Two major Liverpool agencies, Matchstick Creative and Moore Media, recently closed their doors after a combined 20 years in business, marking a difficult few weeks for the city’s creative sector.
Agency leaders cited “intense challenges” from the “impossible government policies” stacking up against SME entrepreneurs, to operating circumstances that are “off the f*cking charts” in the midst of economic and political upheaval.
It’s also the end of an era for another agency, as Active Profile founder Anna Heyes revealed she is heading to Manchester to lead a new tech and property division at Tangerine after 21 years in Liverpool.
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For some leaders we’ve spoken to as part of Prolific North’s Creative Powerhouse series, it’s time to sound the alarm about what agencies in Liverpool need, from better recognition and scale-up support to affordable office space in Liverpool.
“This has to be a bit of a wake-up call for Liverpool businesses,” says Nicola Docking, founder of creative marketing agency Poke. “If you want great creative agencies on your doorstep and everything that gives the city, you need to use them and value them.”
Liverpool is a ‘hotbed of creativity’ – but where do agencies stand?
“Liverpool is a hotbed of creativity and it always has been a melting pot of ideas and cultures,” says Sophie Wilson, founder of Tuesday Media and North West regional manager of PRCA.
Wilson relocated to Liverpool in 2020 after a 20-year career in London and Brighton, launching a podcast called People of the ‘Pool to celebrate those who “perhaps don’t receive the recognition they deserve” nationally.
But, she warns: “The creative agency industry has an impact on the economy. We are employers, we’re bringing money into the region. I chose to relocate my business here, but too often we don’t have enough dialogue with the combined authority.”
A spokesperson said the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is “saddened” by the recent closures but insists the creative scene remains “longstanding and thriving” with a healthy mix of established and emerging agencies and freelancers.
They pointed to £5m invested in Gather, which supports 460 creative and digital businesses, and support of the Northern Marketing Festival earlier this summer.
For Nick Howe, founder and CEO of Uniform Group, his business is growing steadily. He revealed Uniform recently secured a major contract with SHS Drinks, which he describes as a “massive coup.”
Yet he says agencies often “slip through the net” because the games, film and TV industries are seen as “stronger assets” by the combined authority.
“When you get down to a digital and creative cluster board level, agencies are still almost like the ‘ugly sister’ and pushed to the side a little bit, because there’s the sexier games or film and TV sector which has a higher profile.”
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Paul Corcoran, founder and CEO of Agent, believes Liverpool has “done a lot” to promote itself culturally over the past decade, but “significantly more work” is needed to position it as a city to “create a business.” He’d like to see better recognition for agencies like his, which is flying the flag for the region, particularly after Agent was named as one of The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Work for 2025.
Wilson also agrees that “industry introductions or profile raising” could put Liverpool’s agencies more firmly on the map.
Liverpool is also described as a “slight victim of its own success” for shouting about certain industries while underplaying its “practical, deliverable” creative services, explains Nicola Docking over at Poke.
In 2023, the LCR combined authority set out to change that by launching a Creative Industries Cluster Board, which aims to “influence policy, stimulate economic growth, productivity and competitiveness”.
But for Alex Frech, founder of creative agency Black & Ginger, who is also a board member, the playing field is still uneven.
“If you look at the games industry, they’ve had really good backing and investment. But brand and creative studios are the worst hit. Everyone isn’t treated equally.
“The Liverpool City Region or the board could have one front door and showcase what we do in the city. It’s well overdue. I think you’ve got to showcase the talent that we’ve got here, and we’re not going to showcase anything if we don’t tell people what we do.”
A spokesperson for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority says the board features creative agency representation to “give this vital sector a voice” and is “always looking for further ways to support the industry” and will “continue to do so”.
‘It’s quite a loyal city… but that makes it hard to break in’
Docking, whose agency is approaching five years in business with 15 staff, says her team was full of pride after launching the recent Knowsley Safari campaign. Despite Poke working with several major Liverpool brands and businesses, just 10% of her client base is in the city region. The same goes for the majority of leaders we’ve spoken to for this piece, as much of their success comes from clients outside of the city.
And the close-knit nature of Liverpool’s business community has posed its challenges.
“It’s quite a small, loyal city and it’s quite difficult in some ways to break into some of these existing relationships that are very long-standing,” she explains.
“We occasionally get asked why some Liverpool businesses aren’t working with us. We have to hold ourselves accountable because we don’t want to just be based here and not contribute back into the city.
“My team are all local, super talented creatives that are really proud to be working in Liverpool. As much as we do work nationally, there are benefits to the client for having a local agency on your doorstep – and we need to make people aware of that.”
