UK Volume 22

uk.superbrands.com Superbrands UK Vol. 22 AKQA is a design and innovation company, recognised by Gartner as one of the world’s leading creative agencies. Awarded the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Design in 2021, and Fast Company’s, World Changing Ideas Award 2021, its work is a celebration of how creative energy can shape tomorrow’s conversation Market AKQA is seen as a world leader in multidisciplinary design and innovation and is uniquely positioned to unite experiences across the entire customer journey from architecture and environments to the service design ecosystem. AKQA designs intuitive, interactive ideas that embrace the ongoing convergence across industries and challenge the artificial barriers that presently exist between interfaces, the spaces we inhabit, the objects we use, and our increasingly connected lives. Product AKQA’s defining characteristics of service partnered with creative experimentation has fostered an unmatched reputation for ground-breaking work. The AKQA interdisciplinary design approach across customer experience, product and space is partnered with crafting memorable stories that capture the imagination, working to inspire and act as a catalyst for change, to reshape seemingly impossible boundaries. With a portfolio of prominent award-winning work, designed and launched for clients including Nike, Netflix, Google, Amazon, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Disney, Sky, LVMH and TikTok, there is a belief that stories told through software can be vivid and captivating. Creativity and ideas have the power to break down barriers, bring people together and shape a simpler future for all. Achievements The home of courageous invention, AKQA is an organisation with endurance. Some 27 years on from its founding, AKQA has been honoured with more than 65 Agency of the Year titles, holding them in both the UK and USA simultaneously. Its client work has been awarded and celebrated with more than 70 D&AD Pencils, 90 Cannes Lions and has been featured in publications including Forbes, WIRED, Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. It was also announced as the UK’s most creative agency in 2021 by industry publication, The Drum. Furthermore, AKQA was also awarded the Experimental World Changing Idea by Fast Company in 2021 for its collaboration with Swedish retailer, H&M. Its work to design the customer experience for the world’s first in-store garment-to-garment recycling system, turning old clothes into new, was also honoured with the 2021 Design Grand Prix at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Highlighting AKQA’s ability to design comprehensive experiences that align with fundamental human needs and behaviour, AKQA is the only organisation to lead in both vision and execution in the rigorously researched and independent Magic Quadrant for Global Marketing Agencies 2021 report published by world-leading authority, Gartner. Referencing how clients select AKQA for strategic and creative services, receiving value in-line with their investment, AKQA is proud to have held this position for three consecutive years. A separate independent qualitative and quantitative study published in 2020 by market research and advisory firm, IDC, positions AKQA as the world’s number one agency in Customer Experience Design. Recent Developments In November 2020, AKQA and Grey united to form AKQA Group, which has 6,000 people in more than 50 countries and a blue-chip client roster that includes more than half of the Fortune 500’s top 20. In a seminal move, acclaimed architects Universal Design Studio and industrial design studio, Map Project Office, joined AKQA. Uniting physical and digital spaces creating transformative dialogues and interplay between the continually changing fields of creativity. Promotion AKQA’s partnership with Nike spans two decades of innovation. From the first ever Run London event to the highly successful Nike+ Training Club app, which democratised the idea of personal training, giving everyone with a smartphone free access to professional-level training and a community of experts. Nike+ Training Club has been selected as Editor’s Choice on the Apple app store and achieved more than 23 million downloads and over 400 years of accumulated minutes worked-out by the community. AKQA believes that the most powerful force in the universe isn’t technology, it’s imagination DID YOU KNOW?