The Top 5 Branding Agencies in the UK

Introduction

Great branding isn’t just seen, it’s felt. It’s what makes a business recognisable, memorable, and chosen. It shapes how clearly you communicate, how consistently you show up, and whether people feel anything when they encounter your brand. 

Brands with a strong visual and verbal identity are exactly where the market is heading. Consumers aren’t just buying products, they’re buying into brands that feel relevant, human, and emotionally aligned with them.

Which is why the role of a branding agency goes far beyond design.

Strong agencies don’t just create logos. They challenge positioning, sharpen storytelling, define architecture, and build identities that actually scale in the real world. The goal isn’t a moment, it’s a unified identity across channels. One that holds up across campaigns, teams, channels, and scale. Done properly, branding becomes a foundation your entire business can move on, not just something that looks good in a deck.

TL;DR

Key stats - the power of branding:

• Maintaining brand consistency can increase revenue by around 10-20% 
• 87% of shoppers are willing to pay a premium for brands they trust 
• 89% of consumers become brand advocates after just one positive customer service experience, and 33% will switch to a competitor after one negative interaction 
• 47% of marketers say they struggle to develop social media strategies that support their brand’s goals

For more 👉35+ Must Know Branding Statistics for Growth & Engagement

The top 5 branding agencies in the UK ranked:

1. OOB
2. Koto
3. Wildish&Co
4. Made by Shape
5. Make Us Care

What is branding?

Branding is the strategic and creative process of defining what a business stands for and how that meaning shows up everywhere: in name, narrative, tone of voice, visual identity, digital experience, campaigns, packaging, and internal culture. A brand is the pattern people learn to recognise over time. That is why brand work usually spans research, positioning, storytelling, identity design, guidelines, and implementation systems. 

Why is branding so impactful?

Because markets are crowded, features can be copied, and attention is hard to win. Your brand is what helps people know why you matter. It creates shorthand, reduces decision friction, helps teams align internally and audiences recognise you externally. In 2026, brand trust is increasingly won, not by generic purpose statements, but through relevance and emotional resonance.

But branding is also commercially practical. Inconsistent branding weakens recall, confuses teams, and makes every campaign work harder than it should. Consistency and control affect output, speed, and business performance, with a consistent brand increasing revenue by around 10-20%. 

Why partner with a branding agency? 

🎯 Strategic clarity before creative execution 

A strong branding agency foregrounds research, positioning, and narrative before design. They ask questions like: Who are you really for? How is your brand currently perceived? How do you want to be perceived? What tension in the category can you own? Does your brand reflect your vision? 

✍️ Better storytelling and verbal precision

Most brands don't actually have a design problem, they have a ‘words’ problem. They look great, but they’re unclear on what they actually stand for and how to communicate that to audiences. A solid agency does more than just make things look pretty; they help you figure out your worldview so you can actually say something meaningful.

🎨 Visual systems that scale

The goal is not one beautiful logo. It is a system that works across mobile, packaging, pitch decks, ad units, retail, social, and product. A great agency will produce branding built for scale. 

📈 More commercial coherence across marketing

Branding doesn’t sit outside performance. It shapes conversion by influencing trust, recognition, and message clarity. When your brand is tight, your ads don't have to work nearly as hard.

Top Agencies List: Ranking Criteria

1. Reputation and ExpertiseVisibility, originality, and strategic authority.
2. Services OfferedRange across research, positioning, naming, verbal identity, design, digital, rollout, and campaign extension.
3. Tools and PlatformsGuideline systems, implementation tools, partner ecosystems, and operational infrastructure.
4. Industry ExperienceEvidence of work across sectors and brand maturity levels.
5. Client PortfolioStrength and diversity of the publicly visible client list.
6. Innovation and TechnologyAbility to make brands work in modern digital environments and multi-touchpoint systems.
7. Local Market ExpertiseDepth of UK market understanding, cultural fluency, and category relevance.

