United Kingdom ICOM Network

Golley Slater. Seventy years old, and future proof.

Our ICOM partner agency in the United Kingdom, and one of the few anywhere whose effectiveness has been audited rather than asserted. Founded in 1957, owned by its own people since 2025, and best known for behaviour change work: campaigns briefed to make people act differently, not to make them remember a logo. Their own site is golleyslater.com.

1957founded, and independent ever since

GoldCannes Lions, in film, for the British Army

130people, employee owned since 2025

IPAEffectiveness Accredited, 2025 to 2027

Who they work for

Global brands, national institutions, and a railway.

A partner is only as convincing as the briefs they are trusted with. Twenty five of them, across FMCG, automotive, transport, government, health, utilities, education and tourism.

Client marks as published by Golley Slater. They are Golley Slater's accounts, not ours, and each mark belongs to its owner.

At a glance

The whole partner, on one page.

Solidity is boring to write about and decisive to buy. Every line here is checkable, most of it against the company register or the trade bodies rather than a brochure.

Founded

May 1957, in Cardiff, incorporated as Golley Slater and Partners. Sixty nine years of continuous trading under the same name.

Legal entity

Golley Slater Group Limited, company 00584047, registered in England and Wales, registered office Wharton Place, Cardiff.

Ownership

100% employee owned. Shares transferred to an Employee Ownership Trust in June 2025, announced that September. No holding company, no external shareholder.

Leadership

David Longden, Chief Executive, in post since well before the transition, with the leadership team unchanged through it.

People

Around 130 across the group, on one profit and loss.

Reported turnover

£22m, as published at the time of the 2025 employee ownership announcement.

Offices

Cardiff (head office), London, Leeds and Cirencester.

Network

ICOM United Kingdom member since 2009, inside a network of 70+ independent agencies in 50+ countries. Non competing with us by design.

Bodies

IPA member since 2004, holder of the IPA CPD Standard. DMA member agency, listed as Golley Slater Results Marketing.

Accreditation

IPA Effectiveness Accredited, 2025 to 2027. Fewer than fifty UK agencies hold it, and they are reported to be the only one headquartered in Wales.

Languages

English and Welsh, with bilingual production handled in house rather than bought in.

Disciplines

Eleven, from research and strategy through creative, film, media, PR and CRM to shopper and SEO.

Sectors

Thirteen, led by government and public sector, transport and automotive, travel and tourism, health, B2B engineering and FMCG.

Ownership

Employee owned since 2025. Held in trust for all 130 people. The same structural independence we hold ourselves to.

IPA Effectiveness Accreditation

One of fewer than fifty UK agencies whose planning, measurement and learning has been audited by the IPA. Reported to be the only one headquartered in Wales.

Sixty nine years, unbroken

Founded 1957. ICOM member 2009. Employee owned 2025. An agency that has traded through every media shift since the television set.

What they are known for

Behaviour change above everything. Their most awarded work is briefed to make people act differently, not to make them remember a logo, which is a harder brief and a rarer skill. Around it sits transport, B2B engineering and automotive, travel and tourism, heritage, and FMCG shopper work.

Why behaviour change is the harder brief

Awareness work asks people to remember something. Behaviour change asks them to stop doing something dangerous, book something, apply for something, switch to something. It is measured in actions rather than recall, which means the agency has nowhere to hide. It is also the discipline that transfers most directly to a commercial problem.

What independence buys a client there

No group media mandate, no holding company deciding where the budget goes, and no sister agency quietly bidding for the same account. Since 2025 the people who make those calls are also the owners, which tends to shorten the distance between a promise and a decision.

Where we are complementary, not overlapping

They are strongest in British earned media, national broadcast and behaviour change. We are strongest in proprietary tech, data engineering, AI enablement and commerce. Neither of us has to pretend to be the other, which is the whole reason the partnership works.

Experience, in use

Seventy years of pattern recognition, pointed at what happens next.

