Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Creative Director operating in the Marketing space. If you think a Creative Director is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Dave Monk
Executive Creative Director of Publicis Groupe
Dave has worked at several top-notch agencies in the UK, spending 10 years at BBH London and 5 years at Grey London. He’s picked up awards at every major show for a multitude of long form branded content such as The Times Unquiet Film Series and Heineken ‘Worlds Apart’. Dave doesn’t care what shape or length or form an idea takes as long as the idea sticks in people’s minds for a long time.
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About Publicis Groupe, Publicis Poke: Publicis Groupe is a digital and interactive communication services provider.
Alex Rigby
Creative Director of Playdemic
Alex is focused on making sure the company produces the best-looking, most fun and highly innovative social entertainment apps in the world.
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About Playdemic: Playdemic is a gaming company that develops social games for mass market audiences.
John Scully
Group Creative Director of Four Communications
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About Diamond Conspiracy, Four Communications: Four is a leading independent, integrated communications agency with offices in London and the Gulf.
John Scully
Group Creative Director of Four Communications
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About Diamond Conspiracy, Four Communications: Four is a leading independent, integrated communications agency with offices in London and the Gulf.
Fura Johannesdottir
Group Executive Creative Director of R/GA
Fura joined R/GA 10 years ago after finishing her MFA degree from Parsons School of Design – Design & Technology. She was based in NYC her first 9 years with R/GA overseeing and managing creative for Nike and Samsung US Mobile. She started her career in Reykjavik, Iceland in 2000 as a digital producer and interaction designer, but moved quickly into a management role for the office. Fura oversees and leads the creative within R/GA Stockholm. She sets the creative and strategic vision for the team and manages a team of experience designers, visual designers, art directors and copywriters. She has worked on a variety of projects throughout her career, spanning everything from digital campaigns, to complicated web/mobile design, services, retail experiences and e-commerce. Her work has won a number of awards and recognition, placing her has one of the most lusted after creatives by rival agencies in 2012.
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About R/GA: R/GA offers advertising and marketing services.
Colin Pye
Creative Director of Realeyes
Colin’s role is twofold: to develop the user experience of the Realeyes platform and to shape the Realeyes brand. With strategic rigour and creative excellence, he brings nearly two decades of creative agency experience, across brand, digital, advertising and film. He’s worked with many FTSE100 brands, help create new digital service propositions and created many innovative and strategic concepts to help inform senior management decisions. Colin was honored with the freedom of the City of London for industry recognition, has judged for D&AD, awarded with distinction for a mini MBA and having been part of a start-up E-commerce agency, means he’s not shy at being hands on.
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About Realeyes: Measuring Human Response At The Speed & Scale Of AI
Katya Scott-Barrett
Creative Director of Spin Brands
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About Spin Brands: The go-to Scale Up Social Media Specialists
Julian Harriman-Dickinson
Founder and Executive Creative Director of HarrimanSteel
Graduating with a D&AD student pencil under his belt, Julian moved into the advertising industry where he worked for Lowe Howard-Spink as an Art Director for 4 years. During this time he worked with a number of high profile clients including Diesel, Reebok, Olympus, Vauxhall, Smirnoff and Whitbread. Julian then worked as a Freelance Art Director for various advertising agencies including Kessels Kramer & Mother in their infancies. Twenty years ago in 1999, Julian cofounded HarrimanSteel with Nick Steel in London, with the ambition of driving and affecting culture. Their mission remains steadfast to this day: to generate brand lust outside the constraints of traditional advertising. HarrimanSteel and Julian have had the privilege of working with a select bunch of prestigious clients including Nike, Patagonia, Sonos, Toms, Louis Vuitton, Eley Kishimoto, V&A, Philharmonia Orchestra to name a few. Occasionally Julian still directs commercials and content for HarrimanSteel campaigns for the likes of Nike & Pepsi.
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About HarrimanSteel: HarrimanSteel is an independent creative agency.
Matt Verity
Creative Director of Gravity Road
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About Gravity Road: Gravity Road is a creative company bringing together marketing, entertainment and technology.