Comparison table

The Top 5 Branding Agencies in the UK 2026

1. OOB

Born in 2018, OOB is an independent, globally fluent marketing agency, providing standout visual and verbal identities for clients across brand, creative and social. OOB earns its place here because its brand work isn’t trapped in traditional design-agency territory. OOB’s branding services run from identity and packaging through to content, social systems, campaigns, and websites. That matters because the strongest brands today aren’t just beautifully designed, they’re built to live fluently across social and digital contexts from day one. 

The agency’s homepage and work archive showcase projects including Orbit Beers, Pure Glow Beauty, Pear Ring, Blue Minds, Cell Evolution, Planetary Processing, and Genie Drinks, alongside high-output social and campaign work. OOB’s branding proposition isn’t “brand first, activation later”, it’s brand thinking built with distribution and attention in mind. For challenger and lifestyle brands especially, that is a strong competitive edge. 

Publicly visible OOB brand strengths include the following:

• Brand strategy and cultural positioning
• Brand identity and packaging
• Copywriting and messaging support
• Website design and digital expression
• Campaign development linked to brand systems
• Content production that keeps brand worlds consistent in-market

Key clients and brand-led examples: Orbit Beers, Pure Glow Beauty, Blue Minds, Genie Drinks, OMG! Candy. Broader public client visibility also includes TikTok, Sonos, ZAGG, O’Neill, and Ann Summers. 

Notable case studies and outcomes:

• Orbit Beers: We were approached by the team at Orbit Beers to design a new e-com focused website that shone a light on the Orbit experience. From their delicious range of music-inspired beers to the atmosphere of the taproom on their beloved monthly vinyl nights, this site needed to tell the Orbit story in an engaging, immersive way. We designed a site that reflected the warmth of their brand, winning the UK’s Best Independent Brewery Webshop Award from SIBA in 2025.
• Blue Minds: Blue Minds came to OOB with a vision to create a science-backed Gen Z supplement brand, to help counter the effects of excessive screentime. The dopamine-inspired design system – from molecular motifs to vibrant, high-contrast colour palettes – created instant visual impact across packaging, digital, and social. The logo, echoing the ‘like’ button’s addictive feedback loop, became a playful symbol of reclaiming control from tech-driven attention hijackers. Every design decision reinforced the mission: do right by your brain. 
• Genie Drinks: Genie Drinks are on a mission to make better-for-you fizzy drinks the new norm: 100% plant-based, no added sugar or sweeteners, packed with antioxidants and other little wins. After designing and building Genie’s playful, punchy e-commerce site (which scooped a Web Excellence Award 🏆), the brand tasked OOB with bringing that same energy to their social channels. They built a joyful, health-positive presence that increased audience growth by 85%, engagement by 128%, and impressions by 322%.

Tech, tools, and partner signals: OOB combines brand work with social, creative, influencer, and platform-partner capability, perfect for brands who want their identity to perform in digital channels immediately. 

Awards and recognition: OOB has a 5-star rating on Clutch and has secured several web awards for client sites. 

Best for: Brands that want modern identity work tied directly to social fluency, content systems, and culturally relevant rollout.

2. Koto

Koto is one of the UK’s most internationally visible branding agencies, and the scale of its public work makes that obvious. The studio describes itself as “The Creative Company”, with five offices across Los Angeles, New York, London, Berlin, and Sydney, and a services stack spanning strategy, brand, digital, and campaign. This is a true transformation shop rather than a niche identity studio. 

Its public portfolio is stacked with category-defining names: Amazon, Tripadvisor, Workday, WhatsApp, Microsoft, Lyft, Call of Duty, Deezer, and more. What stands out isn’t just aesthetic quality but system thinking. Koto is repeatedly trusted with complex businesses that need large, flexible brand architectures, the kinds of rebrands that affect internal teams, product interfaces, and global marketing operations all at once. 

Koto’s core strengths, as presented publicly, include the following:

• Brand positioning, research, and portfolio strategy
• Naming and nomenclature
• Visual, verbal, motion, and sonic identity
• Digital product and website experience
• Design systems and experiential design
• Campaign and content production
• Enterprise-scale brand transformation

Key clients: Amazon, Tripadvisor, Workday, WhatsApp, Google, Netflix. Koto’s wider partner list also includes Nike, Meta, Spotify, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, and Trainline. 

