A North West-based advertising agency, set up by a former executive of media giant Global, has more than doubled its turnover to £2.5m.
Daniel Thompson founded Freedom Media Group in 2018 to help brands better target their audiences through the use of data and technology.
Freedom Media has hit record turnover of £2.5m for the year to the end of March 2023 – up from £900,000 in the previous 12 months.
The company has worked with the likes of Ray Winstone, David Jason, Robbie Williams and Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and its record growth has been achieved without receiving any investment.
Thompson, who spent nearly nine years as Global’s commercial director in the North, said the company is now confident of growing turnover to £4.2m in 2023/24 and increasing staff numbers from four to 10 by the end of the year.
He said: “Freedom is not your typical advertising agency. Everything we do is driven by data so it’s targeted, trackable and accountable.
“Wherever people walk, look or listen, we have routes to media to get into their ears, their eyes or onto their fingertips. By utilising custom data sets and insights we work with brands to help them find the best way to target their potential customers.”
The company has a range of platforms at its disposal including TV, radio, podcasts, TikTok, Snapchat and billboard advertising.
Freedom Media is based in a grade 2 listed building next to the Peak Forest Canal in Marple, Greater Manchester, and is made up of three core divisions spanning digital, out-of-home and audio.
(L-R) Mathew Bowden, digital director; Aimee Thompson, operations director; Olivia Perkins, media executive; Daniel Thompson, managing director, Freedom Media
It is a completely independent media planning, buying and advertising agency, with clients including LMA, Vauxhall, IJ Kayes, Puttshack, Thames Valley Police and Hampshire Police.
Thompson, whose wife Aimee is the operations director at Freedom Media, said: “I’ve spent more than 20 years in commercial advertising including 14 at Global, working with brands like Heart FM, Smooth FM, Capital FM, Gold, LBC and Classic FM, reaching up to 35 million people a week.
“I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best people at Global, including CEO Stephen Miron, founder Ashley Tabor-King and chief commercial officer Mike Gordon.
“However I saw an opportunity for a completely independent voice in the marketplace that could deliver truly effective campaigns, built and driven by factual data.
“I wanted to create an agency that was underpinned by technology. Freedom Media is that agency. We use a range of data sources to identify the behaviour of a customer’s target audience both in the digital and real world.
Sale of Qudini to NASDAQ-listed firm signals exit of investor
“We then activate relevant media based on that data, whether that be at home, on the move or online. We’re a full service agency, doing everything from creating the adverts, to the delivery, execution and tracking.”
Thompson said the biggest change in his career has been the shift in the way media is delivered and consumed.
“Everything is content-driven and content-requested,” he explained. “Pretty much everything you consume, you ask for it. You don’t sit in front of the TV with your tea on your knee waiting for a programme to start. At the click of a button, the content is delivered to you.
“Everything you want to watch or listen to you invite and in order to invite you, the platform has to know something about you. We can weave advertising into that content to reach the relevant audience at the relevant time with the relevant message.
“Advertising has had to raise the bar. I launched Freedom Media to provide an ‘A’ game service to brands which might not necessarily be exposed to the capabilities of that data targeting.”
The other members of the team are digital director Mathew Bowden and media executive Olivia Perkins.