Showcasing creativity in Leeds and Yorkshire

It’s a real pleasure to be able to share some of the brilliant work coming out of agencies here in Leeds.

There’s a huge amount of pride in what’s being produced across the region right now, not just in the quality of the output, but in the impact it’s delivering for some of the UK’s most recognisable and well-loved brands. This is work that shows a genuine understanding of how marketing drives business results.

What stands out is the combination of strategic thinking, strong creativity, and smart, effective execution. It’s work that works!

There’s a great energy in the Leeds agency community, and this is a small but powerful snapshot of what we’re capable of.

 

Astonish: Boutique

Context:

The UK household cleaning category is highly saturated, dominated by long-established brands dominating shelf presence and consumer attention.
Astonish had ambitious growth targets: to increase retail sales, grow their distribution and reach new audiences. While the brand resonated with value-driven families, it lacked salience among younger consumers and was not front of mind at the point of purchase.

The challenge was not just to drive sales, but to increase mental availability and stand out in a highly competitive and often indistinct category.

Idea:

Boutique built the strategy around a simple principle: brands that are easier to notice are easier to choose.

Rather than focusing solely on retail presence or performance media, we set out to increase Astonish’s visibility and memorability at scale, with campaigns designed to make Astonish more noticeable, memorable and desirable in everyday shopping moments.

By aligning the brand with popular culture, high-reach channels and locally resonant activity, we set out to shift Astonish from a functional, value-led option to a brand that shoppers actively seek out.

Execution:

We delivered a fully integrated campaign designed to build reach and reinforce the brand over time:

• TV: High-frequency linear TV across ITV and Sky, focused on hero products such as Oven & Grill. Activity was weighted to key seasonal moments, including the post-Christmas cleaning period, to align with peak demand.
• Sponsorship: A partnership with The Only Way is Essex brought Astonish into popular culture. The brand featured across two series through idents, product placement and cast-led social content, helping to reach a younger, more engaged audience.
• OOH: High-impact outdoor activity in Astonish’s Leeds heartland increased visibility at street level. Placements around Leeds United fixtures connected the brand with local pride while reinforcing recognition in-store.

Together, these channels worked to deliver broad reach, repeated exposure and a more prominent brand presence.

Impact:

The campaign delivered strong results across both brand and commercial performance:

Astonish entered the Kantar Top 10 UK Home Care Brands (2023–24)

• +43.5% growth in customer reach (CRP)
• +607% year-on-year sales growth for Oven & Grill
• +454% sales uplift across Q1
• +246% growth in Hob Cream sales, demonstrating a halo effect across the range
• TV sponsorship delivered +28% above forecast viewing figures

Why it matters:

This work shows the impact of building mental availability in a crowded category. By increasing visibility and consistency across channels, Astonish became easier to notice and easier to choose. The result was not only short-term sales growth, but a stronger overall brand position.

 

Autotrader: IMA

 

The Challenge:

Autotrader is the UK’s biggest, most trusted car marketplace, but its position among the next generation of drivers is less dominant. The brand’s name recognition is strong, but its offering is not always well understood, and only 34% of people know Autotrader is the UK’s number 1.

The Brief:

Autotrader asked for a new, long-term brand platform to embed it firmly as the undeniable destination for UK car buyers, especially 25-34s. Relevance was key - the brand needed to humanise itself, show consumers that it understood what was going on in their lives, and simplify the brand’s story for a new generation.

The Thinking:

The journey to deciding it’s time for a new car is not a straight line. The idea bounces around our brains, gradually nudged forwards by a series of moments packed tight with emotion: frustration, envy, embarrassment, panic, desire, and sheer contempt.

To make Autotrader the first car-buying destination to come to mind, we set out to attach it to these moments - the real points of category entry, even if you don’t realise it for months to come. It’s all about owning the most relatable, human, and sometimes messy view of how real people come to the conclusion that it’s time for a new car.

Crucially, the campaign needed to meet people where they were - usually out of market - which meant taking the focus off cars and putting it onto our audience - indirectly challenging the perception that Autotrader serves petrolheads.

The Work:

IMA developed It’s time for Autotrader, the versatile, unapologetic brand platform that brings Autotrader into a new, confident era.