Notable case studies and outcomes:

• Tripadvisor: Koto repositioned Tripadvisor around “truth, trust and travellers”, with the official case study stating the refreshed brand is grounded in over a billion real reviews and helps Tripadvisor show up more clearly as a brand built on lived experience. 
• Pairpoint: Koto named, positioned, and branded Vodafone and Sumitomo’s venture, with the case study stating the new brand helped secure partnerships with MasterCard, IoT Squared, Ryd, and Senos, while making complex technology easier to explain. 
• WhatsApp / Workday: both case studies emphasise scalable systems designed to strengthen confidence, clarity, and digital usability.

Tech, tools, and proprietary platforms: Koto’s digital and design-systems capability is unusually strong for a brand studio, spanning UX, interface design, product innovation, prototyping, and digital expression. 

Awards and recognition: Koto’s recent work has been covered by Creative Review and Creative Boom, which is a meaningful marker of industry visibility for branding work at this level. 

Best for: Businesses undertaking high-stakes rebrands or global brand transformations that need strategic depth, system thinking, and world-class execution.

3. Wildish&Co

Wildish&Co is an independent London agency that has been helping brands stand out since 2012, with expertise across branding, campaigns, and digital. Its public positioning states that it works with brands that want to dream big, stand out, and shake things up. That attitude shows up in the work, which tends to be more characterful, verbal, and strategically expressive than the polished-but-generic branding that clutters this category. 

The agency is especially strong when a brand needs not just aesthetics, but personality: sharper tone of voice, stronger storytelling, more distinctive semiotics, and systems designed to work across identity, packaging, website, and campaign rollout. Public profiles and industry directories also show a credible client list spanning Bumble, Penguin Books, Jamie Oliver, KLM, Heineken, BBC, MTV, Mercedes-Benz, and others. 

Wildish&Co’s public strengths include the following: 

• Brand strategy
• Brand identity design
• Brand storytelling and copywriting
• Illustration, photography, animation, and motion
• UX/UI and web design
• Campaign strategy and activation
• Toolkits, guidelines, and rollout support

Key clients: Bumble, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Penguin Books, Jamie Oliver, Penhaligon’s, Nestlé. Additional public directories list BBC, MTV, Mercedes-Benz, Heineken, Canon, and SodaStream among its broader client mix. 

Notable case studies and outcomes:

• Spacemade: Wildish&Co rebranded Spacemade, described as the UK’s fastest-growing flexible workspace operator, and created a system designed to scale across 11+ locations, digital platforms, OOH, signage, and in-house team usage. 
• Notorious Nooch: the studio built the brand from the ground up (strategy, packaging, fulfilment, and Shopify), and reports that the brand has launched three flavours and secured retail partners all over the UK. 
• Divine Chocolate: the agency developed a bold transformation for the Fairtrade brand, with design rooted in colour theory and illustrations that foreground farmers’ co-ownership and ethical roots. 
• Ding: Wildish&Co’s work for HomeServe’s home-services platform was featured by Creative Review, The Brand Identity, and Design Week, underlining its visibility within the design press. 

Tech, tools, and proprietary platforms: Wildish&Co highlights customised brand toolkits and microsites for day-to-day use, plus digital prototyping, animation, and campaign-development capability. 

Awards and recognition: Public sources reviewed showed strong editorial recognition in Creative Review, The Brand Identity, BP&O, and Design Week. Specific award wins were not prominently disclosed in the reviewed materials. 

Best for: Challengers and established brands that want sharper character, stronger brand voice, and identity systems with campaign legs.

4. Made By Shape

Made by Shape occupies a useful space between branding agency and digital implementation partner. The Manchester-based studio describes itself as an award-winning agency founded in 2010, specialising in branding, web design, e-commerce, digital marketing, and organic SEO. That blend matters because many branding projects stall at the guideline stage; Shape’s public work suggests stronger follow-through into site builds, search visibility, and day-to-day digital use. 

Key services include: brand strategy, brand design, guidelines, tone of voice, implementation, and repositioning, all handled in-house by a Manchester team of 16. 

