Purple Goat
London
Website: Purple Goat
Founder: Martyn Sibley
Year founded: 2020
UK headcount: <50
Offices: London
We’ve not even scratched the surface. Brands are getting it but cultural and behavioural change takes a little while.
Profile
Purple Goat has been making waves in the advertising industry for its disability inclusive marketing, working with major brands such as Unilever, American Express, Google and ITV since it launched five years ago.
At the helm of what is believed to be the world’s first and only disability-led agency is Martyn Sibley, whose lived experience of disability has driven the mission to help brands better serve and represent the disability community, and tap into the Purple Pound.
With a degree in economics, Martyn initially thought a career in finance might be on the cards, but his decision to do his Masters degree in marketing opened up the doors to various entrepreneurial ventures. This includes launching accessible travel startup Accomable, which was bought by Airbnb in 2017, and an online disability lifestyle magazine.
It was a chance meeting with influencer marketing agency, The Goat Agency – since acquired by WPP – which gave Martyn the opportunity to launch a disability inclusive counterpart, Purple Goat.
Five years on and the London-based agency currently has 20 staff dotted around the UK, operating globally. 50% of Purple Goat’s staff are disabled, but Martyn has made a conscious decision to hire non-disabled employees too, as he believes there is real value in having diverse teams.
While Purple Goat started out as an influencer marketing agency, it has evolved into more of an insights consultancy today. Alongside doing socially impactful media and creative, Purple Goat carries out bespoke research to help brands better understand their disabled audiences and, crucially, to demonstrate the impact on KPIs and ROI.
Martyn doesn’t feel like Purple Goat has even scratched the surface yet. After a lifetime of campaigning, he knows all too well that behavioural and cultural change can take a little while.
With its sights set on expanding more in the US over the next year, Martyn has spoken at two major events in already in 2025, including SXSW. More broadly, Purple Goat will carry on building the business case for disability inclusion to ensure everyone understands the “true opportunity” and so it is seen as more than just a tick-box exercise for brands. This is, after all, a community with a collective spending power of $8tr globally.