What is Onward and what is your mission?

Onward is an independent consultancy focused on Brand, Sustainability, Impact, and Storytelling. Our mission is to help businesses and brands build the better future we all want to belong in, creating good growth that benefits business, consumers and the world at large. In short, we help organisations drive better business results by doing good – aligning brand strategy and creative ideas with sustainability and social impact to create a better future.

Are you a consultancy or an advertising agency?

We like to think that we combine the substance of a consultancy with the sparkle of a creative agency.

Our founders started their careers in advertising, but have all focused on purpose, sustainability and social impact for the last decade. That means we bring together the depth of a purpose, impact & sustainability consultancy with the brand-building creativity of an ad agency. Our output therefore ranges from building brand strategy, to crafting sustainability strategies and developing impact programs, resulting in whatever the best output for your brand's objectives is - be that consumer-facing marketing, internal up-skilling programs or industry-focused comms.

What sets Onward apart from other agencies and consultancies?

We are a collective of senior experts with decades of experience in branding, purpose, sustainability and social impact. Unlike traditional agencies, we don’t work as a one-size-fits-all team. Instead, we assemble flexible, bespoke teams from a trusted collective of strategists, creatives, designers, and subject specialists to fit each project’s needs. This means our clients work directly with experienced leaders, making our approach fast, lean, and jargon-free. It also means that you get more value for what you pay - because we're not asking you to bankroll our payroll.

Our focus on credibility - avoiding greenwashing, purposewashing etc. - also sets us apart, especially from advertising agencies who rarely have true expertise in-house. For example Anna, our Co-founder and Sustainability Lead, wrote her Masters thesis on methodologies to prevent greenwashing in marketing at HEC Paris, giving us a true baseline of credibility. Or Callum, our Co-founder and Impact Lead, has been a journalist writing on social impact issues for years.

Do we need a sustainability or social impact focus to work with Onward?

Not necessarily – we work with brands that want to grow in a forward-thinking, responsible way. You don’t need established sustainability programmes or social initiatives - we can help you start from scratch in those areas if needs be.

For example, if you’re a new company or brand, we can create a purpose-driven brand strategy from the ground up, to then use as the basis of everything you do moving forwards. If you’re an established business with few prior sustainability efforts, we can develop programs and guidance to begin making a positive impact.

Conversely, if you do have existing sustainability or CSR projects, we can take them to the next level – refining your strategy and making it more famous to build your brand and make more positive change.

As long as you have the ambition to build a better future for your brand, community and the world, we can help.

How do we start working with Onward?

We’d love to chat about your ambitions, challenges, and how we might be able to help, so just drop us an email at the address below, or feel free to get in touch with any of our founders on LinkedIn.