Fast-growing Figs

Branding group Figtree has come a long way since John Holton and Simon Myers set up in a garage in West London in 2004. Now ranked 41st in the Top 100, after a year that saw 43 per cent growth, it anticipates another healthy year.
Holton and Myers met at Interbrand as designer and strategist respectively. Building on this relationship, they still follow the advertising model, comprising an art director/copywriter team.
Blending ‘logic and magic’ is, says Myers, one of Figtree’s ‘cultural’ differentials, and it is ‘more entrepreneurial’ than potential rivals.
Myers attributes business success partly to geographical reach - the Middle East, France and Asia each account for a quarter of consultancy workload. But he acknowledges that ‘a bit of luck last year’ saw Figtree take over as global branding group for Taiwanese telecoms company HTC Corporation from Wolff Olins. “You don’t need a lot of clients,” he says. “Just a few you have meaningful relationships with.”
The future? Figtree doesn’t want to get much bigger for now. But with a Paris office and plans to open in Hong Kong or Shanghai in Spetember - to meet HTC’s request for an Asian presence - global expansion is assured.
(p.59)

“Individually, there have been some success stories, most notably Figtree... which increased fee-income by 43 per cent...” (p.21)

“However, the most impressive performance over the past two years is from Figtree, which rose an impressive 15 positions last year, and an even further 23 in the current year, to rank 41st” (p.21)



More rankings

Growth in fee-income: 1st

Leapfroggers: 3rd

Market share corporate branding: 4th

Largest increase in staffing levels: joint 5th

The sharpest acts / efficiency: 8th