As an ‘outsider’ who returned to the city just five years ago, Wilson at Tuesday Media has also found it “hard to break down walls” and enter into those ‘loyal’ networks. To tackle this, she’d like to see more collaborative, open forums for businesses to meet each other and “break down silos” across the creative industries.
Keeping the work in the region is “really important”, agrees Corcoran from Agent, and the same applies to procurement teams too.
Yet agencies have battled to showcase what they have to offer from the “ground up” and raise their profile through events such as Liverpool Design Festival, says Howe at Uniform Group, but he believes they “haven’t had enough backing from the city” to make it a long-term success.
‘We need space to grow… and scale-up support’
The recent agency closures were “a surprise but not unexpected” in a climate where clients are playing it safe and costs continue to climb for business leaders “across the board”, says Howe.
Corcoran has seen small businesses pushed to “weather the storm” through the credit crunch, recession, austerity, Brexit, and Covid.
Bigger organisations, he says, could “ease that load” with more representation and collaboration on budgets: “Where you’ve got power and privilege, it should be used to support those who need it.”
While start-ups receive substantial support across the city region, Howe highlights a “real gap” for scale-ups: “To get a 25-person business to 50 people, there is a real lack of support, funding, and understanding of what those types of businesses need.”
And there is a “missed opportunity” in supporting agencies and creative businesses towards international expansion, which “not only creates jobs within the region”, but also creates inward GDP.
“That investment is far more secure than putting the equivalent amount into five smaller businesses, of which four are going to fail.”
To support that scale, creative businesses need affordable office spaces too. For Alex Frech at Black & Ginger, he’s seen how the agency community has shifted since the early 2000s after setting up his business in 2003.
The community is now “40% freelancers, often working in silos” across coworking spaces, and he claims office rent has nearly doubled in two years.
“I know costs have gone up, but that’s a huge jump at a time when everything else has gone up.
“Space is a major thing because if you create spaces where people can work, that creates businesses and will drive business,” he explains.
The Combined Authority says it “understands the importance of cohesion and networking” in the sector and supports activities in coworking spaces, from Baltic Creative’s Bloom event, to the development of new creative coworking spaces such as New Brighton’s Focal Point.
A spokesperson added: “And with lower office costs than neighbours such as Manchester and Leeds and a range of support available from the Combined Authority and our constituent local authorities, we are confident that this important sector will continue to thrive.”
But affordable office space feeds into attracting and retaining talent in the region too.
“Whenever we’ve been recruiting, we’ve had multiple people that we could have picked for every role. We need to keep that creative talent in Liverpool, really foster it and help it to thrive and have places like agencies where people can get the most out of it,” says Docking.
Paul Corcoran set out to change things in 2014, launching Agent Academy to address the lack of opportunities for people across the creative sector.
“We truly embed social impact into everything that we do. That should be heralded really because of the jobs that we’ve created, not just in our agency, but for other agencies through Agent Academy. It’s helped retain people across Liverpool and Manchester. We’re doing more than most.”
Yet for Frech, who is currently operating his studio from home, it is becoming increasingly difficult to offer those opportunities without affordable office space: “If no one wants to pay the rent, or the rents are too high, you can’t give people the opportunities that are available in the city.”
Pushing for change
Despite the challenges, agency leaders across Liverpool remain fiercely committed to the city. But they’re calling for better collaboration, recognition and investment.
“We’re Liverpool-based and we’re proud to be in the city. We wouldn’t have been here for 20-odd years if we didn’t think it was a good place to do business,” says Howe.
Docking says Liverpool was always Poke’s first choice location: “Part of our selling point is that we’re based in Liverpool, we’re bringing something new to a city that has great character.”
And Wilson sees “potential” waiting to be unlocked in Liverpool: “I want the business community and their stories to be celebrated. I feel like there is a great opportunity here.”
Over at Black & Ginger, Alex Frech agrees: “I think there’s a great opportunity to look at the great talent here and work coming out of the region and finding a way to make the community tighter. If we don’t shout about the talent we have here, it’s just going to get wasted.”
For Corcoran, he believes that celebrating small businesses will encourage more to set up shop. But more could be done to recognise the work “fantastic agencies” are doing.
“We’re the firms that are creating wealth and have been deeply rooted here for such a long time,” he explains..
“What can be done to get behind that? As businesses, we employ hundreds and hundreds of people and play a major role in the renaissance of Liverpool. But what can be done to make things easier for us?”
The Combined Authority points to new government funding as a potential boost.
“Earlier this summer, the government announced that the Liverpool City Region is one of just six places that will benefit from the £150m Creative Places Growth Fund,” said a spokesperson for the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
“We’re working with Government on how we can invest up to £25m to support creative businesses with access to finance, mentoring and networking opportunities to help them connect with investors and skills programmes.”