Richard Brim
Creative Director of adam&eveDDB
Richard Brim is CCO of adam&eveDDB, one of the most consistently creative agencies on the world stage. Whilst Brim has been at the agency, adam&eveDDB has been Cannes Agency of the year twice (2014 & 2018) with 7 Grands Prix, and the Top UK Agency every year. Last year the agency was named Campaign’s Agency of the Year for the fourth consecutive year. Rick leads creative on the agency’s Christmas campaigns, including the world-famous John Lewis Christmas campaign, H&M (including the award-winning holiday campaign directed by Wes Anderson), Waitrose & Partners to name a few. Other recent work includes creating a new move in FIFA 18, Skittles giving up its rainbow to Pride with 3m white packs sold and Project84 campaign for CALM, which resulted in the appointment of the first ever Minister of Suicide Prevention.
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About adam&eveDDB: adam&eveDDB is a creative communications agency made up of people from the worlds of advertising, design, digital, media and social.
Steven Anderson
Executive Creative Director & Co-Founder of Future Kings
Responsible for all strategy and creative work, Steven oversees the output of the whole team to ensure the highest possible strategic and creative standards. A multi-award winning designer and creative director, he led the team that won the coveted Grand Prix Award at the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards.
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About Future Kings: Future Kings is a marketing and advertising firm.
Matt Garbutt
Creative Director of Greenlight Digital
Matt has been a digital creative his entire career, starting out in full service agencies in the late nineties through to in-house roles in the 2000s. In 2010, he co-founded a digital agency, followed by a creative production agency in 2013. Matt has extensive experience in a great many areas of digital creative and build, as well as video and film, motion graphics and above-the-line creative. In 2017, Matt’s digital agency and Greenlight joined forces, with Matt being appointed as the agency’s Creative Director.
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About Greenlight Digital: Full service digital marketing agency
Ranzie Anthony
Partner – Executive Creative Director of Athlon
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About Athlon: Athlon helps global brands create products and services that build meaningful human connections and drive business success.
Matt Beveridge
Co-Founder and Creative Director of Pebble Studios
After working in the advertising industry on everything from global TV & cinema ad campaigns, to online content, digital out of home and events visuals, Matt co-founded Pebble Studios in 2011. A production company specialising in film, animation and Virtual Reality. He is our creative lead on all things moving image. Possessing a huge passion for technological advancement and the world of VR, he believes that well-crafted narrative is the only way for a piece of work to truly stand the test of time.
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About Pebble Studios: Pebble Studios is a content production company.
David Schneider
Co-Founder & Creative Director of ThatLot
Best known in the UK as an actor/comedian/writer, David starred in TV shows such as I’m Alan Partridge and movies such as Mission Impossible and 28 Days Later. In 2013, David Schneider set up That Lot with David Levin. An avid tweeter with 240,000 followers and counting, David and the team provide content for brands and businesses, as well as making viral videos and pictures, and he recently directed Josh Widdecombe’s sitcom for the BBC. David gives workshops on social media to businesses, agencies and brands as well as keynote speeches in both the academic and corporate sectors.
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About ThatLot: That Lot is a social creative agency.
David Levin
Creative Director of ThatLot
David Levin is one of the UK’s foremost professional tweeters. His love affair with Twitter happened after setting up a spoof account for a pub in Hackney, @the_dolphin_pub, which gathered a cult following and ranked among the top tweeters for London 2012, The BRITs, the royal baby and TV shows such as Big Brother and Drugs Live; and was named in Time Out’s ‘Favourite London Tweeters’. He also got The Dolphin trending (above the Nobel Peace Prize) with an Olympics-themed #dolphinquiz. On the back of the Dolphin’s successes, David has gone on to tweet for many household brands and TV flagship shows, and is always coming up with creative ways of using social media platforms.
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About ThatLot: That Lot is a social creative agency.
Mary Ann Dujardin
Co-Founder & Creative Director of Style Code
Co-Founder & Creative Director at Style Code
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About Style Code: Style Code is a creative tech company based in Seattle & Poole, UK.
Matthew Snyman
Co-Founder and Creative Director of Grass & Co.
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About Grass & Co.: Grass & Co. is one of the leading CBD & wellness brand in the UK.
Alistair Campbell
Executive Creative Director of Waste Creative
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About Waste Creative: Waste Creative is a digital creative agency solving marketing challenges with urgency, digital expertise & a no-fuss attitude.
Dave Ward
Founder & Creative Director of CreateFuture
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About CreateFuture: CreateFuture is a design and innovation firm that puts creativity to good use.