Longevity only matters if it changes the work. An agency that has launched brands through television, digital, social and now generative AI has already seen most of what is about to happen to yours, and has stopped guessing about the rest. Each of these moments still shows up in what a client gets today.

1957

Born with television, and still buying it

Golley Slater and Partners is incorporated in May 1957, as commercial television arrives in Britain. What it buys you now: a media practice that has planned broadcast for seven decades, at a moment when connected TV is being sold to marketers as if it were a new idea.

2004 to 2009

Into the IPA, then into ICOM

Joins the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in 2004, and in 2009 becomes ICOM's UK member agency. What it buys you now: an independent route into the United Kingdom that does not run through a holding company, and seventeen years of working across borders with agencies like us.

2023

Named the best PR consultancy in Wales

PR Consultancy of the Year at the CIPR Cymru Wales PRide Awards, with a Gold for Best Use of Content. What it buys you now: earned media that is judged by peers rather than counted in clippings.

2024

Effectiveness stops being a claim

Awarded IPA Effectiveness Accreditation. In the same year No Second Chances wins a CIPR Excellence Award and Gold at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA. What it buys you now: a measurement discipline that has been audited by somebody other than the agency selling it to you.

2025

The agency hands itself to its own people

The shares transfer to an Employee Ownership Trust in June, announced that September: one hundred percent of the business, held for all one hundred and thirty employees. What it buys you now: the people in your meetings are the owners, so nobody has to go upstairs to say yes.

2026

AI in the work, not in the pitch

Woven through Wales launches in February, a bilingual master brand platform for Transport for Wales built to run three to five years, using dynamic creative optimisation at scale and AI generated imagery to make the variations affordable. Two more CIPR Excellence Awards follow in July. What it buys you now: a partner already shipping AI assisted production on a national account, with the effectiveness numbers to show it worked.

Value proposition

Co-creation, innovation, and a culture of betterness.

Their method is collaborative by design. Clients are inside the work rather than on the receiving end of it, ideas are built together and improved every round, and the test at the end is always the same one: did it move the business. Curiosity is where they start. Betterness is how they finish.

Collaboration

Built with you, not presented to you

Co-creation is the working model, not a workshop they run once at kick off. Client teams sit inside the process while the thinking is still soft, which is the only point at which a client can actually change the outcome.

Betterness

Good enough is not a finish line

A culture of betterness means every round is expected to improve on the last one, and innovation comes out of that habit rather than out of a department. It is unglamorous and it compounds.

Effectiveness

Judged on business effect, and audited

IPA Effectiveness Accreditation is not a trophy. It is an inspection of how an agency plans, measures and learns. Fewer than fifty UK agencies hold it, and holding it means effectiveness is a documented process, not a promise.

Where they are strongest

Behaviour change and public sector. Campaigns briefed to change what people do, not what they recall.
Transport and automotive. From national rail brand platforms to European aftermarket B2B.
Travel, tourism and heritage. Destinations, resorts and attractions, measured on bookings.
B2B, engineering and manufacturing. Technical audiences, long cycles, thought leadership that earns its keep.
FMCG, grocery and shopper. More than twenty five years with category leading brands.

What they add to a shared client

UK media bought in market, across television, video on demand, audio, search, social and out of home.
British earned media relationships, national and regional, built over decades rather than rented.
Bilingual English and Welsh production, which most agencies have to buy in.
In house film, animation and sound, so production does not become a third party negotiation.
IPA grade effectiveness measurement, including creative pre testing before the money goes out.

What they do

Eleven disciplines, one argument.

