The Mind Collective, an independent Birmingham agency, has been named Marketing Agency of the Year at the local business awards. Founded in 2015 and also known as TMC, it specialises in marketing for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), including food, drink, personal care and other consumer brands. Its clients range from ambitious start-ups and challenger brands to established household names, and its approach combines specialist marketing expertise with an understanding of business performance.
Rather than asking companies to employ a whole marketing department or juggle several separate agencies, The Mind Collective gives them a collective of specialists who work together as an extension of each client's business. The model has built lasting partnerships, and 99% of the agency's business has historically come through word of mouth. It celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2025 and has now spent eleven years helping businesses develop their brands, handle challenges and pursue new opportunities. The award means a great deal to a company that has always preferred to let its work and relationships speak for themselves.
Leaving corporate life to build a different kind of agency
Before setting up the business in 2015, the founder spent years in senior marketing roles with global brands, managing substantial budgets, large teams and the complications of corporate life. The experience was useful, but boardroom politics and large organisational structures had gradually taken some of the enjoyment out of the work. What the founder loved was marketing itself: developing brands, understanding consumers, exploring creative ideas and seeing them make a tangible difference to a business.
Meanwhile, outside the multinationals, ambitious founders, smaller businesses and emerging challenger brands were creating exciting products and finding new ways to compete with established names. They had ambition, creativity and determination, but many lacked the resources of larger organisations. Some had been started by entrepreneurs from sales, finance or operations rather than marketing, people who understood their products and customers but did not necessarily have the strategic knowledge and specialist skills to build a brand. The founder saw an opportunity to bridge that gap.
Despite discouragement from people who questioned the idea, The Mind Collective was set up to give ambitious businesses the capabilities of a complete marketing team without the cost and commitment of employing one in-house. The aim was an agency that could adapt to each client's circumstances and offer practical, commercially focused support rather than a rigid, traditional service. Eleven years on, that original idea is still central to the business, and returning to the parts of marketing that first inspired a career in the industry has been one of the most rewarding things about building it.
An entire marketing team for ambitious brands
The agency was built on a straightforward idea: businesses should not have to employ a large internal team to get the range of skills effective marketing needs. For many smaller companies, recruiting specialists in strategy, design, content, social media and digital advertising would mean considerable fixed costs, while working with several separate agencies can cause problems when different teams need to understand the same brand and work towards the same goals. The Mind Collective's clients instead get a team of specialists across marketing strategy, social media, content creation, design, digital advertising and influencer marketing, who work together with a shared understanding of the client's business so that the marketing supports its wider commercial ambitions.
The model is also scalable. Clients can increase or reduce their support depending on their needs, budgets and the opportunities they want to pursue, which matters for an emerging brand whose requirements may change considerably as it grows, since it can adjust its marketing without immediately building new internal departments. The Mind Collective was working this way long before fractional marketing became a widely discussed idea, and challenging the conventional agency model was always part of the founder's purpose. Today the team combines the breadth of a specialist agency with the commitment and familiarity of an in-house department, so clients feel they have knowledgeable people working alongside them rather than an outside supplier delivering individual tasks.
The commercial realities of FMCG
The agency's specialism in FMCG and consumer brands sets it apart. Marketing a food, drink or personal care product brings its own challenges: building consumer awareness while competing for attention in crowded retail environments, managing commercial pressures and responding to changes in shopping habits. For smaller challenger brands, with innovative products and ambitious plans but limited resources compared with established competitors, those demands can be especially heavy. The Mind Collective has come to understand them through years of work across consumer categories.
Its approach pairs creative thinking with a focus on driving consumer demand and supporting commercial performance. For the team, marketing has to contribute to the wider success of a business, which means understanding what the client is trying to achieve and building activity around that, not producing attractive content or launching a campaign because it is fashionable. Its experience includes well-known names such as Heinz, HP Sauce, Amoy and Tiptree, alongside emerging brands working to establish themselves in competitive markets, so the team understands the needs of both established organisations and businesses working towards their next stage of growth. Lessons from one project can inform thinking elsewhere, while each new client brings different challenges, and the agency aims to bring that breadth of experience and commercial focus to every client relationship.
