What does it take to build a successful independent agency and keep it going for two decades? When Paul Corcoran first launched Liverpool-headquartered marketing agency Agent in 2006, there were no start-up grants, scale-up programmes or investment funds to fall back on.
PR pros were still sending out CDs with images on, you definitely weren’t checking work emails on your mobile phone yet, and the idea of an ‘integrated agency’ was still a relatively unknown concept in the region.
As Agent now celebrates 20 years in the business, Corcoran says the journey so far hasn’t been about luck. It was more about a determination to create something genuinely different. And that’s not the kind of ‘different’ that just ends up as a strapline slapped on a website.
“I was working in a small business consultancy and I wanted to do a full-service offering as integrated agencies weren’t really a thing, there were PR agencies or creative agencies. I didn’t really know much about the agency world at all, if I’m completely honest, but I knew I wanted clients to come to a place where we offered everything,” Paul Corcoran tells me.
“I am a strategist and enjoy the nuts, bolts and tectonics of a business and understanding where they want to go – I suppose that was almost the nucleus of Agent.
“In 2006, it was a very different world with a very limited support landscape. Tools weren’t readily available to you, nothing was done on your mobile phone or online really.
“I wanted to be different and wanted the line between client and agency to blur. I wanted our agency to feel warmer, more welcoming, like a critical friend.”
To get Agent off the ground, he had no safety net and even put his Northern Rock mortgage on an Egg credit card.
“Back then, you just had to make it work. And I worked and worked and worked and worked. From workshops to speaking at events, I’d go to everything to learn my trade. Even when I was exhausted or not in the mood, I was there, because who else was going to pay wages? There was nothing else to lean back on.”
Over the years, that determination has helped him steer the business through the “hurricanes, storms and everything else in between” from the credit crunch, austerity, through to Brexit, Covid, and further economic upheaval.
When asked what he did to navigate those challenges, he points to something rather simple.
“I suppose I’ve always been very, very sensible as I’ve always seen the business as my business partner. I’m not frivolous with it, I am very much old school when it comes to cash being king.
“I don’t make a punt on people’s careers, I take the role of being an employer very, very seriously, and I make sure that the promises I make are promises I can keep. I suppose that’s been the key, making sure that you know you can plan for a rainy day.
“During Covid, we didn’t furlough anyone. We went in as one team and came out as one team. That was down to probably very robust planning and budgeting for years and years and I think that was how I’ve done it.
“20 years in, you kind of know it’s going to be hard. It’s not easy, it’s never been easy, and I don’t think it’s going to get easier!”
“I was really annoyed that there were so many people not being given a chance”
Agent was recently featured on The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2026 list for the second year running, achieving an average employee job satisfaction score of 87%.
For him, culture has always started with leadership and two decades on, he still isn’t the type of founder to hide behind a job title.
“I don’t have a separate office, I never have, I sit with the team. They see me less on the tools now, but I am one of the team, and I think the second that you start thinking that your title is more important than teamwork, you kind of lose it.
“I love the trade. I love marketing, I love connecting people. I love to see people doing well, and I suppose that the culture we’ve created, we have a team who also want to see people do well.”
That belief extends beyond the agency itself too as in 2014, he launched Agent Academy, a sister social enterprise designed to tackle the lack of opportunities for those from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds trying to break into the creative, digital and marketing industries.
“When I set up the academy, I was just really annoyed. It was like that Spider Man meme, where the Spider Men are all pointing at each other. We stepped up and said, ‘well, if it’s not us, then who?’
“We were just frustrated that so many amazing people were coming through universities and colleges but when they get to that final frontier, didn’t know how to get into the industry.”
What started off as a pilot has since branched out to both Liverpool and Manchester, helping “hundreds of people” into industry jobs.
READ MORE: Where We Work: Agent Academy, Liverpool and Manchester
“Our industry wants these people, they want diversity, they want great untapped talent, they want new voices, and they want representation from the communities they’re trying to talk to. What we did and continue to do really well is we’re not a training programme, it’s not a course, we’re there to get people into jobs.”
‘They’re more than just an invoice or a logo’
Agent’s continued growth is particularly notable as rising costs, shifting client demands and economic uncertainty have forced a number of established agencies to close their doors in recent years.
Despite that backdrop, Agent now has 37 staff operating across studios in Liverpool and Manchester, working on hard-hitting campaigns such as raising awareness of coercive control for Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).
So what does he put that success down to? For him, it comes back to people, relationships and a willingness to adapt.
“I take it very seriously. As an employer, I believe in proper customer service and making sure that we can add as much value as we possibly can.”
Part of that ethos, and the way he leads the business today, can be traced back to his nan, who ran a corner shop in Toxteth for 30 years.
“She knew every customer and knew when there were days customers couldn’t pay, whether they were celebrating or commiserating. She knew and they trusted her. I remember that and I suppose I like being an agency that really thinks about the client and isn’t afraid to say when we got something wrong or when it didn’t work out.
“When you have that relationship, you can have those conversations. In many cases, I’ve known some of my clients for many, many years. They are the biggest advocates and champions of Agent because they know we care about them. They’re more than a logo or just an invoice. They are the reason this business has done well, why we’ve been able to employ people, and then help people into the industry.”
While relationships appear to be at the heart of Agent, he is equally aware of how dramatically the industry has changed over the past two decades, and inevitably the conversation turned to AI.
He’s not afraid of change, and he’s seen plenty of it over the years in agency land, but he emphasises the focus should always be about the “human touch”.
“I see it as an enabler. Clients come to us for our thoughts, our wisdom, our experience, our knowledge and they want to know someone is on their side. AI can’t really do that. It’s part of our toolkit, not the toolbox.”
“I would bang that drum harder”
Reflecting back on 20 years in business, he says there is one thing he would do differently.
“I would bang the drum harder for good business for our industry. That’s always been a golden thread for Agent. When we started the Academy, I remember speaking to a journo and they asked why I was doing it and I said: ‘Well, why not?’
“For me, I have really enjoyed being a disruptor. When people have said things like: ‘You’re a marketer, why would you be around that table?’ I’ve always been like: ‘Well, why not?’
“I’ve enjoyed being around tables I think I wasn’t really meant to be around, raising the point around the creative digital and tech industries, asking what about us when everyone was talking about a different thing altogether.”
While we don’t have a crystal ball, the focus for the next decade and beyond comes back to talent and doing more of that banging of the drum for change across the industry.
“We want to be a place, and continue to be a place, where every voice is respected and welcomed. I want to do much more around bringing new voices and bringing greater diversity into our industry, and I suppose that I’ve got a real ambition to get to grips with that.
“The Academy has been a fantastic start for that work, but I want to see greater gender and LGBTQIA representation at a leadership and board level. I want to see greater diversity from an ethnic perspective.”
As for the rest of the industry’s take on diversity, he says it is “no longer just a nice to have”.
“Our job is to communicate, to get messages out there to people, and if people can’t see themselves or hear themselves in what we’re trying to say, then we’ve failed.
“This is not like a bolt on. A team that looks diverse is diverse because it changes the work. You have meaningful conversations about what works and doesn’t. That’s what audiences want. It’s a very, very big area that collectively, as an industry, we’ve got to do the work on.”
