The NEW BUSINESS AGENCY
THAT DELIVERS targeted opportunities

CLIENT WINSONE PAGER

About US

Experienced People Asking Smart Questions.
New Business Development

We love to do the thing our clients hate doing most and do it better than they ever imagined possible.

Our role as a new business agency is to unearth opportunities for our clients within the companies they want to work with and get them in front of the decision maker for their service .

The Manifest new business team are rightly recognised as the crème de la crème of agency new business lead generation and will tell your story with passion, eloquence and conviction

Our techniques are channel agnostic, disruptive and engaging. Our results astounding.

Our clients expect, and our team deliver, 100%. We are so confident in our abilities that we guarantee the results we tell you to expect.

  • Experienced

    The average tenure of an account director at Manifest is five years and several have been here more than ten. Our staff turnover rate is just 10%

  • Knowledgeable

    A pre-requisite for a job at Manifest is a background in either an agency or marketing department. 90% of our staff have more than 10 years such experience.

  • Persuasive

    The power of persuasion. The dark art of making another see things your way through the use of language. Our average conversion rate is 25%.

  • Passionate

    You are passionate about your agency; we get it and you can be sure we will be as passionate as you are. Your brand is 100% safe in our hands.

Our focus

Delivering Targeted Opportunities.

We specialise in helping companies within the creative and marketing services industry win more clients by creating new business opportunities for them with the decision makers for their service within the companies they want to work with.

Only those companies and brands we have identified as being a good fit for your business and that you have agreed for us to target will be approached on your behalf. Why would you spend money with an agency if you don't know exactly who they are speaking to on your behalf?

The channels we use fall into three categories: Broadcast, Listening and Narrowcast.
Broadcast

Your PR, SEO, AdWords and social marketing, together with your reputation and networking, will drive prospects to your website. We would suggest using software to identify your anonymous website traffic. You may also want to undertake email campaigns to further drive inbound web traffic and we can help here with provision of data.

Listening

Our tech stack includes ALF Insight, Crunchbase as well as various LinkedIn plugins which when combined enable us to predict where there is likely to be a greater need for your service. Using this intelligence, we will tailor niche messages to each prospective new client to make every approach sound like the only one that matters to your agency.

Narrowcast

What is the best and most appropriate channel to use to get your proposition and the niche message we have developed noticed by the prospect we are approaching? Some companies and marketing teams are best approached by email, others are more likely to warm to a personal telephone call and others a well written letter or social approach.

Our Team

Dedicated To Fulfilling Our Promises
Adam Whittaker
Adam Whittaker
Founding & Managing Director
Adam is the MD of Manifest and will is responsible for the strategic direction of all client campaigns.

Adam has over 30 years agency new business experience and was new business director at Communicator and Bowes Darby.

One surprising thing about me is … I have played at Glastonbury.
Sam Reardon Smith
Sam Reardon Smith
Founding Director
Sam is responsible for all of the operational aspects of the business and was previously the new business director of Halpern Communications.

One surprising thing about me is … I was an extra in Barry Lyndon by Kubrick.
Lucy Barcoo
Lucy Barcoo
Client Services Director
Lucy has over 17 years experience of working on agency new business and has been setting up new clients for the team for the past ten.
Peter Singleton
Peter Singleton
Finance Director
Pete is responsible for the financial running of the business and has a background as a bursar at a private school before which he was an army man.

One surprising thing about me is … I have seen Motorhead three times.
David
David
Account Director
David has been with Manifest for twelve years and is a French national who is naturally fluent in English. Prior to joining Manifest David worked in fashion and beauty PR as an account manager at Exposure, Jackie Colins PR and Redheads PR.

One surprising thing about me is … I can be seen in the film In Bed With Madonna.
Tony Cross
Tony Cross
Account Director
Tony has over 20 years agency new business experience as well as a background in management consultancy.

One surprising thing about me is … I’m not as cross as my name suggests.
John
John
Account Director
John has been at Manifest for seven years and has worked across the whole spectrum of marketing disciplines. Prior to joining our team John worked in business development in the live events industry with Event Live Media.

One surprising thing about me is … I was a jockey.
Scott
Scott
Account Director
Prior to joining Manifest four years ago, Scott had more than 20 years experience at leading London advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Erickson, M&C Saatchi and Havas.

