Andrew Walmsley
Andrew Walmsley can remember the exact moment he realised his career belonged in digital, which is impressive given that it was 1994 and he was in the pub at the time. “I was in an Irish bar in mid-town Manhattan with a group of philosophers (really) from all around the world, all of whom talked about how they connected around their shared passion: cricket. And the enabler for this? An early user-generated site called Cricinfo, where people would go to matches with a modem and type live commentary. In one moment, I realised the power of [the web] in its ability to bring humans together, transcending the limitations of geography and time. I knew then I had to get involved.”
The wannabe adman who had previously bought TV airtime and sold Rolls-Royce helicopter engines for a living had now found his true calling. His subsequent MBA studies on agencies in the digital age only strengthened his belief that the internet was the place to be, and it was during this time that he dreamt up the idea for launching the digital agency that would become i-level.
After a spell as head of digital at ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Walmsley decided it was time to share his idea with the world and in 1999 brought i-level to life alongside business partners Charlie Dobres and Craig Wilkie. Over the next decade it would go on to become one of the UK’s best-known and most celebrated digital agencies, winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation and becoming the first digital agency to pick up an IPA Effectiveness Award.
After 10 years, i-level had grown to a £100m turnover business with 150 staff and a client list that included Orange, the Football Association and News International. But its time was coming to an end. Not long after losing the government’s multi-million pound digital account, i-level was placed into voluntary liquidation in May 2010. Since i-level’s closure, Walmsley has remained in demand and has occupied himself with non-executive posts at Cognitive Match, The Eden Project and most recently mobile marketing agency Fetch. He is often a spokesman on industry matters and in a 2010 magazine profile he was described by colleagues as a “visionary”.
Will he ever run a digital agency again? Probably not, given that he has doubts that digital agencies as we know them today will be around for much longer. He tells The Drum: “The digital age calls us to create organisations that fuse capabilities around data/analytics/creativity/process/technology/insight/execution. Individually, these are relatively easy. Making an organisation that can cause them to sing together is both the challenge and the opportunity; and the baggage that legacy gives us is the biggest enemy of progress.” It was never the technology that fascinated him about digital, but the technology’s ability to bring people – cricket fans in the pub – together. “I’m generally not inspired by technology, but by the possibilities it offers to change the world.”
After a spell as head of digital at ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Walmsley decided it was time to share his idea with the world and in 1999 brought i-level to life alongside business partners Charlie Dobres and Craig Wilkie. Over the next decade it would go on to become one of the UK’s best-known and most celebrated digital agencies, winning a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation and becoming the first digital agency to pick up an IPA Effectiveness Award.
After 10 years, i-level had grown to a £100m turnover business with 150 staff and a client list that included Orange, the Football Association and News International. But its time was coming to an end. Not long after losing the government’s multi-million pound digital account, i-level was placed into voluntary liquidation in May 2010. Since i-level’s closure, Walmsley has remained in demand and has occupied himself with non-executive posts at Cognitive Match, The Eden Project and most recently mobile marketing agency Fetch. He is often a spokesman on industry matters and in a 2010 magazine profile he was described by colleagues as a “visionary”.
Will he ever run a digital agency again? Probably not, given that he has doubts that digital agencies as we know them today will be around for much longer. He tells The Drum: “The digital age calls us to create organisations that fuse capabilities around data/analytics/creativity/process/technology/insight/execution. Individually, these are relatively easy. Making an organisation that can cause them to sing together is both the challenge and the opportunity; and the baggage that legacy gives us is the biggest enemy of progress.” It was never the technology that fascinated him about digital, but the technology’s ability to bring people – cricket fans in the pub – together. “I’m generally not inspired by technology, but by the possibilities it offers to change the world.”