60. Brand Advance

Founder: Christopher Kenna
Founded: 2017
Website: www.wearebrandadvance.com

If you’re LGBTQ+, BAME, have a disability, are a woman, practice a religion, or are aged over 50, the chances of advertising doing a poor job of representing you are high (when it even tries to represent you at all). This, in a nutshell, is why Brand Advance exists, it wants to help brands reach diverse audiences and create campaigns that are truly relevant to them.

It’s an approach that has rapidly proved extremely successful. Founded in 2017 by Christopher Kenna, in the past few years, Brand Advance has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands (Google, Unilever, Diageo, L’Oreal) and developed relationships with major agencies like OMG, Carat and Mindshare.

Powered by a diverse team of creative minds and data experts, Brand Advance offers a comprehensive suite of services – including in-depth research, media planning and buying, partnerships, and content services – and delivers campaigns across digital, events, print, TV, radio and social media.

These campaigns deliver impressions and ROI – with research showing that consumers are far more likely to both notice an ad and purchase the promoted product if that ad is culturally relevant to them.

This is already its second appearance in the Startups 100 list, but we expect the profile of this idiosyncratic agency to keep rising, as more and more brands wake up to the enormous spending power of diverse audiences.