One of Yorkshire’s longest-standing, award-winning creative digital marketing agencies – Sowden & Sowden – is among the roster of finalists competing at the Northern Digital Awards.
The Hull-based company has been shortlisted in the Best Small Digital Agency of the Year category and will be representing East Yorkshire against some of the UK’s most innovative digital marketeers.
The Northern Digital Awards showcase the work of outstanding agencies, teams, and campaigns bringing together the region’s top digital marketing talent. Securing a spot on the shortlist for Best Small Digital Agency is the culmination of an incredible year for the self-styled “Digital Warriors of the North”, who have increased their overall digital turnover by 59% year-on-year.
Sowdens achieved this target by helping clients surpass their goals through dynamic digital campaigns across a range of industries, including education, green innovation and software. Milestone achievements for its clients included generating more than £3.1 million in student fees, £333,000 record-breaking sales from a modest £9,500 advertising spend, and a 460% uplift in Top 10 SERP rankings on Google – the latter contributing to an 82.72% increase in organic search traffic for one client.
Over the past year, Sowdens has also secured several national and international blue-chip digital accounts, as well as adding several other new contracts to its pipeline.
To cap a perfect year – in which Sowdens celebrated its 40th year in business – managing director and co-owner Paul Sowden was also announced as one of the region’s Top 20 Most Inspirational Business Leaders by BusinessWorks (a list that highlights influential figures from a range of industries). Considering that the average age of a small UK company is 8.5 years and only 5% of agencies have 12-30 employees, it is remarkable that Sowdens has reached such a milestone.
While its long history is one of the agency’s USPs, there is a feeling that ‘the best is yet to come’.
Paul said: “Each decade has brought changes and challenges, but we’ve always adapted, evolved and thrived. We’ve relished the opportunities the digital era has brought to one of the most rewarding and stimulating jobs in the world.
“Above all, we’re still driven by quality and results, and our digital performance has been truly phenomenal – it’s an approach that keeps clients returning year after year.”
Fellow managing director Polly Sowden added: “We believe in epic, original digital design that’s not just about aesthetics. This philosophy is what delivers the highest ROI and makes our clients stand out. Winning the Best Small Digital Agency of the Year award would be an incredible achievement for the people that make the impossible possible.
“Our team will always be our biggest investment and they thrive because they’re free to do their best work – they bang the drum for Sowdens and push us to achieve more every single day.”
The awards ceremony will be held on January 26 at the Leeds Armouries.
