Northern Ireland’s largest PR agency is named UK’s 'number one'

Holywood-based PR and creative agency, Smarts has been named one of the UK’s top PR business outside of London by industry bible, PR Week.

It was also named the eighth Consumer Agency in the UK overall, the only non-London agency in the Top 20. It’s a remarkable story for the locally based, global firm with growth of 11%, and more than 42 new hires over the past 12 months alone.

The agency now employs over 130 staff across offices in Holywood, London, and New York with a roster of blue-chip brands in more than 20 countries including Bank of Ireland, Booking.com, BT, Diageo, Siemens, Tui, Visa and Zalando.

Significant investment in content production, digital and influencer capabilities has positioned the agency as a leader in culture-driven, consumer focused communications, launching the Causeway Distillery for Bushmills, working with Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy on Booking.com’s 2023 Superbowl ad and attracting over a million followers to European fashion giant Zalando’s social media accounts in a year.

Closer to home, the agency recently relaunched its community programme, Be The Smarts Change investing £0.5m of staff time and expertise into local areas including support for homelessness charities The Simon Community in Northern Ireland and Crisis in Great Britain as well as providing content and editorial support for TEDx Stormont to mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

In addition, the agency is one of the UK’s only carbon negative communications consultancies.

Its team was also recognised at award ceremonies across the industry throughout the past 12 months with over 20 top UK Awards including CIPR’s Large Agency of the Year award, PR Moment’s Integrated Agency of the Year award and PRCA’s Large Consultancy of the Year award.

Pippa Arlow, global chief executive, Smarts, said: “It’s fantastic to see Smarts rank as one of the UK's leading PR agencies again this year – cementing our place amongst the world's biggest communications firms.

“I’m especially proud that this UK-wide position is matched by recognition that our home is in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is an amazing hotbed of creative talent and we’re delighted to be able to continue growing the business from here.

“We’re also passionate about giving opportunities for people from all backgrounds opportunities to thrive here. It’s made our thinking and our output more creative and diverse than ever before, helping us drive genuine cultural endurance for some of the world’s best-known brands."