One surprising thing about me is … I was once driven round a grand prix track at 140mph in a Ferrari by James Hunt.
John
John
Account Director
Educated at University College Dublin, John’s background was in marketing for tech and financial services brands before moving over to agency business development in 2013.

One surprising thing about me is … I can sing Johnny Cash songs in perfect pitch.
Sylvia
Sylvia
Account Director
Sylvia worked for the digital agency Dot Digital where she was responsible for business development of their marketing automation division before joining Manifest.
Simon
Simon
Account Director
Simon has worked in new business development for marketing agencies since 2009 and has also worked for three other new business agencies before joining our team.

One surprising thing about me is … I have seen Coldplay seven times.
Jen
Jen
Research Executive
Jen helps Tony and Lucy with the setup of new client databases and has a specialism in researching new markets.

One surprising thing about me is … I have had several dogs win Best of Breed at Crufts.

case studies

Here are a selection of recent new business wins our clients have had through Manifest
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A PPC win for an agency based in Leeds, worth a five figure sum in fees and commission per year.

Won within one month of starting working with Manifest.
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A large win for a content creation, production and distribution agency based in Farringdon.

Their third win in twelve months, total value of fees a mid six figure sum.
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A five figure value video production win for a creative content production house based in Hoxton.

The agency had only been with Manifest for four months when they landed this client.
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A good six figure fee shopper marketing project for this 90 strong activation agency based near Kings Cross.

This came from their first meeting set by Manifest, after two years and no wins with a competitor.
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This PR agency won Zurich six months into their relationship with Manifest. Worth a good six figure sum p.a.

Zurich was their second win and they went on to win one more in their first year with us.
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An initial project with a smallish fee level was the first win for this thirty strong PR agency based in Shoreditch.

They went on to win another two within the first year of the programme.
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This agency based in Milton Keynes won a social media campaign for the musical instrument division of Yamaha.

#Platform88 was a huge success and generated enormous publicity off line as well as on.
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A B2B advertising campaign win for this Milton Keynes based agency. The exact value was unknown.

The agency were delighted as this win took them into new territory which can be tricky.
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A PR win for our client who has been recognised as one of the best newcomers by the PRCA.

A retained client with an annual budget of a the high five figure sum.
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This Sheffield based creative agency attended eighteen meetings in six months and pitched for three clients.

This win had them up against two ‘name’ London agencies.
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Our client, a creative and media agency based in Hampshire, won this retained work within six months of starting with Manifest.

The profit paid our fees for the next three years.
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Our client, an advertising agency based in Southampton, specialised in the healthcare sectors.

This win was their third in the first year of working with Manifest.
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Our client, one of the most respected PR agencies the UK, engaged Manifest from their inception.

This win was one of half a dozen in year one alone.
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A PR agency specialising in consumer brands, our client wanted a whisky on it’s books.

We arranged for them to meet ten over a three week period and they duly converted one.
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No public relations agency should be without a whisky client, especially if the MD is Scottish!

This win was valued in six figures and granted creative freedom to boot!
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Procurement was the name of the game with this prospect. Tenacious charm and industry knowledge was a must.

It took a year, but it worth the effort to get onto this PR roster.
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Our client is a well respected 80 strong advertising agency based in Leicester with a particular specialism in the self-build market.

This win was the first of three over a twelve month period.
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Our midlands based B2B creative agency client was delighted with this six figure account.

Won within three weeks of first meeting, with no pitch.
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Our client is a well respected 80 strong advertising agency based in Leicester with a particular specialism in the self-build market.

This win was the second of three over a twelve month period.
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Our client is a PPC agency based in Chelmsford. They used us for six months but had to stop for personal reasons.

One year later they came back to us after winning their biggest client via our work.
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Our client is a live events production agency based in central Manchester.

This win was after six months of working with Manifest.
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The Surrey based creative and live events agency we got in to see this prospect won the client after a short pitch process.

An initial five figure project fee with more promised.
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A packaging design agency, engaged Manifest with a brief to open up an existing client.

We have arranged for them to meet more than 100 brand managers and they have won more than £1m in new fees.
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This Essex based creative agency has a particular specialism in building online configurators.

Who knew that a plane manufacturer might need one? Manifest, that’s who!

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