About us

2007 – Anicca is founded

• Our original company, Anicca Solutions, was founded in February 2007, by Ann Stanley and Alex Fowler.
• It evolved from their previous businesses, “New Homes Direct” and “Overseas Homes Direct”, where they sold new and off-plan property directly from developers.
• Although these property businesses allowed them to develop their web development and search marketing skills, Ann and Alex did not enjoy the cut-throat aspect of property sales, as they were both techies and marketers at heart.
• By the start of 2007, with interest rates increasing, Ann and Alex knew it was time to get out of the property market and focus on digital marketing, sharing their knowledge gained from working in such a competitive sector.
• In the first half of 2007, their fledgling agency still focused on property marketing, providing Google Ads and search marketing for the same property developers they had worked with before.
• However, within six months, the financial crash hit, and it looked like Anicca would not survive its first year. Ann and Alex considered quitting and getting day jobs.
• Fortunately, once the news was out, they suddenly received a flood of requests to help other businesses and agencies with their PPC and SEO.
• They also had some small contracts for Alex to build new websites using their own custom-built CMS.
• Going into 2008, Ann and Alex knew that the skills they had developed were in demand, and their practical experience of running their own business was a real USP compared to the few other search agencies that were starting to appear.

2008 to 2010

• Anicca’s reputation was growing. Ann and Anicca were becoming known for providing helpful advice and extensive technical knowledge, which we shared at every opportunity (via training and speaking slots at industry conferences).
• As demand and clients increased , we started recruiting some more experienced staff. So, we opened our first office in 2009, next to the Holiday Inn, in Leicester, which we soon filled with our first 6 staff.  
• In May 2010, we moved to bigger (but very old) offices  in Castle View, Leicester –  which was a listed building with its own dungeon!  This allow us to expand the team to around 10.
• We also started “growing-our-own” team of talent by taking on recent grads from the local Leicestershire Universities.
• In our first 3 years, we grew pretty quickly and many of the staff that joined us during that period helped us establish a lasting reputation for doing high quality work and getting great results with SEO and PPC. 
• One of our first and key employees back in 2009, was Gurpreet Bassi, who stayed with Anicca for over 12 years, and only leaving during Covid, when the change in circumstances meant that she wanted to try something new (by going inhouse).
• Under Gurpreet’s watch, she developed the experience and capabilities of the PPC team. This has had a lasting impression as she managed 3 of our current senior management team, including Darren Wynn (Managing Director), Ed Truman (Head of Analytics and Data) and Holly Kelly, who replaced Gurpreet as our Head of Paid Media.
• In 2010, we were one of the first companies in the country to achieve the Google AdWords Certified Partner accreditation and we had contracts with over 20 regular clients from the Midlands and across the country.

2011-2013

• We continued to grow during rapidly between 2011 and 2012.  We had 30 clients and 15 staff and we needed to move again in May 2012, to The Crescent on King Street, Leicester.
• However, we grew too quickly and at this time we were still learning how to manage the finances of the business.
• So in 2013, we regrettably had to close the original trading company (via a voluntary liquidation) and transfer our business across to Anicca Digital.

2014

• Caroline Spence joined as our new Head of PR and Content Marketing (later becoming a director), allowing us to offer these new services. Her previous experience working with big agencies meant that we started working with bigger clients who needed a broad range of services, rather than just PPC or SEO. This gave us the foundations to start growing again.

