Few marketing and media relations agencies count Google, Amazon and Facebook among their clients; Next Fifteen Communications (NFC) added Intel and Airbnb to its impressive roster in the six months to end-July, as brisk demand for its data analytics, software and digital communications services fuelled a 31 per cent rise in operating profit to £7.2m.
Next Fifteen has been quick to embrace new ways of getting clients' messages across, including analysing data to hone campaigns and using new channels such as social media. These efforts underpinned organic sales growth of a tenth in the US as Outcast, Beyond and other agencies won work. The group also shelled out £2.4m to acquire three UK agencies and continued to streamline its non-US overseas operations. This process, which has involved pruning the client base, cut constant-currency revenue by 9 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but helped more than double the operating margin in Asia Pacific to 13.2 per cent.