Bark
London
Website: Bark
Founders: Daniel Watts & Tom Lambert
Year founded: 2019
UK headcount: <50
Offices: London
It’s never-ending in the agency business in terms of how you can continue to improve and iterate.
Profile
Back in 2019, Bark co-founders Daniel Watts and Tom Lambert set out on a mission to become experts in ecommerce. They believed there was a lack of agencies with an in-house perspective and real band-side expertise at the time, and they wanted to create something that would provide services they would want to use themselves.
Over the past six years, that mission has seen Bark become a one-stop-shop for D2C brands. While once the demand was for paid media, the agency has evolved to build out its creative and data capabilities to win clients over with an attractive integrated offering.
The timing of the launch worked in Bark’s favour, which managed to scale the business, headcount and revenue rapidly as demand for ecommerce surged around the world and D2C brands began to take off during Covid.
As Bark’s team grew in size and calibre, so did its client roster, creating a perfect wheel for growth. In the early days, Daniel and Tom made a real point of hiring senior-first so they could “double down” on solid foundations, which has grown to a team of 27 today. While Bark is mostly UK-based, it serves over 20 global ecommerce clients including Hello Fresh, DASH Water and Chilly’s.
With a 90% client retention rate, Bark's integration of paid media, creative and data has clearly given it a competitive edge. A core part of its offering includes Bark.Insights, a first-in-kind marketing attribution software for modern D2C brands.
Externally, Bark has been recognised by Meta as an official Campaign Management Partner and Measurement Partner, making it one of only six companies globally that are partners for both media buying and data.
As it looks to expand and ride the next wave of growth, there is a big focus on technology and better equipping its team to improve their workflows. Bark is currently looking at acquiring a business of strategic interest and actively hiring for a number of roles – including marketing, data science and engineering.