Deviation, an agency that promises to disrupt search marketing with its social-search approach, fully launches this month after an initial soft-launch in 2024.
Founded by two former Rise at Seven colleagues, the Manchester-based “Search Everywhere” agency specialises in social-search marketing strategy on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, SearchGPT, and more.
Ashley Liddell, who most recently spent time working at IPG Mediabrands, within their performance agency arm, Kinesso (formally Stickyeyes/Reprise), as an SEO content strategist, has partnered with Sam Broadhead, a former client partnerships consultant at AND Digital, to launch Deviation.
Liddell and Broadhead are the co-founders of Deviation, with Liddell assuming the creative strategy director role and Broadhead taking on the role of commercial operations director. The duo are equal-share stakeholders in the company. Deviation soft launched in Summer 2024, and has already partnered with brands like Represent and PureGym and secured two retained clients for 2025.
For Deviation, attention now turns to building on these early successes and establishing a team to take the agency forward into 2025 and beyond, starting with further project work and retained work starting this month.
Liddell said: “Search marketing is a rapidly evolving conversation, with emerging platforms disrupting the industry, led by audiences who are demanding more from search activations and embraced by creators ready and raring to meet their needs.
The objective for Deviation is to connect the dots between brands, creators and audiences, facilitating meaningful conversations, connecting brands with their communities and audiences across all search platforms – if we do this we believe we can positively impact ‘share-of-search’ and drive revenue, delivering real value for our partners.”
Broadhead added: “Historically, social, search, and brand, have been separate teams working in silo. Our aim is to work with brands who want to deviate from this path and embrace a truly holistic digital strategy, with search marketing at the core. This is Search Everywhere.”