Research, strategy and planning

Evidence first

Primary and secondary research, audience segmentation, persona development and communications planning
Creative pre testing, including System1, so the weak idea is killed before the media is bought

Advertising, creative and content

Made in house

Television, video on demand, cinema, out of home and reactive digital and social creative
An in house studio for film, motion graphics, animation, sound design and 3D

Media planning and buying

Full service media

Television, video on demand, audio, social, search, display and out of home, bought as one plan
Dynamic creative optimisation at scale, with hundreds of tailored variations from a single platform

PR, social and influence

Award winning earned

Media relations, social and influencer marketing, across consumer and public sector
CIPR Consultancy of the Year in Wales in 2023, and CIPR Excellence winners in 2024 and 2026

CRM, automation and direct

Response and retention

Lifecycle journeys and automation programmes on platforms such as HubSpot
Direct marketing across print, email, digital, social and television, measured on cost per acquisition

Branding, shopper, B2B and SEO

The rest of the stack

Brand strategy, architecture, guidelines and design, plus channel neutral retail and shopper activation
B2B marketing roadmaps and technical SEO, sitting inside the same plan rather than beside it

Eleven disciplines is a long list. The point is not the list, it is that one team owns the result at the end of it.

Selected work

The cases, and the numbers they published.

A summary of work already public on their site and in the awards record. We link out rather than retell it, because the detail belongs to them.

Transport for Wales · flagship

No Second Chances, the campaign that sold the clothes of the dead.

A rail safety campaign built as a fake pre loved clothing brand, selling garments that belonged to people killed trespassing on the line, through a resale style marketplace and a Cardiff pop up with a fitting room that told their stories. Uncomfortable on purpose, because awareness campaigns about railways do not work.

CIPR Excellence Award, Integrated Campaign · Gold, The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA · Marketing Week Awards 2024, Branded Experiences and Events · The Purpose Awards, Best Public Awareness Cause Campaign · National Transport Awards

50%fall in trespassing in Cardiff and the Valleys, year on year

64.8Mvideo views for Bosch across around thirty European markets

1 in 3people in Wales recalled the Transport for Wales platform after four weeks

4.6/5System1 score for the Woven through Wales film, benchmark 3.2

+211%paid social reach against target for Cadw, the Welsh heritage body

Transport for Wales

Woven through Wales

A bilingual master brand platform launched in February 2026 and built to run three to five years, with knitted hills, woven landscapes and photoreal trains. One in three people in Wales recalled the campaign after four weeks.

Bosch

The Automotive Influencers

A B2B aftermarket campaign that borrowed the grammar of social media to cast Bosch as the original automotive influencers, adapted across around thirty European markets. 64.8 million video views and 1.3 million clicks.

British Army

The film that won a Gold Lion

A Gold at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, in film, out of the Welsh office. The craft end of an agency better known for the behaviour change work it is measured on.

Cadw

1000 Reasons to Visit

A five month summer campaign for the Welsh heritage body, across paid social, influence and organic. Paid social reach beat target by two hundred and eleven percent, and membership grew seven percent.

Welsh Government

Apprenticeships, a genius decision

Long running work for the Skills, Higher Education and Lifelong Learning team, which took Best Long term Campaign and Best Long term Client Care at the CIPR Excellence Awards in 2026.

Procter & Gamble, AB InBev

FMCG, at speed

Animated social work for Lenor and Christmas key visual craft for Stella Artois, the everyday output that keeps a category leading brand present between the big campaigns.

The record

Cannes Lions, GoldFilm, for the British Army

CIPR Excellence Awards, WinnerIntegrated Campaign, No Second Chances

The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA, GoldGovernment, No Second Chances

Marketing Week Awards 2024Branded Experiences and Events, No Second Chances

The Purpose AwardsBest Public Awareness Cause Campaign, No Second Chances

National Transport AwardsBest Campaign, No Second Chances

CIPR Excellence Awards 2026Best Long term Campaign and Best Long term Client Care

CIPR Cymru Wales PRide AwardsPR Consultancy of the Year, plus Gold for Best Use of Content

Figures as published by Golley Slater and the awarding bodies. Full cases on their work page.

The partnership

Two agencies putting their best people on the same account.