Ten years of growth and lasting client relationships
Reaching its tenth anniversary in 2025 was a major milestone. What began as an ambitious idea to challenge the traditional agency model had become an established independent business with a talented team of specialists, and the founder took the moment to reflect on the clients, colleagues and partnerships that had shaped it. Over the years The Mind Collective has worked with consumer brands including Grenade, Huel, Kraft Heinz, ManiLife, Holy Moly, CafePod, Mars Food & Nutrition, Butcher's Petcare, Hilltop Honey, Hayman's Gin, Nice Rice and Golden Acre.
The team is proud of that range, but the length of its client relationships means even more, with some partnerships lasting almost a decade. Working with a business over that time gives the agency a detailed understanding of its products, customers, ambitions and challenges, and reflects a level of trust no single successful campaign can build. The agency reports that 99% of its business has historically come through personal recommendations, which the founder considers especially significant: rather than relying on awards or promotion to attract customers, the company has grown through people who value its work and recommend it to others. For the team, that is one of the strongest endorsements of its approach, and it brings a responsibility to keep delivering the service and results clients expect. Eleven years after opening, the agency is still focused on building the same kind of trusted relationships that have supported its growth from the start.
Growing together with The Curators
The agency's work with British savoury snacking brand The Curators is a good example of its approach. The two have worked together for nearly nine years, through a period in which an ambitious challenger business has grown into a substantial presence in UK grocery, with products now stocked in virtually every major supermarket. Rather than working on isolated projects, the agency has built a close relationship with the business, sharing its ambitions and supporting its growth.
The Curators has reported strong performance in 2026, including business growth of 41.5% year on year. According to figures provided by the agency, its biltong brand has grown by 65% and its pork snacks brand by 45%. For the team, the results reflect a brand that has kept challenging an established category and attracting new consumers. The relationship means more than the figures, though. Working together for nearly nine years has let the agency understand the brand's changing needs and contribute as new opportunities have come up, which is exactly the model The Mind Collective was created to provide: a team that understands a client's business, shares its challenges and celebrates its successes. For the founder, seeing a challenger brand become a major grocery presence is the kind of story that makes the work so rewarding, and the fact that the partnership continues after almost a decade shows how much both businesses value it.
Supporting the next generation of marketers
For all its client work, the founder counts the agency's internship programme among its proudest accomplishments. Supporting young people at the start of their careers has been a priority since 2015. Getting a first opportunity in marketing can be difficult, because employers look for practical experience that is hard to gain without someone willing to offer a first chance. Over eleven years, The Mind Collective's summer internship programme and annual twelve-month placements have helped more than 35 young people take their first steps into the industry, including undergraduates and graduates from a variety of universities, courses and places across the UK.
The aim is real professional experience rather than a temporary position. Interns build knowledge, learn the realities of working in marketing and gain confidence in a professional setting. Some have gone on to permanent roles at The Mind Collective, while others have taken their skills into careers elsewhere, and seeing them progress is an enormous source of satisfaction for the founder. She believes businesses have a responsibility to nurture talent at grassroots level and help young people lay the foundations for successful careers, and that commitment has held even through the agency's own difficult periods. Having played a part in more than 35 careers is, for her, an achievement that goes beyond commercial success and reflects the kind of business she wanted to build.
Adapting to the challenges facing independent agencies
The founder describes the past two and a half years as some of the most challenging the business has faced. Rising employment costs, increased taxation and the general financial pressures of running a small business have all needed careful management. At the same time, many FMCG companies have had their own difficulties, with higher operating costs, pressure on consumer spending and tighter marketing budgets affecting the services clients need and the resources they have. The agency has had to stay flexible, adapting its operations and managing costs carefully rather than carrying on regardless.
Another consideration has been the changing expectations of people entering the industry. The founder recognises that younger professionals, including many from Generation Z, place considerable importance on flexible working, wellbeing, development and a sense of purpose in their careers, and responding to that is part of building a supportive, sustainable workplace. The agency has kept investing in its people while changing how the team works. Throughout, the quality of service to clients has remained a priority, and the founder is determined to protect the independence, culture and personal approach that make The Mind Collective distinctive. For the business, getting through difficult times means adapting without losing sight of the principles it was founded on, not only cutting costs or keeping busy.