2015

We made a lot of changes that really allowed us to accelerate our growth: 

• We separated the web development part of our agency into a new company (Web Juice), allowing Anicca to focus on digital marketing
• Darren Wynn became operations director, working with Ann to lead the business
• Anicca founded Leicester Digital Meet-Up and Leicester Digital Live (previously named the E-Commercial Conference)
• We recruited Sam Hearn to join the team and create a new social media offering. We began to offer clients a full social media service for the first time
• Ann Stanley was listed within the top 200 influential people in Leicestershire (Leicester Mercury)
• Anicca was shortlisted for an award at The Drum awards for Best Retail/E-Commerce Campaign
• Anicca was shortlisted for an award at The UK Search Awards for Best PR and PPC campaign
• We expanded into a bigger office (within the same building) and invested heavily in marketing

2016
• In 2016, Anicca received multiple awards and recognitions, including finalist positions at three UK Search Awards, two Google Premier Partner awards, and being shortlisted for the Online Retail Awards 2016 for one of our PR and PPC campaigns.
• We were also awarded Google Premier Partner status for our expertise in search, mobile, display, and shopping advertising.
• We were handpicked by Google to participate in its prestigious Elevator Programme, which provides support for high-growth companies.
• Our CEO, Ann Stanley, won the Business Woman of the Year award at the Leicestershire Women in Business Awards and was also invited to speak at SMX Advanced in Seattle, after six years of speaking at SMX London.
• Angie Longman joined us as head of client services, and went on to become Operations director, joining Caroline Spence, Darren Wynn and Ann Stanley on the board

2017
• Anicca experienced significant growth, having doubled our revenue between 2015 and 2017, and started working with a lot of larger clients.
• We celebrated our 10th anniversary, hosting a summer party for all our staff and their families.
• We purchased our own office, providing us with plenty of room to expand and grow our business.
• Our outstanding work and expertise were recognised in multiple awards ceremonies, including being finalists in three categories in the UK Search Awards and three CIM awards, including Marketer of the Year.
• Our CEO, Ann Stanley, graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme, reflecting our commitment to ongoing education and professional development.

2018
• Anicca was recognised for Excellence in Customer Service, winning the Leicestershire Business Awards (East Midlands Chamber of Commerce).
• We were finalists in the UK Agency Awards for Best Integrated Campaign, showcasing our ability to deliver outstanding results across multiple channels.
• Our innovative use of Instagram was recognised by The Drum Social Buzz Awards, where we were finalists for Best Use of Instagram.
• We were also finalists in The Drum B2B Awards, reflecting our expertise in the B2B marketing space.
• Our CEO, Ann Stanley, wrote and published the A10 Framework, a comprehensive marketing guide designed to help businesses with their multi-channel campaigns.
• Anicca moved into a brand new, refurbished office building in the heart of Leicester next to the River Soar, providing us with a modern and spacious workspace to better serve our clients.

2019
• We won three awards at the prestigious Drum Search Awards – Best Use Of Data or Insights, Best B2B Campaign and the Grand Prix Award
• We were nominated for four awards in the UK Biddable Media Awards
• However, the impact of Brexit was not good in the summer of 2019, and with growing competition, it was a relatively quiet year

2020 – The devastation of Covid

• We started 2020 full of optimism, Ann had managed to have a month’s holiday in New Zealand and all our hard work at the end of the previous year started to pay off, with an increase in new clients in January and February.
• We decided to employ a specialist agency coach Janusz Stabik, to help us develop and implement or growth plans.
• We just got started when COVID and the first lock down hit! Unfortunately, we lost about 50% of our business within 2 months and had to furlough many staff. So, most of 2020, was spent coping with the financial shock and then remodeling and working on the business to recover.
• Caroline Spence was able to start lecturing full time at DMU, although she still works with us on a consultancy basis.  A few other staff used Covid as an opportunity to try other things.  
• One of the big innovations that only happened due to the Covid Lockdown, was the lauch of our weekly webinar programme, which still provides helpful resources to marketers every Friday morning – for free!
• In October 2020, we started to see some green shoots, we employed Angela Padfield as our head of  new business, to help get us back on track. We also re-engaged Janusz, at the end of the year, to start again!

2021 – our best year ever!

