The heyday of Newbury’s
marketing agencies

There was a period when Newbury had a remarkably large and active marketing industry.

From the 1980s through to the early 2010s, the town was home to design studios, advertising agencies, early web developers, printers, publishers and media companies. Some employed dozens of people and worked with major international brands. Others were small studios whose names were nevertheless familiar throughout the local business community.

Graphico, M4 Design, MAXX, Dunwoody, Planet Interactive Arts, PurpleFox, Nine Four, BCL NuMedia, The Newbury Group, Rufus Stone and Milestone Group were all part of this creative ecosystem.

Some closed. Some were acquired and absorbed into larger groups. Others moved away, changed direction or became much smaller operations.

Together, they made Newbury an unlikely but genuine centre for marketing and digital creativity.

Why did Newbury have so many agencies?

Newbury was particularly well placed to support a marketing industry.

Its location on the M4 corridor provided relatively easy access to London, Reading, Oxford and the wider Thames Valley. Office space was more affordable than London, while the town and surrounding villages offered an attractive place for employees to live.

Most importantly, the area contained a growing concentration of potential clients.

Vodafone’s expansion brought technology companies, suppliers and professional services businesses into and around Newbury. The wider M4 corridor was home to businesses in telecommunications, software, electronics, publishing, finance and business services.

These companies needed:

• Corporate identities
• Advertising campaigns
• Sales brochures
• Direct mail
• Product launches
• Exhibition stands
• Public relations
• Photography and video
• Internal communications
• Websites and digital services

Today, much of this work can be produced internally or purchased from specialists anywhere in the world. At the time, businesses often wanted a nearby agency that could manage an entire campaign from the initial idea to the finished materials.

That demand supported a surprisingly deep pool of designers, developers, copywriters, account managers, photographers, printers and production specialists.

Graphico

Graphico was probably the largest and best-known digital agency to emerge from Newbury.

Founded in 1990, it grew from a creative business into an award-winning full-service digital agency. Its work included websites, ecommerce, mobile marketing and customer communications.

By 2007, Graphico employed approximately 70 people in Newbury and reported annual turnover of £4.1 million. Its clients included Pepsi, the BBC, Walkers, Bacardi-Martini, First Great Western and the London Eye.

Graphico also helped redesign Auto Trader’s website during the early development of online vehicle search. Its work introduced improved search options, greater consideration of SEO and stronger integrations with finance and insurance providers.

In 2007, Digital Marketing Group acquired Graphico in a deal worth up to £8.6 million. Digital Marketing Group acquisition announcement

The agency became GraphicoDMG and later formed part of 20:20. For a time, the successor business continued to operate from Newbury, but the Graphico name and its independent local identity gradually disappeared.

Graphico demonstrated that a digital agency based in Newbury could compete for major national and international clients.

M4 Design

M4 Design was one of Newbury’s longest-established creative agencies.

Founded in 1976, the company operated from Pound Court in Pound Street. It provided graphic design, websites, marketing support and retail-display services.

M4 worked with significant international clients, including Samsung, Tefal and Veolia. Its expertise extended beyond producing marketing material into the design of physical retail and experiential environments.

The company was eventually acquired by London-based Big Group. Big Group later referred to M4 specifically as its retail-design agency in Newbury. Insider Media

M4 existed through several generations of marketing, from traditional artwork and print production to websites and digital campaigns. Its acquisition brought its time as an independent Newbury agency to an end.

MAXX Design

MAXX Design was another enduring presence in Newbury’s marketing community.

Founded in 1995, MAXX grew into an integrated agency offering:

• Branding
• Graphic design
• Printed literature
• Websites
• Advertising
• Events and exhibitions
• SEO
• Paid search
• Social media
• Marketing campaigns

The company became particularly well known for its work with independent schools and academies, producing identities, prospectuses, websites and wider marketing campaigns.

MAXX operated from The Courtyard on London Road and maintained a recognisable local presence for more than 30 years.

In 2026, MAXX Design entered administration. Broadplace acquired its goodwill, intellectual property and certain assets, offering continuity to its clients. MAXX company announcement

Its closure was particularly noticeable because MAXX had successfully adapted through the transition from print-led design to modern digital marketing.

Dunwoody

Dunwoody was known as a full-service marketing and design company operating from The Litten, close to Newbury town centre.

Its services included:

• Branding and design
• Print and publishing
• Websites and ecommerce
• Marketing campaigns
• Conferences and events
• Video production
• Business-to-business marketing
• Consumer marketing

Dunwoody represented the traditional integrated-agency model. A client could use the same company to develop an idea, design the campaign, produce the materials, create a video and manage an event.

