North East creative agency celebrates milestone business anniversary

Northumberland-based brand design and web agency, Canny Creative, is celebrating a milestone anniversary this week as the business officially turns 10.

Having started out from the spare room of Founder and Director, Tony Hardy’s family home, Canny Creative has enjoyed fantastic success since its incorporation in November 2015, creating brands and digital solutions for over 250 clients across the globe.

With a strategic focus on providing digital marketing solutions for B2B clients within the tech, healthcare and recruitment sectors, the agency, which employs 8 full-time members of staff, has seen incremental growth year on year, and has ambitions to hit £1 million turnover in the next five years.

Tony Hardy, Founder and Director at Canny Creative, commented: 

“This is an incredible moment for Canny. 10 years feel like they’ve gone by so quickly, I’ve barely had a moment to look back on how far Canny has come and how much things have changed, but of course, they have. 

“A decade ago, Canny was just me, working out of my spare bedroom, designing brands and building websites in my slippers. Now, Canny is a team of 8, working out of an office space on Blyth’s riverside and we’ve got clients literally all over the world.” 

Leveraging the power of digital marketing to its full potential has been the key to much of Canny Creative’s overseas success. The business successfully attracted its first international client – a Japanese skincare brand, just weeks after its incorporation as a registered limited company.

This unprecedented success abroad was a key deciding factor in the businesses’ later exploration into partnership opportunities with the Department of International Trade which saw its Founders host business outreach events in both the USA and Canada.

“If I had to pinpoint some of Canny’s real pivotal moments over the past 10 years, our international work would definitely be among them,” Tony continued.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with so many amazing clients on some seriously cool projects, and we’ve built up a great team along the way. It’s been an insane ride and I’m really looking forward to seeing what the next decade has in store for the business.” 

Looking to the immediate future, Canny is working on an ambitious rebrand project, due to launch in the first quarter of 2026, and is also busy developing its first software IP.

“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that I can’t say too much about just now,” Tony added. 

“All I will say is, the future’s bright, the future’s purple…”

For more information about Canny Creative, visit canny-creative.com.