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50 years experience
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When we first opened our doors at Harrison Carloss 50 years ago, the golden age of advertising was born. Coincidence? Maybe…
Electric light had just been discovered in Blackpool, little old ladies still knitted pages of typography by hand, and there was no such thing as the internet. (It would’ve been a bit pointless without computers).
As pioneers we lovingly crafted each ad by hand using pencils and paper, sheets of Letraset, and most important, our prodigious creative talent.
We came to work on horseback, were paid in turnips, and every agency studio had its own cow.
It was the era when people called Ogilvy, Bernbach, Harrison and Carloss began carving names for themselves in the ad business. In TV ads, small boys rode bikes loaded with Hovis down steep cobbled Dorset streets.
Little tin robots made mashed potato from packets of Cadbury’s Smash. People smoked Hamlet cigars and poured Babycham down themselves.
Social media was a chat down the pub. Influencers? They did Tupperwear parties. Daring stuff.
Newspapers were all full page copy ads. It was the age of the copywriter, and real admen started their day with Bollinger on their Kelloggs Frosties, took 3-hour lunches, then went home – and they still won piles of awards!
Advertising’s grown up a lot since then. At Harrison Carloss we’ve been part of that growth, adapting to, and mastering, incredible new tech and new mediums. Developing a more personal approach that’s about people rather than things. Making one to one connections with individuals.
After 50 years in the business, we know what makes a brand different and unique. What makes it tick.
50 years of working hand in hand with brands to plan effective marketing platforms and growth strategies.
50 years of creating a highly individualised tone of voice and framework that suits the specific industry a brand lives in.
50 years of keeping our finger on the latest trends and refusing to be satisfied with work that is anything but world class.
50 years of creative work that makes people say “wow!”
So, as the story goes, two chaps, John Harrison and Mike Carloss went about setting up what is now known as Harrison Carloss – no guesses as to where the name came from. An agency built on strategy and creative advertising. Rumour has it, cigars were smoked in the office, pinstripe suits were all the rage and alcohol got the creative juices flowing. (We’ve no idea if that’s true to be honest but that’s what we imagine it was like and it makes a nice story). Anyway, thanks to John and Mike for being the brains behind Harrison Carloss.
The alcohol and pinstripe suits are still strong and Harrison Carloss is now a thriving agency with plenty of big-name clients.
The 80s are a bit of a blur and to be honest, we’ve not got the staff from back then to tell us what was going on BUT we’re imagining leg warmers, huge perms and a lot of metal!
From what started as a partnership we officially became limited! After a couple of name changes we decided on Harrison Carloss Ltd and here we are today.
The 90s, ahh the glorious 90s. This is when John, our copywriter, joined Harrison Carloss. Yes, we know, it’s a long time isn’t it. But what great colleagues we must be for him to still be here ????
John & Mike, the original Harrison & Carloss exit the business in the late 90s/early 2000s which then saw David and Kay take over the agency. Both having had roles within the agency, they knew the ropes and wanted to take Harrison Carloss forward.
The Millennium saw Harrison Carloss work with some household names, the likes of Dr Martens, Shell, Alton Towers, Bostik, Gripfill, Jewsons – they kept us busy and allowed us to hone our strategic marketing and creative approach. The 2000s also saw the digital revolution that we live in today with the birth of WiFi, smartphones and social media. We’ve seen a ton of change over the last 20 years and have adapted our skills to embrace new technology.
2018 was the start of a new chapter in Harrison Carloss history. Adam, current MD, took over the business. We rebranded and made a big splash, moved into new offices, doubled the size of the team and won lots of new clients! Yippee!
This year saw us grow and grow and grow. New team members joined, new clients joined and we were riding on the success of our rebrand. Our first in-house web developers joined us too. We solved some complex challenges, worked on some awesome campaigns and had a jolly good time doing it.
Well, 2020 wasn’t the year we all had planned was it. In one word – Covid. However, for Harrison Carloss, it was a year of huge challenges – one of which was working from home with huge artwork files – we won’t go into it. ‘You’re on mute!’ But it was a fantastic year of growth for us and new members of the team joined us – all in all, a positive year for Harrison Carloss.
The year we became a Google Partner! A huge achievement for our team, particularly after we met the requirements the previous year but due to ‘ahem’ (Covid) we didn’t quite make it the year before. However, this year we got the status and some Google jenga! We know, we know, cool isn’t it. 2021 saw us grow our digital capabilities and offering and we all got to return to the office too – bonus!
No question about it – 2022 was definitely a very special year for all of us at Harrison Carloss. It was jam packed with major client wins, brilliant new team members and to put the cherry on the cake we were named one of the UK’s top 5 best digital agencies in The Drum’s Digital Agency Census 2022!
1972
Over the years we’ve had team members come and go, some have returned and some have been here for a good couple of decades and are still going strong! Once you join the team at Harrison Carloss, you tend to stay for a long time. Why? We work hard, we love what we do and we’re all driven by one common goal – doing the very best for our clients. We also like to have fun along the way – pizza, cake, beer and a good sense of humour gets us through.
An incredibly talented team. A brand new era. But the same unshakable core values that have made Harrison Carloss the agency that it is today.
“The customer is always right” – now, that’s not always true but the customer is always first. Our absolute priority is you and your business. We make sure that we’re open, honest and above all deliver what we said we would. We take pride in putting ourselves in our client’s shoes and asking – is this really the right thing to do? We treat your business like our own.
There’s nothing more frustrating than poor customer service and that goes for us too – we hate it. We go out of our way to keep you informed and updated and you can contact us in whatever way works best for you. Our promise to you is that we will always acknowledge your email, phone call, message or pigeon post and you’ll always have a dedicated team member looking after your account.
No two businesses are the same. Each has its own individual personality. We take the time to really get under the skin of your business and your objectives. We get to understand what you want and work with you as an extension of your team to go above and beyond to deliver your goals. We’ll tell you when we love something but we’ll also tell you when we think you’re wrong – we prefer to do what’s right for our clients and sometimes that’s not always what’s easy.
Not only do we produce the very best creative concepts for our clients (that’s a given!), we also like to push boundaries with fresh thinking and bold ideas. We’re not just about things looking great, they should generate results too. Working hand in hand with you, we’ll use our experience to plan an effective brand platform and growth strategy challenging the status quo.
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