Historical business listings still associate the Dunwoody name with Newbury, but the company no longer has the scale or visibility it once had within the town’s marketing community. Dunwoody listing

Planet Interactive Arts

Planet Interactive Arts was founded around 2000 and became part of Newbury’s growing design and digital sector.

The agency worked across:

• Brand strategy
• Corporate identity
• Graphic design
• Advertising
• Websites
• Mobile applications
• User experience
• Video
• Social media
• Marketing materials

Planet combined traditional brand design with the interactive skills that businesses increasingly required as websites and mobile applications became commercially important.

The company remains active, but it is now based in Hungerford rather than Newbury. Today it operates as Planet Brand & Design and focuses particularly on branding and creative communications. Planet

Planet therefore belongs in the story as one of the agencies that emerged from Newbury’s creative community and subsequently moved beyond the town.

PurpleFox Marketing

PurpleFox was an award-winning full-service marketing and design agency with offices in Newbury and London.

It worked across digital marketing, creative design, customer relationship management, social media and lead generation. The agency described its objective as helping clients increase sales leads rather than simply producing attractive marketing material.

PurpleFox received industry recognition, including a second-place result in the DMA Small Agency Social Media Awards in 2014.

The original PurpleFox operation subsequently became part of AmbitionABM, an account-based marketing consultancy focused on complex business-to-business sales. Its old website now acts primarily as a holding page, while its social profiles identify PurpleFox as part of AmbitionABM. PurpleFox

This is another example of a broad local agency evolving into a more specialised marketing business.

Nine Four

Nine Four was the company behind the easily misremembered “N4” name.

Based at 2 Old Bath Road, it was an award-winning website design and development agency serving businesses in Newbury, Hungerford and Thatcham.

Nine Four specialised in:

• Bespoke website design
• Web development
• Ecommerce
• On-page SEO
• Digital design
• Online business services

It was a smaller agency than Graphico or MAXX but formed part of the generation of Newbury businesses that helped local companies establish themselves online.

The Nine Four website remains accessible, although the agency has a far lower public profile than it did during Newbury’s busier digital-agency period. Nine Four

BCL NuMedia

BCL NuMedia was another Newbury digital agency operating from The Courtyard on London Road.

It provided website and multimedia services during the period when businesses were moving from simple brochure websites towards more interactive online experiences.

The company later traded as part of Firsty Group, with records placing that operation at Oxford House in Newbury.

Relatively little of BCL NuMedia’s work remains visible online, but former employee histories and business directories confirm that it employed developers and digital specialists in Newbury.

It is precisely the sort of company that can easily disappear from local history. It operated during an important stage of the internet’s development but closed or changed identity before online company histories became commonplace.

HotLizard

HotLizard was based at Mercantile House on London Road.

Rather than operating as a general marketing agency, it specialised in recruitment websites, job boards and related digital technology. It created online recruitment platforms for publishers, employers and specialist media businesses.

HotLizard belongs in the wider story because it employed many of the same types of people as Newbury’s digital agencies:

• Web developers
• Designers
• Project managers
• Account managers
• Digital-product specialists

The company and its technology later became part of a wider media group, but the HotLizard name remains visible in the software powering several recruitment websites.

The Newbury Group

The Newbury Group represented the area where design, marketing, publishing and commercial production overlapped.

Print was once central to the marketing industry. Businesses regularly commissioned:

• Corporate brochures
• Product catalogues
• Direct-mail packs
• Annual reports
• Customer magazines
• Newsletters
• Sales folders
• Exhibition materials

This supported an entire local supply chain. Agencies, printers, photographers, artworkers and mailing companies worked closely together.

The Newbury Group belonged to that world of physical marketing production. As marketing budgets moved online, the economics of large-scale print and publishing changed significantly.

The skills remained valuable, but the volume and structure of the work declined.

Rufus Stone

Rufus Stone took a different route from Newbury’s conventional agencies.

It developed a reputation for producing high-quality limited-edition music books, particularly for collectors and fans of major rock artists.

Its work brought together:

• Graphic design
• Photography
• Editorial production
• Music-industry relationships
• Specialist printing
• Direct-to-consumer marketing
• Collectable product design

Rufus Stone did not simply produce campaigns for other businesses. It developed products and intellectual property of its own.

The company remains active from Bartholomew Street in Newbury and continues to produce specialist music publications. Rufus Publications

It should not be described as a lost agency, but it deserves inclusion because it was part of the same local design, publishing and production community.

Milestone Group

Milestone Group was more ambitious and complicated than a conventional marketing agency.

It developed as a cross-media company with interests spanning radio, newspapers, television, creative services and, later, digital technology.

Its Newbury connections included Kick FM, the local radio station that provided employment and experience in:

• Advertising sales
• Promotions
• Sponsorship
• Copywriting
• Audio production
• Events
• Local marketing

Milestone attempted to bring media ownership, content creation and commercial marketing services together within one group.