Made by Shape’s public strengths include the following:

• Brand strategy and research
• Brand design and repositioning
• Brand guidelines and tone of voice
• Website design and development
• Organic SEO and long-term site optimisation
• eCommerce and Craft CMS implementation
• In-house project delivery and support

Key clients: Gary Neville, SSP Health, Riley Studio, Found, This is Digital, Social Shepherd. Older public materials and directories also mention NHS and L’Occitane among the broader client range. 

Notable case studies and outcomes:

• Riley Studio: Shape’s SEO and web work improved brand keywords within the first month, with a longer-term strategy focused on traffic, conversions, and sales. 
• Found: the agency created a cohesive brand identity and digital infrastructure over a 12-week engagement to help establish the property brand in a competitive market. 
• SSP Health: Shape refreshed the NHS group’s identity to modernise perception while preserving trust and continuity, introducing a new logo, typography, extended assets, and patient-centric messaging.
• Social Shepherd / This is Digital / Gary Neville: the branding page and work archive show the studio’s credibility across agency, personal brand, and healthcare categories. 

Tech, tools, and proprietary platforms: Verified Craft CMS and Craft Commerce partner; Shopify build capability; project-management workflows including monday.com. 

Awards and recognition: Appears in Awwwards, and has an Awwwards jury profile presence. 

Best for: SMEs, founders, and ambitious mid-market brands that need a rebrand and the digital build discipline to make it work in the market.

5. Make Us Care

Make Us Care differentiates itself through emotional intelligence. It builds brands people belong to, using strategy, storytelling, design, and activation to create advocacy rather than superficial awareness. Their process involves moving from customer interviews and workshops through positioning, tone of voice, identity, campaigns, and brand defence. 

For branding work, that is a meaningful proposition. A lot of agencies say they do research. Make Us Care makes research central to its story, and its “CareBrand” framing is built around emotional, ethical, and social connection. That makes the agency particularly interesting for brands that need stronger resonance and a clearer reason to matter, not just a nicer identity. 

Publicly visible strengths include the following: 

• Discovery workshops and customer research
• Positioning and storytelling
• Tone of voice and messaging
• Visual identity and brand systems
• Campaign activation across channels
• Media planning and optimisation for campaign rollout
• Brand governance and long-term defence

Key clients: Prima Cheese, Soldo, Koru Kids, Buyagift, RingPay, Airhead. 

Notable case studies and outcomes:

• Prima Cheese: Make Us Care rebranded a heritage business that tops over 6 million pizzas every week and exports to more than 50 countries, with both the case study and a verified Clutch review emphasising the challenge of evolving the brand without alienating a loyal customer base. 
• Soldo: the agency created “Dough Stories”, a founder-focused programme featuring 24 scale-up founders across 12 episodes, supported by live dinner events around the UK. 
• RingPay: while more campaign-led than pure branding, this work shows how Make Us Care translates identity into market presence; the London OOH campaign reached 3.2 million people, delivered 11.2 million impressions, and exceeded performance targets by 16%. 
• Third-party client evidence: Clutch shows 15 verified client reviews and an overall rating of 4.9/5 as of its latest update, giving extra external validation to the agency’s service quality. 

Tech, tools, and proprietary platforms: No standalone software platform is publicly foregrounded, but the agency’s “CareBrand” framework and structured discovery-to-defence process clearly function as proprietary methodology. 

Awards and recognition: Recent accessible public materials leaned more on verified review platforms and client endorsements than on award claims; specific award wins were not prominently disclosed.

Best for: Brands that need emotionally sharper positioning, stronger storytelling, and a real bridge between research, identity, and activation.

Conclusion

Branding isn’t just decoration. It’s the strategic foundation that governs how your business is seen, heard, and felt by customers.

The agencies in this list all understand that, but each expresses it differently: OOB feels most contemporary for brands living in culture and social. Koto is the scale play. Wildish&Co is the character play. Made by Shape is the implementation play. Make Us Care is the emotional resonance play.

The right partner depends on where you’re at. If you need category-defining transformation, pick the system builders. If you want a brand that actually survives online, from your Shopify store to your TikTok feed, pick the agency that knows how to unify your brand image across platforms. 

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