Plenty of networks work by one agency writing a brief and another one executing it. That is not what this is, in either direction. ICOM members are non competing by design, so a client sitting across our two markets gets both agencies thinking, both agencies building, and one set of numbers everyone is judged on.

Each side brings what it is genuinely better at. Neither side pretends to be the other.

Both crews in the room, from the start

Strategy is written together, not handed over. Their planners and ours work the same brief at the same time, which is slower for a week and considerably faster for the eleven months after it.

Each side leads where it is stronger

They lead British behaviour change, national broadcast, earned media and bilingual production. We lead proprietary tech, data engineering, AI enablement, performance and commerce. The lead moves with the work, not with the postcode.

One measurement model, agreed before anything runs

Two agencies can only share accountability if they share a definition of success. So the model, the sources and the reporting are settled up front, and neither of us gets to grade our own homework afterwards.

It runs in both directions, genuinely

British brands reach Portugal, Iberia and Portuguese speaking markets through us, on the same terms. A partnership that only points one way is not a partnership, it is a referral fee with better manners.

Both agencies are members of ICOM, which is what makes this possible: same network, same standards, and no commercial reason to compete.

Connected across the network

Our crew, their crew, and the network behind both.

Golley Slater is one of the partners we work with through ICOM. Here is how that connects to the rest of what we do.

ICOM Network →The full network, and why we stayed independent. Internationalization →Take your brand across borders, market by market. What We Do →The full picture of how our crew works. Showcases →The brands and cases we have worked alongside. Visit Golley Slater →Their own site, their work, their news. Start a conversation →Tell us which markets you need next.

What it means for your brand

Why this partner, and why it matters to you.

We choose partners the way we would choose a colleague: independent, proven, and able to defend a number in front of a client. Golley Slater clears that bar in the United Kingdom.

Seventy years of British memory

An agency that has traded through every media shift since the television set, working a market that punishes outsiders who guess.

Owned by its own people

Employee owned, with no holding company and no external shareholder. The same structural independence we hold ourselves to.

Effectiveness you can audit

IPA Effectiveness Accredited, which means the way they plan, measure and learn has been inspected by somebody other than them. Fewer than fifty UK agencies hold it.

Behaviour change is the day job

Their most awarded work is briefed to make people act differently rather than remember a logo, and it is measured in actions. That discipline moves straight across to a commercial problem.

They build it with you

Co-creation and a culture of betterness, which in practice means your team is inside the work early and every round is expected to beat the last one.

Business results first

The best of digital, marketing, people and technology, ours and theirs, aimed at one thing: your business results.

Independent here. Independent there. Connected exactly where it counts.

Frequently asked questions

The questions we hear most.

Who is Golley Slater?

Golley Slater is a full service marketing and communications agency in the United Kingdom, founded in 1957 and employee owned since 2025, with around 130 people and a head office in Cardiff. The agency covers strategy and research, advertising and creative, film and animation, media planning and buying, PR, social and influence, CRM and automation, direct marketing, retail and shopper, branding and design, B2B and SEO. Clients include Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Bosch, Transport for Wales and the Welsh Government.

What is the relationship between Wise Pirates and Golley Slater?

They are our ICOM partner agency in the United Kingdom. Both agencies are independent and neither owns any part of the other. ICOM is the world's largest network of independent agencies, members are non competing by design, and Golley Slater has been the UK member since 2009. It is a working partnership between equals, not an outsourcing arrangement in either direction.

How does a shared client actually work between the two agencies?

Both crews work the same brief from the start. Strategy is written jointly, the measurement model is agreed before anything runs, and the lead on any given piece of work sits with whichever agency is genuinely stronger at it: British behaviour change, broadcast, earned media and bilingual production with them, proprietary tech, data engineering, AI enablement, performance and commerce with us. You get one contract, one team and one set of numbers. It works the same way when a British brand needs Portugal, Iberia or a Portuguese speaking market.

Who owns Golley Slater?