Giving back to Birmingham
The agency is proudly rooted in Birmingham and believes businesses have a responsibility to contribute to the places they operate in. Each year it donates a percentage of its profits to charity, supporting organisations including St Basils, Birmingham Langar and local charities tackling homelessness and food poverty. It believes businesses of all sizes can make a difference, even if their contributions take different forms.
Staff regularly take part in the Birmingham 10K and Half Marathon, which brings colleagues together outside everyday work while supporting local events and good causes. The agency also uses local suppliers and service providers wherever possible, seeing support for other regional businesses as part of keeping the local economy strong, and its internship programme has created openings for more than 35 young people entering the profession. For the founder, all of this comes from a shared belief that business success should involve more than commercial performance: it is also about the people who benefit from the opportunities, relationships and resources a company can create. The Mind Collective wants to keep contributing to Birmingham through charitable support, local partnerships and professional development.
Why Birmingham is home
Birmingham is part of the agency's identity and a place the team is proud to call home. Founded there in 2015, the business has built its reputation working with clients across the UK and internationally. The city's central location has practical advantages, with strong connections to the rest of the country, including London, but for the founder its appeal goes well beyond transport links. Its cultural diversity, entrepreneurial spirit and creative energy make it an inspiring place to run a marketing business. Working with consumer brands means understanding different audiences, lifestyles, interests and buying habits, and Birmingham's mix of cultures, communities, cuisines and festivals is a constant reminder of the variety of people who shape consumer markets. The team sees that diversity as one of the city's greatest strengths.
The founder also believes Birmingham shows that ambitious creative businesses do not need to be in London to work with major national and international brands, and the agency's own client list, from household names to emerging consumer businesses, bears that out. She values the wider regional business community too. Birmingham is home to ambitious, creative entrepreneurs and independent companies, many of whom could benefit from the kind of support The Mind Collective offers, and the agency would particularly welcome the chance to work with more businesses across Birmingham and the Midlands. After eleven years, it remains proud to represent the city.
A proud moment
Being named Marketing Agency of the Year has been an incredibly proud moment. After eleven years of building the business, supporting clients and developing a team of specialists, recognition from people who value the agency's work has brought enormous satisfaction, and what makes it especially meaningful for the founder is knowing that people took the time to nominate and vote for The Mind Collective. The agency has never been especially interested in chasing awards or promoting itself for attention. Its approach has been to do good work, build strong relationships and deliver results for clients, which is why 99% of its business has historically come through personal recommendations. For the founder, trust and reputation are the measures of success that matter, and knowing clients and contacts think enough of the business to recommend it has always been rewarding.
The award is a chance to celebrate that support publicly, and to recognise the hard work, creativity and commitment of everyone who has contributed over the years, from current employees to former colleagues, creators and partners. For the founder, it belongs to that wider group as much as to the business. Winning in Birmingham, home to The Mind Collective since the beginning, adds to her pride in building a successful independent agency outside London and gives encouragement for the ambitious plans ahead. The award is a wonderful milestone, but for the agency the relationships behind it remain the most important part of the story.
What the award means for clients and Midlands brands
The agency hopes the award will introduce its services to more businesses and reassure existing clients, reflecting the qualities customers already value: commercial understanding, creative thinking, specialist expertise and a commitment to helping brands succeed. Choosing a marketing partner is an important decision, since it means trusting people with budgets, brand reputation and activity that can affect commercial performance. The Mind Collective takes that responsibility seriously and aims to build relationships on openness, collaboration and shared ambition.
The founder also sees the award as a chance to show that independent agencies can offer the expertise businesses need without the scale or overheads of larger firms, and to challenge the assumption that companies need a large London agency to reach experienced marketers. The Mind Collective has spent eleven years showing what can be done from Birmingham, working with major household names and challenger brands across a broad range of consumer categories. Although its clients are spread nationally and internationally, she is keen to build more relationships closer to home, and hopes the award will raise its profile among Birmingham and Midlands businesses that may not yet know its approach and could benefit from a flexible team of specialists. The agency is clear that awards are only one form of recognition, and that what matters most is the quality of its client relationships and the value of its work. It sees this award as an encouraging endorsement of those priorities.
