Awaken to Showcase Newcastle's Hidden Treasures

Chris Parker, founder and CEO of Awaken

Awaken was recently appointed as the lead media strategy, planning and buying agency for Visit Newcastle, winning the business following a tender by the City of Newcastle. The first campaign for Visit Newcastle is set to launch this month.

Visit Newcastle said Awaken won the account with its combination of strong strategic thinking and media skills.

The Visit Newcastle appointment comes on the back of an outstanding financial year for Awaken, with the agency doubling its revenue.

Awaken has appointed financial mentor and business consultant Kathryn Williams, from KMint as its external chief financial officer and, following an audit of the agency, she noted growth of 1,825% over the past five years.

“Awaken has successfully harnessed global resources, optimising time zones, aligning with industry partners and authorities to deliver measurable results for clients. Focusing its expansion on providing integrated creative and digital media services, revenue has doubled year-on-year realising 1,825% growth over the past five years,” Williams said.

Awaken has added several new clients in recent months including whiskey brand Proper 12, tool provider Husqvarna, and McCarroll’s Automotive Group, while also driving growth for its existing clients, including the Proximo group’s Jose Cuervo and Kraken Rum, Panasonic, and Energizer.

Awaken founder and CEO, Chris Parker, said: “ We’re excited to partner with Visit Newcastle with its first campaign to launch this month. It’s humbling to see how our agency has grown in such a short period. Our client base is really a product of our significant investment in our creative division – we’ve built a reputation as an agency that wins awards for its creative campaigns and our ability to successfully blend strategic, media and creative thinking.

“Awaken is now seen as not just a service provider, but a partner. Our clients are looking for an agency that can plan and deliver a cohesive creative and media strategy. Additionally, media has evolved, with a real focus now on ‘attention’ as a true human metric. As a full-service agency, Awaken has the creative, production, and media buying skills that allows us to plan and measure attention cohesively.” 

Awaken was also named on the AFR’s Fast Starters and Fast 100 lists in 2021.