Best Full Service Branding Agencies in the UK (2024)

What is a full service branding agency?

To understand what a full-cycle agency is, you just need to imagine a situation when a business needs everything at once and preferably quickly when a new product is launched on the market or a long-standing brand decides to completely update its face and attract a new audience.

It is in such cases that people turn to partners who can provide a complete cycle of branding services in one place. As a rule, such full service branding companies have a video and photo studio, a copywriting department, and digital specialists to cover the client’s needs in all areas at once. And frankly speaking, this is quite convenient for several reasons:

• All services will have a uniform style, which always looks more professional;
• It is easier for employees to set technical assignments for contractors to conduct a photo shoot or create a website if they work as a single team;
• The client does not need to tell different agencies about their wishes several times in order to receive all they need;
• As a rule, package solutions are cheaper than purchasing different services separately.

What does a full service branding company do?

It is full-cycle agencies that allow you to develop a detailed roadmap taking into account the legend of your product, its features, uniqueness, audience characteristics, level of competitors and other important aspects in accordance with the main business goals.

Let’s talk more specifically about the areas in which a full service branding firm can help your business to make a difference:

1. Exhaustive brand research. In order to deeply and clearly understand who the product competes with, who the potential client is and how the brand is currently perceived on the market, various surveys, measurements and analytical examinations are carried out by knowledgeable managers, which allows you to create a clear picture and then, based on this, plan the next steps.
2. Development of a strategy. During this fairly voluminous part of the work the goals, values, vision and positioning of the brand, needed for differentiation are determined. Formation of a holistic strategy is extremely pivotal for the business being on the right track since it is a real guide and conductor for all departments and employees involved in promoting the product and interacting with the audience.
3. USP definition. It is extremely important to stand out from competitors in our bustling world since there are often a lot of similar, and sometimes even identical brands on the market, and in order to convince potential customers to pay attention to yours, you should very carefully look for unique points and demonstrate them to the audience. Full service branding companies are professional at going against the grain.
4. Formation of a verbal and visual identity. All details, from typography, logo, slogan to tone of voice and style of messages are important and brand design experts leverage their organicity and uniformity so that customers have a correct and well-thought-out image of the product and any detail immediately evokes a direct association and positive emotions.
5. Conducting digital branding. In the era of cyber business, it is impossible not to ignore this area, so full-cycle agencies must have specialists who help present the product in the online space and ensure a constant presence on all media channels.
6. Branding management and further development. Even after your product is actively selling and the audience loyalty exceeds all bold expectations, you should not rest on your laurels and forget that everything good also requires improvement and there is no limit to perfection. Professionals will be better able to ensure constant customer growth, monitor trends and update the identity in accordance with modern audience demands.

Thus, a full-service agency can become a real companion for a business on the path to growth and improvement.

How to select a full service branding firm?

The path to choosing the best agency is sometimes not strewn with rose petals and the perfect match sometimes does not happen the first time. But that is why our company exists, and specifically this article, to speed up the process of meeting the client with the best-suited provider for him, who will satisfy all requests and take at least some of the tasks off of the businessman’s shoulders.

Of course, the easiest way to decide on a company to which you will entrust branding is to stop at one of the companies from our list because each of the representatives is worthy of attention and their level of service is one of the best in the UK. But you can also arm yourself with our advice to independently analyse the applicants and make a more informed choice.

So, what should be taken into account when browsing the websites of various full service branding agencies. Explore the points that our reviewer prepared:

– Breadth of your objectives

By answering the question of whether your goals and requests coincide with the company’s resources, you can immediately filter out companies that simply cannot satisfy your wishes because not all companies have the same tools.

Perhaps you want to focus on the online segment of the market, and the selected agency does an excellent job with offline sources of advertising and promotion, but digital branding has not yet been implemented into the work system on a large scale — this means that your cooperation will not give the most positive result.

– Proving portfolio

Everything, from their website to case studies presented, can be a valuable resource for studying their opportunities. How well they manage different styles, ensure consistency through different elements and make an overall picture harmonious and appealing for potential customers and existing ones. A vendor might have a wide selection of services displayed, but they also need to be carried out well.

– Approaches to difficult tasks

Agencies that deal with innovative requests are accountable for developing projects with complicated objectives like saving reputation, settling a certain image or form brand features that secure elevating customer loyalty.

In fact, having a loyal audience is extremely important, and winning their trust is not a matter of one day. For example, according to the survey more than two thirds of Britons consider brand trust to be one of the most important factors influencing their decision to purchase a product, that’s why checking them meeting different requirements is vital.

– Professionalism.

This parameter is easiest to track through the customer statements because here you can sometimes glean information that is not indicated on the official pages of full service branding firms. Even if you find completed cases pleasing to the eye, there are other spheres of cooperation that matter. Sharing their opinion, previous clients can note such aspects like communication, quality of the work, dealing with time.

– Pricing.

Evaluate not only the cost of the minimum project (which can be seen in our list) but also the model adopted in this company because not only the final budget but also the frequency of payments and their size may depend on this. We will talk about the financial side of the matter in more detail in our article below.

– Long-term perspective.

Good professional branding very often develops into long-term partnerships because having a reliable partner who is always ready to support the brand, direct it in the right direction, and sometimes even breathe new life into it is a real success. If the agency already has regular clients and is set on a long-term partnership, this is a good sign.

Pricing models used by full service branding companies

After we have sorted out the main areas of activity of agencies that provide a vast variety of innovative deliverables, a logical question arises: how much will such a comprehensive pleasure cost? And believe us, no expert will be able to tell you exactly what the final cost of the work will be, not because this is secret information, but because too many factors influence it.

We would like to highlight such a financial aspect as the pricing model, which often determines the frequency of payments and their amount. Let’s consider the main models:

1. Project-based model. The price for top full service branding agencies offerings is formed immediately for the entire project, including all additional payments and, as a rule, no changes are made to the budget during the entire period of work.
2. Hourly-rate pricing model. The price is calculated using a formula where the amount of time spent working with your case is multiplied by the agency’s hourly rate (you can find out about it for the selected agencies from our list). This option also gives an absolutely clear idea of ​​future payments and is considered one of the most transparent and honest.
3. Retainer-based pricing model. This payment format is suitable if you are serious about long-term cooperation and want to ensure the full service branding company‘s attention for a long time. Usually, the fee is paid once a month or quarter.
4. Value-based or result-based model. We have combined these two models because they have a fairly similar principle — the price calculation is based on the benefits or results that the agency’s activities have brought to a specific brand.

To tell the truth, few businessmen ordering a full cycle of brand consulting will agree to these models because not all results can be clearly measured, which means that it will be difficult to calculate the specific cost of the work, as well as to assess its objectivity.

In most cases what truly influences the formation of the project budget is the level of the agency, and if you want to receive a luxury segment service, you will have to pay an order of magnitude more than by contacting companies with a more modest track record.

Looking for an agency that provides full service branding?

So, we have reviewed the main principles of work of innovative agencies that offer a full scale of services and told you most of the life hacks on finding the most successful partner for your brand. In our opinion, it is the companies providing a full cycle of service that can fully study the unique aspects of the product and present it on the market in the most profitable way.

In addition to information assistance that will guide you through the jungle of British branding, we have also created the most convenient project cost calculator, thanks to which even before the first consultation with the selected provider you will already be able to roughly understand the expected budget, which is sometimes extremely important at the planning stage.

Consider all the nuances, do not rush into making a decision and, if necessary, contact our experts who know almost everything about full service branding firms and are always ready to lend a helping hand so that you can entrust your brand to professionals and deal with more strategic tasks.