At the start of 2021, we embarked on a team restructuring and welcomed new talent into our organisation. We successfully recruited several senior staff members, who played crucial roles in our growth:

• Angie Longman rejoined Anicca as Associate Director for Client Delivery. After leaving Anicca in 2019 to relocate to Yorkshire, Angie was able to return by working remotely
• Thom Shardlow became our Head of Creative Strategy, bringing his expertise to create a new Creative department and services
• Amy Howard-Paine assumed the position of Head of Content & PR, leading our efforts in crafting compelling content and managing public relations.Katie Downing-Howitt took on the role of Head of Marketing, spearheading our marketing initiatives.
• Additionally, we expanded our team by hiring nine new members across various departments and roles. Our flexible working conditions allowed us to recruit talented individuals from different parts of the country.

Our best year ever!

• Our hard work and dedication have yielded remarkable results, with revenue growth surpassing 50% since March. Even more impressively, we achieved a remarkable 33% increase compared to our best month prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• We were winners at the 2021 UK Biddable Media Awards –  (now called the UK Paid Media Awards) – where we won the “Best agency-led paid media award”  for our multi-channel work for the NHS
• By the end of 2021, we launched our new website and introduced a new digital branding service, thanks to the contributions of Thom. 
• In December, we won a contract to deliver digital marketing bootcamps, which quickly became a game-changer for the business.

As we approached 2022 and our 15th birthday, we were looking forward to some ambitious growth plans and an exciting year.

2022 – a year of two halves

• 2022 started with an air of optimism, we had our 15th birthday celebrations in February and we had just secured a contract to deliver digital skills bootcamps to 100 learners. 
• We were also one fo only 400 agencies in the UK to retian our Google Premier Partner accreditation,after they tightened the criteria and revoked many agencies status.
• In the first quarter, we continued to win some new clients, but with the terrible invasion of Ukraine, the media were only talking about energy prices and an empending cost-of-living crisis
• Using our competitive insight tools, we noticed  that certain ecommerce sectors were signficantly down from the previous year and there was talk of a recession.  However, different sectors were impacted at different times, so we remained confident during the first half of the year
• Our confidence was boosted by the success of the skills bootcamps; D2N2 offered us a second contract for  another 100 learners and we also won a new contract to deliver training for the New Anglia LEP. In total we recruited and  delivered training to 300 learners in 2022!
• With no further Covid restrictions we were able to reinstate our annual conference, and held a very successul Leicester Digital Live at Winstanley House in Leicester in June
• In the second half of 2022, we noticed that businesses were tightening their belts and that the growth of the previous year had stalled
• However, we doubled-down and increased our sales and marketing activities, ready for the economy to open up again.
• Interestingly, as business got tougher, technology got more exciting and although we were already dablling with AI powered tools and software (like copy.ai), the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, was going to have a huge impact on our industry

2023 – so far! 

• We started the year by launching our Podcast #aniccast, we wanted to try alternative channels to share our webinar content and resources.
• We were quick to embrace the use of ChatGPT and presented several webinars, podcasts and blogs to help staff and other marketers to understand this rapidly-moving technology.
• We are also very proud of our colleague James Allen, who was quickly able to build several AI tools. This includes Content MAMMOTH, which uses the ChatGPT API to help write the content for 100 to 1000’s of product  pages across an ecommerce or database-driven site.
• In March, we successfully retained our Premier/ Partner status for Google, Meta and Microsoft and were very happy to be finalists for 7 awards at the UK Paid Media Awards. This was mainly for the work by Emil Ougendal and Ed Truman for their project with Books2door.com, using Elevar for server-side tracking and the Meta Conversion API. We actually won the accolade of UK Large Paid Media Agency and 3 other categories, so this was a great moment of celebration for the Anicca team
• We also launched several new creative services and  introduced our new cleaner  branding for Anicca; having moved away from the Rocket theme that we used for our 15th birthday celebrations
• On another positive note, we have continued to grow Anicca Academy, ie. our training business, with further contracts secured from our existing partners.
• We have been building on our specialism in student recruitment (based on the success of last years bootcamps); so we are now recruiting students for the UX Design Institute and various courses for the North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College