Its own people. In 2025 the business was placed one hundred percent into an Employee Ownership Trust held for the benefit of all employees. The shares transferred in June 2025 and the move was announced that September. There is no holding company and no external shareholder, which is the same reason we are independent: nobody sits between the client and the decision.

What is IPA Effectiveness Accreditation, and why does it matter?

It is an audit, not a trophy. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising inspects how an agency plans, measures, learns from and proves the commercial effect of its work, then accredits it for a fixed term. Fewer than fifty UK agencies hold it. Golley Slater is accredited for 2025 to 2027 and is reported to be the only accredited agency headquartered in Wales. For a buyer it means effectiveness is a documented process there, not a promise in a pitch.

Which brands does Golley Slater work with?

Published client work includes Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Bosch, Nestlé, Tesco, Nationwide, Mitsubishi Motors, AB InBev, Rémy Martin, Edrington, NFU Mutual, Transport for Wales, the Welsh Government, Public Health Wales, NHS Wales, Cadw, S4C, The Royal Mint, Calor, Ogi and Audley Villages. Their sector pages also name work with Bentley, Volvo, Eon, EDF, EE, Welsh Water, Deloitte, Mind and Cancer Research UK.

Which sectors is Golley Slater strongest in?

Government and public sector behaviour change, transport and automotive, travel and tourism, health, education, FMCG and retail, engineering and manufacturing, plus business and professional services. Their most awarded work sits in behaviour change, where the brief is to make people act differently rather than simply remember a brand.

What has Golley Slater actually proved?

Their rail safety campaign for Transport for Wales, No Second Chances, is associated with a fifty percent year on year fall in trespassing in Cardiff and the Valleys, and won a CIPR Excellence Award and Gold at The Drum Awards for Marketing EMEA in 2024. It also took a Marketing Week Award for Branded Experiences and Events and a Purpose Award for Best Public Awareness Cause Campaign. For Bosch, a B2B campaign across around thirty European markets drew 64.8 million video views. The agency also holds a Cannes Lions Gold, in film, for the British Army, and took two more CIPR Excellence Awards in 2026.

Do they work in Welsh as well as English?

Yes. Bilingual English and Welsh production is standard for their public sector and transport work, including the Woven through Wales master brand platform launched for Transport for Wales in February 2026. That matters for any brand with statutory or public sector obligations in Wales, and it is a capability most London agencies buy in.

How do I start a United Kingdom project with you?

Either door works, and both lead to the same conversation. Tell us the market, the audience and the result you need, and we will tell you honestly whether the work is better led from Porto, from the United Kingdom, or by both crews together. If it is a shared account, their team joins the conversation early, while the strategy is still being written rather than after it is finished.

Which other ICOM partners do you work with?

ICOM has more than seventy independent member agencies in over fifty countries, and we work with the partner that fits the market and the brief. Golley Slater is the first of the partner profiles we are publishing. If the market you need is not published yet, ask us and we will tell you who covers it.

The network

ICOM is the glue. The world's largest network of independent agencies.

More than seventy agencies across fifty countries, connected for over seventy five years under one idea: connect to grow. Owned by its members rather than by a holding company, and made up of agencies that do not compete with each other. Wise Pirates is the Porto member. Golley Slater is the United Kingdom member.

70+independent agencies in the network

50+countries with partners on the ground

75+years connected under one idea

100sof international awards across members

Owned by its members

The network belongs to the agencies themselves, so there is no head office taking a cut between you and the work.

Non competing by design

Members do not chase the same clients, so they collaborate by choice rather than obligation, and share what they know.

Connect to grow

Knowledge, people and on the ground expertise pooled across borders, for a single purpose: growth.

The ICOM Network at Wise Pirates → Visit icomagencies.com → Visit Golley Slater →

Ready when you are

Need the United Kingdom covered?

Tell us the market, the audience and the result you need. We will tell you honestly whether the work is better run from Porto, from Britain, or as one team across both.

Let's talk →