Dawning realisations and knowing glances took centre stage for the platform launch, using a “90/10” creative approach to strengthen recall by letting consumers join the dots. The bold, impactful debut campaign, delivered across OOH, Radio and Digital, captures a broad cast of characters in the moment they realise It’s Time - from awkward public transport moments to envious glances at traffic lights, and from the arrival of triplets to an embarrassing drive-thru malfunction.

The platform’s first campaign continues to play out across Autotrader channels, including social, where consumers are adopting the line as a playful catchphrase

 

interactive investor: All Response Media

 

The Challenge:

The UK investment platform market is dominated by life companies and legacy players, where percentage-based fees have long been accepted as the default. For interactive investor - whose flat-fee structure is fundamentally different - the challenge was not simply to compete, but to reframe the category. Our task was to break through a conservative, stagnant market and unlock faster growth by making ii’s value proposition unmistakable.

Strategic Insight & Creative Idea:

After 18 months of partnership, All Response Media had built a clear evidence base: sustained share of voice in high-impact channels was driving meaningful brand growth, which in turn accelerated customer acquisition. Using this learning, we evolved ii’s creative platform around a powerful behavioural trigger — the “penny drop” moment when investors realise that paying a flat fee, rather than a percentage of their portfolio, fundamentally changes the value equation.

Alongside the creative platform, deeper audience analysis revealed pockets of opportunity across socio-demographic groups where ii’s proposition resonated strongly but brand awareness lagged. By identifying these segments and tailoring media weight and channel selection accordingly, we were able to prioritise the audiences most likely to drive growth while improving efficiency.

Execution:

All Response Media orchestrated a fully integrated, full-funnel campaign — balancing fame-driving brand channels with a disciplined performance engine. Media investment was deployed with socio-demographic precision, using the right mix of channels at a granular level to build reach, reinforce the creative message and capture demand. Measurement frameworks were aligned across brand metrics, CPA and commercial outcomes, enabling optimisation across the entire funnel.

Impact:

The campaign successfully relaunched the brand across all channels, delivering 28% year-on-year brand growth. As brand strength increased, customer acquisition accelerated ahead of target, with new customer goals exceeded.

Why It Matters:

By combining sharp audience intelligence, media effectiveness expertise and a compelling creative insight, All Response Media helped interactive investor turn a simple pricing truth into a scalable growth platform — entering 2025 with stronger brand equity, proven media learning and a higher performance baseline.

 

PureGym: Carat

 

Context:

PureGym, the UK’s leading low‑cost fitness brand, set out to shift perception of gym‑going by reframing exercise around an emotional truth: people don’t join gyms for the gym – they join for how it makes them feel. With over 31 million adults acknowledging they need more exercise but struggling to get started, the challenge was to connect with a broader audience beyond traditional gym‑goers and inspire them to move.

Idea:

Working to amplify the Feel Good in media with Carat Leeds, a bold new brand platform was developed: Feel PureGym Good. Instead of focusing on workouts, equipment or in‑gym scenes, the campaign celebrated the positive feelings exercise creates outside the gym – confidence, joy, energy, resilience and everyday wins. This opened the door to a wider, lifestyle‑driven creative narrative to capture the emotional benefits of exercise in a relatable, human way via Glow.

Execution:

To maximise reach and impact, Carat delivered a fully integrated omni‑channel ATL strategy across TV, cinema, VOD, CTV, audio and OOH. The hero 60” film launched on Christmas Day, capitalising on peak cultural moments such as The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, Love Island, and Married at First Sight. A powerful mix of broad‑reach channels and high‑impact placements drove visibility at scale, achieving an 87% reach of 18–44s.

Cinema, digital audio, and OOH further amplified the feel‑good message. Spotify takeovers, Amazon Firestick native formats, roadside and rail DOOH, and high‑frequency mall placements collectively delivered more than 247 million impressions across channels, ensuring the message stayed front‑of‑mind through key New Year motivation periods.

Impact:

The campaign successfully repositioned PureGym not just as a place to work out, but as a catalyst for feeling better every day. With early results trending strongly, the platform now provides a long‑term emotional territory for continued brand growth in the UK and across international markets.

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