25 years | KHWS

KHWS celebrating 25 years

Here’s where our story began. There never was a ‘K’. Founded by Nick Hawkes, Andrew Watts and Mark Skelton, the extra initial came from the name of the company from whom they first rented the agency office space, 25 years ago.

1993

KHWS opens for business on May 1st with three clients: Granada Superbowl, Gillette, Smith & Nephew. Print reigned supreme and the internet was still greenfields.

1994

We win Iberia Airlines and Parceline. The agency begins working on Mobil lubricants, a relationship that continues to flourish.

1995

Produced ‘Tennis Extreme’ website. A first for Reebok.

1996

Created Mobil 1 Track Record, a ground-breaking loyalty scheme that added up to 8% of a vehicle’s resale value.

1997

Appointed by Hiscox Insurance as their marketing agency.

1998

Win Virgin Megastores retail marketing business.

1999

Won EMAP and Virgin Cola.

2000

Win ISP Gold award for Virgin Cola ‘Best integrated campaign’.

2001

Our promotion for FHM shifted 1.2 million copies. A UK first in the men’s lifestyle magazine category. Winning Sony Consumer Electronics and Bosch meant we outgrew office space, prompting a move to Marshall Street, W1.

2002

With just a £10K budget, our direct mail campaign for Parceline generates over £1 million in sales with a 54% response rate. The pack goes on to win gold at both the Campaign Direct Awards and ISP.

2005

Received first digital website management project from ExxonMobil.

2007

We end the year by leaving W1.

Appointed onto Samsung’s roster.

2008

Kick off the year in a new office in EC1 by winning World Duty Free (WDF).

ExxonMobil becomes increasingly digital. Parceline is acquired by La Poste and rebranded as DPD. We mark it up as a new client win!

2009

Appointed by Getty Images to work on their eCRM business.

2011

Our 18th birthday. We win the Tesco Alumni website. Our Samsung business scales up and ExxonMobil expands into global markets. We grow with them.

2012

We move to bigger offices in St. John’s Lane. The building is also the head office of the St. John’s Ambulance.

We launch the Mobil Performance App, a remote sales support portal now used by 2000+ ExxonMobil distributors across 53 geographies.

Launch first pan-European campaign for DPD, promoting their carbon-neutral initiative - Total Zero.

2015

Using behavioural science to drive purchase, KHWS repositions as The Brand Commerce Agency. We promptly win ASK Italian and Royal Canin.

2016

Secure funding from the UK Government to partner with Durham University’s Business School to develop understanding of behavioural-led purchase decisions. Dixons Carphone joins our client roster.

We launched Samsung Academy in 2016, a brand compliance portal offering product, marketing and training support to retailers across the UK which now has over 11,000 users.

2017

Featured 55th in the Econsultancy’s Top 100

2018

25 years young and still going strong.