When Uncommon Creative Studio was appointed by Nike to relaunch the Jordan brand last year and take it beyond Michael Jordan, the agency said it was “a dream brief” in more ways than one.

Not only was it a plum assignment, but the quintessentially American client “never even asked where we are based,” according to Nils Leonard, who founded the London agency five years ago with his fellow former Grey London execs Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme.

Uncommon went from strength to strength in 2022, with an impressive 91% revenue increase and a 62% rise in profit. And while some of this stemmed from new U.K. clients (it won the behemoth British Airways account from incumbent WPP at the end of 2021), what the founders describe as a "major turning point" was an influx of international briefs. Half of its 2022 revenue came from non-U.K clients; among them, iconic brands including Beats by Dr. Dre, Pinterest and Nike Jordan. And those projects, said Jameson, got “fast and big in a way U.K. projects don’t tend to.”

While the pandemic and remote working have meant that geographical location has become less significant to clients, the founders also believe that U.S. clients are coming to the agency for something they can’t get at home. Brands are attracted not only to Uncommon's reputation for seeing the world differently but for its “global and diverse mindset,” said Jameson, not to mention the agency's creativity and “studio approach” that has been boosted by its work with a series of entrepreneurial startups.

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The shop has now launched 31 brands through accelerator scheme Unrest; the latest, Sex Brand, debuted in February with a sustainable condom offer. “When we started, we had this dream that we would help play a part in a raft of brands that people wished existed,” said Leonard. “And for the first time, it’s started to feel like it’s actually happening.”

Uncommon's breadth of offerings also contributed to its exponential growth. Its customer experience division, which opened in 2021, has attracted new clients and incremental business from existing ones; others came in through a design door. “We were popping up in more places, as happens when you turn 5,” noted Graeme.

Eighty-five percent of its new business approaches came direct and 77% without a formal pitch.

Clients are impressed by work for the likes of ITV, the U.K. broadcaster. Its “Britain Get Talking” campaign, designed to get reserved Brits to open up and communicate, is now the most recognized mental health campaign in the country and has become a reference point for brands approaching the agency.

In 2022, the campaign included a powerful film showing the interaction between a dad and his daughter after a rough day at school, using subtitles to reveal how they both were really feeling. As well as the ad, called “Breakthrough,” the campaign included a series of “breakthrough” moments interrupting ITV's programming with messages about families taking the time to talk to each other.

The year also saw the debut of Uncommon's work for British Airways, designed to help the troubled airline rebound from the pandemic, with the proposition of “A British Original.” The multichannel campaign consists of more than 500 individually tailored ads that explore the reasons people fly using the common question travelers fill out on landing forms when they travel: “What is the purpose of your visit?”

In a time of social media backlash, the agency's global campaign for Pinterest cleverly positioned the platform as the antidote to negative "doomscrolling." The work, which includes spots that show people plagued by the voices of their inner selves, urged users of the platform to defy their fear of failure, ignore their inner doubts and try new things, all with the tagline “Don't don't yourself.” 

Last year also saw the agency launch Uncommon Studio Residencies, a program that enables diverse talent to spend time within the agency. The current residents are the founders of Yellowzine, a platform and community for African, Caribbean, Asian and Hispanic creatives. 

As well as collaborating on a new platform, the idea is also that the two parties “learn from each other,” said Leonard. “Having their lens on all those things is really interesting—whether that's a conversation about Black interior design with (DIY retail client) B&Q or the first all-Black flight to Barbados flown by British Airways.”

As the international clients roll in, the 150-strong agency still has just one office, in London. 

“We don’t have to cut a ribbon to open in the U.S., we are there,” said Leonard. But the founders are debating whether they need “boots on the ground,” so watch this space.

And as for potential employees stateside, Leonard would like candidates to know that “the secret behind our work and our people tends to be people who are kind of fucked off with the majority of the industry as it stands.”

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