The company eventually moved away from its original local-media model and developed into a digital media and technology business. It was later renamed Catenae Innovation.

Milestone’s evolution reflected a wider shift in the industry. Owning a radio station or local newspaper was once considered a valuable route to audiences. As advertising moved online, those local media assets became increasingly difficult to operate profitably.

Other names from Newbury’s creative community

The larger agencies were supported by many smaller studios and specialists.

These included:

• Arra Design Consultants
• Design Eclectic
• Clare Richardson Design
• Offbeat Creations
• Fuze Design
• Greenpatch Design
• Pixel Squid Design
• Squelch Design
• KickFire
• Deephaven
• Apple Print & Creative

Some remain active. Others have disappeared or become small independent operations.

Apple Print & Creative is one of the clearest examples of a local business successfully adapting. It expanded from commercial printing into design, marketing, digital campaigns, websites and events while continuing to operate from Newbury.

Pixel Squid also remains active as an independent Newbury graphic-design business.

The technology companies behind the creative industry

Newbury’s agency sector did not exist in isolation.

Several larger technology and media businesses helped develop the town’s creative workforce.

Mediasurface

Mediasurface was a Newbury-based web content-management software company. Its technology helped large organisations manage increasingly complex websites.

It was later acquired by Alterian, bringing another significant digital company into the wider Newbury technology story.

Digitas LBi

Digitas LBi operated from Newbury Business Park as part of a much larger international digital-agency network.

Its presence added another sizeable digital employer to an area already known for web development and marketing technology.

Quantel

Quantel was not a marketing agency, but it was one of Newbury’s most important creative-technology companies.

The company developed pioneering equipment for television, film and digital video production. At its height, it employed more than 1,000 people.

Quantel helped create a local pool of people who understood how technology and creative production could work together. That expertise supported the development of Newbury’s later digital businesses.

What happened to the agency scene?

No single event brought Newbury’s marketing heyday to an end.

Several long-term changes gradually reshaped the industry.

Marketing became less local

Businesses no longer needed an agency nearby to exchange artwork, inspect proofs or attend frequent production meetings.

Files could be transferred instantly, meetings moved online and companies could appoint specialists from almost anywhere.

Clients built internal teams

Large organisations brought design, content, digital advertising and website management in-house.

Work that once supported a full-service agency could increasingly be completed by an internal marketing department.

Production became easier

Website builders, online advertising platforms, email software and design tools allowed businesses to complete routine marketing work themselves.

This did not remove the need for expertise, but it reduced the amount of production work passing through agencies.

Print declined

Brochures, catalogues, direct mail and corporate publications once generated substantial recurring income.

As those budgets moved online, agencies lost a dependable source of work and had to compete for constantly changing digital projects.

Successful agencies were acquired

Graphico and M4 did not simply fail. They created businesses that larger groups wanted to buy.

Acquisition offered founders and employees new opportunities, but it often meant the local agency name eventually disappeared.

The workforce fragmented

A traditional agency might employ designers, developers, artworkers, copywriters, photographers and account managers in one building.

Today, the same work may be divided between freelancers, remote specialists, software platforms and a client’s internal marketing team.

The talent still exists, but it is less visible as a local industry.

More than a list of former businesses

These companies mattered because they gave people a place to begin and develop their careers.

Junior designers learned from experienced creative directors. Developers worked alongside designers as commercial websites emerged. Account executives learned how to manage clients, budgets and production. Printers, copywriters and photographers built relationships that followed them between companies.

When one Newbury agency closed or was acquired, its employees frequently appeared at another local business. Some founded agencies of their own. Others joined Vodafone or one of the many technology companies along the M4 corridor.

The influence of the agencies therefore extended far beyond the work carrying their names.

They created a pool of creative and commercial experience that spread throughout the local economy.

An overlooked part of Newbury’s recent history

Graphico, M4, MAXX, Dunwoody, Planet, PurpleFox, Nine Four, BCL NuMedia, HotLizard, The Newbury Group, Rufus Stone and Milestone were very different businesses.

Some focused on design and print. Others embraced websites, mobile technology and digital marketing. Some owned media, while others produced publications or specialist software.

Together, they made Newbury’s marketing sector feel much larger than might be expected from a town of its size.

It was an era of studio proofs, printed brochures, product launches, early websites, exhibition stands, local radio campaigns and sizeable agency teams.

Newbury still has talented designers, marketers, developers and production companies. What it no longer has is the same visible cluster of independent agencies that once made the town an unlikely creative centre.

For the people who worked in it, that period deserves to be remembered as an important part of Newbury’s recent business history.