardman. Very much as crowd pleasing in the office as Feathers McGraw is on the telly.

Coming amidst all the anxiety and uncertainty of COVID, it was a project that really meant something.

On one hand it was just a dose of real optimism (great cause, too), but it wasn’t just that. It also signified the emergence of our Social team as a powerhouse function within the agency.

2021 – Generation Logistics

If Generation Logistics was an exercise, it would be one of those that uses every muscle group. One where everything needs to flex together to make it work. Like country skiing, or maybe one of those mad press-up routines from TikTok.

Despite preaching the benefits, we’ve probably never had a project quite this integrated; quite so everything, everywhere, all at once.

If that sounds hectic, it’s not meant to. It was us getting the chance to walk the walk – and there was something genuinely fantastic about doing what we always knew could: taking a brand right through from naming to day-to-day delivery and ongoing (and still going!) campaign comms.

2024 – BrewDog

Yep, these guys again!

We’re fortunate to have won loads of awesome clients over the last few years, but winning back BrewDog’s PR – 14 years after we first won it – feels like a great place to end our look back.

We’ve changed a lot. They’ve changed a ton. But when they said, you’ve got three months to show us what you can do, we showed we still had it.

So there we go.

The ilk story told through snapshots of eight of the most significant projects we’ve done. But like we said in the intro, it’s not always about the prestige or the billing… but the when, the why and the how.

That said, it was still really difficult to not include countless other clients and projects that seemed so seminal at the time. So with that in mind, special shoutouts to Wienerberger, CityFibre, Grumpy Mule, Java City, Leisure Connection, TRIB3, James Clay & Sons, and all who’ve worked with us across our 25 years.

But if we had to choose just one? Well then it’ll be whichever one we’re working on right now. As an ethos of agency longevity, that’s hard to beat.

25 years young, still going strong.