Mark Miles
Founder and Managing Creative Director of Rendermedia
Mark Miles began his career using 3D Studio for the DOS platform 1994, where the idea of a 3D environment in which to play and explore was fascinating. His career has spanned educational computer software and television, with contributions on projects in the educational arena earning BAFTA nominations and a BAFTA Award. The idea of taking higher-end CGI (more traditionally used in Film, TV and Games) was a genesis for launching a studio that focused on B2B in bringing businesses to life. Today, with 18 years heritage in CGI, Mark and his business partner Nadine head up Rendermedia, a Virtual & Augmented Reality Studio serving UK FT100 and FT250 with global operations bringing their business to life across AR, VR and Real-time applications. Made up of CG Artists, filmmakers, sound designers, animators and developers, Rendermedia supports global businesses in developing tools that are used across the entire operational structure of the client’s business. Mark’s team works in both commercial applications and R&D, keeping them ahead of the curve and allowing them to provide cutting-edge solutions that utilise emerging technology.
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About Rendermedia: Rendermedia is a leading, creative virtual reality agency.
Bridie Marshall
Founder and Creative Director of BeSocial Media
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About BeSocial Media: BeSocial Media is a creative content & social media management agency.
Ian Styles
Executive Creative Director of Design Studio
With nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, Ian has built a reputation for the quality of his work, and transforming the agencies he works for. As well as forming his own studio, he has worked for some of London’s leading consultancies and loves the power of a simple idea to create and regenerate brands across any media. At DesignStudio he mentors the design team and ensures that innovation drives the work.
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About Design Studio: DesignStudio is a global brand and design agency with offices in the creative hubs of London and San Francisco.
Olivia Cantillon
Co-Founder & Creative Director of Own The Look
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About Own The Look: It is an online global womenswear store focusing on outfit dressing for the everyday woman.
Andy Park
Creative Director of Open Path
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About Creode, Open Path: Open Path is a Leeds-based digital agency.
Stephen Carpenter
Digital Creative Director / Founder of iUVO Agency
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About iUVO Agency: Big ideas, powerful content, engaging experiences. iUVO is a creative agency for our digital age.
Stephen Waller
Creative Director of Swift Creatives
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About Swift Creatives: Swift Creatives is an international design studio, helping brands create innovative designs and meaningful experiences
Matthew Cockerill
Creative Director and Head of Studio of Swift Creatives
Matthew is a well-established designer who has been creating world-leading products and experiences for over 20 years. Working internationally across multiple sectors to help brands increase their business value through innovation and the design of physical and digital products and experiences. His work includes consumer electronics, healthcare, domestic appliances, alcoholic beverages, endurance sports, transportation and environments. He created the world’s first ethical and modular smartphone for Fairphone which won a Cannes Lion award in 2017, imagined future lifestyles and product categories for Samsung Electronics, created luxurious whisky experiences for Diageo, retail activations for Gatorade, award experiences for Google and helped define the passenger experience at Heathrow T5. Matthew regularly brings his innovative thinking to the wider world through speaking at conferences, panel talks, commentating in the press, university lecturing and judging industry events, including the steering group for the 2017/18 Cannes Lion Award. Before joining Swift Creatives, Matthew was a board director at Seymourpowell for 10 years and has worked in-house in Seoul, South Korea for Samsung Electronics.
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About Swift Creatives: Swift Creatives is an international design studio, helping brands create innovative designs and meaningful experiences
Ben Peckett
Creative Director of Amplify
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About Amplify: Amplify is a branding and advertising agency.
Mark Gass
Executive Creative Director of The Creative Engagement Group
Mark Gass serves as an Executive Creative Director at The Creative Engagement Group.
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About The Creative Engagement Group: The Creative Engagement Group is creates and delivers live experiences, communications, interactive and immersive content.
Charlie Haywood
Creative Director of Hotfoot Design
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About Hotfoot Design: Hotfoot Design is a creative agency based in Lancaster with clients dotted around the UK. Our focus is on branding, digital, and marketing.
Elizabeth Pendleton
Creative Director of Lingo Design
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About Lingo Design: Website and Graphic Design in Norfolk, providing web design, SEO services, branding, digital marketing, livery designs and print designs.
Adam Arnold
Founder & Creative Director of Brandality
Adam Arnold is the Founder & Creative Director at Brandality.
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About Brandality: Brandality is a brand design agency specializing in developing, creating, renovating, and designing aspirational brands.
Lee Stewart
Creative Director of Yellow Marshmallow
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About Yellow Marshmallow: We believe in websites that pay for themselves
Michael Schlotfeldt
Creative Director & Co-Founder of Plaudit Design
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About Plaudit Design: Plaudit Design is a web design and Internet marketing agency.