Plans for growth without losing the personal touch
The agency has set a goal of doubling the size of the business over the next five years, as part of its plans for 2027 and beyond. The founder is clear that growth should never come at the expense of what makes it distinctive; for her, bigger is not automatically better. The ambition is to expand while keeping the boutique approach, flexible service and close customer relationships that built the business. Small and medium-sized enterprises and challenger brands will remain central to its future, and it wants to keep offering tailored marketing that fits each client's ambitions, resources and commercial needs.
Developing the team is part of those plans, with new talent joining in the final quarter of 2026 and bringing fresh ideas, perspectives and energy, which the founder counts among the most exciting parts of running a creative business. She also wants stronger links with Birmingham businesses and universities and, building on the internship programme, more opportunities for undergraduates through placements and freelance projects, because she believes supporting emerging talent should stay central to the agency's identity. Changes in digital marketing, technology and artificial intelligence bring new challenges and opportunities, and the team knows it must keep developing its skills as the industry evolves. The aim is to embrace those changes while protecting the culture, independence and personal service that have guided the business since 2015.
Thank you to everyone behind The Mind Collective
The founder wants to recognise the many people who have contributed to the business over the past eleven years. First comes enormous appreciation for employees, past and present, whose creativity, dedication and hard work have built the agency's reputation, and thanks to the creators, suppliers and partners who have lent their expertise along the way. In a business built around collaboration, every one of them has played a part. She is particularly grateful to the clients and brand owners who have trusted the agency with their marketing, relationships that have brought exciting projects, business growth and lasting partnerships.
On a personal level, she wants to recognise the unwavering support of her husband. Running an independent business brings emotional pressures as well as professional responsibilities, and having someone to offer encouragement, advice and understanding has been invaluable. With characteristic humour, she says the partner of a business owner can end up as an unofficial therapist, strategist, business coach and occasionally even the postman, and his support through the highs, lows and everything in between has meant an enormous amount.
She also pays a personal tribute to her father, who sadly passed away in 2026. She describes him as her rock, a trusted sounding board and a constant source of wisdom and encouragement. She misses his advice deeply and hopes the achievements of The Mind Collective would make him proud. Much of that personal support happened away from the agency's everyday work, but it has mattered just as much, and the award is a moment to celebrate the people whose belief and encouragement made it possible.
Partnerships that go beyond the brief
The founder's main message to clients is gratitude. Whether a business has worked with the agency for nine years or nine weeks, the team values being part of its story, and she knows choosing a marketing partner means trusting people outside your own organisation with important decisions about your brand, budget and reputation. The agency never takes that lightly. She also wants customers to know that a relationship with The Mind Collective does not always have to start with a formal brief or a set marketing budget, and she encourages them to make more use of the team's experience.
Working across different brands, product categories and marketing problems gives the agency chances to learn, test ideas and try new approaches, and that experience can help other clients facing their own decisions. For the founder, sharing it is part of being a proper business partner. She wants customers to feel comfortable picking up the phone, asking questions, challenging ideas and involving the team in their thinking, because not every useful conversation has to lead straight to a new project, and sometimes discussing a challenge is worthwhile in itself. That openness goes back to the agency's original model of working as an extension of its clients' teams rather than simply delivering tasks, and she believes the strongest relationships come when both sides share ideas, build trust and work towards common goals.
Her message to customers is this: “Thank you for putting your trust in us. Whether we've worked together for nine years or nine weeks, we genuinely value the opportunity to be part of your business.”
And her invitation is just as direct: “Pick up the phone, ask us questions, challenge us and involve us in your thinking. You don't always need a brief or a budget to have a conversation.”
Over eleven years, this Birmingham business has challenged conventional thinking about how marketing support should work. Starting as an alternative to the traditional agency model, it has gone on to support household names, develop challenger brands and help more than 35 young people begin their marketing careers. With plans to grow, a continued commitment to emerging talent and strong ties to its home city, The Mind Collective is excited about what lies ahead, and its purpose is the same as it was in 2015: giving ambitious businesses access to the people, knowledge and creativity they need to grow, and building partnerships that last.