The first Labour government in 14 years, a summer dominated by sport and Tayla Swift’s Eras tour, and the arrival of Moo Deng – 2024 was a year of milestones. Equally, some of our clients made history this year, in towns, cities and places across the UK.
Here, our team reflect on some of their favourite moments from 2024, working with clients across the built environment.
Ros Barclay, Co Founding Director
Macro economic and political instability aside, it’s actually been a cracking year. Many of my personal highlights have seen us partner with like-minded businesses to provide our clients with market and political insights, including a joint roundtable with Arup in January, and a pre-election presentation with Lodestone in June.
My client highlights include strategy sessions with multiple clients, including Placefirst, to help define their direction of travel for communications, working with the team at Kier and Mole Valley District Council on the regeneration of Leatherhead town centre and commencing stakeholder engagement on important public realm improvements in Tottenham.
I was also honoured to be a first-time judge of the British Homes Awards and found it fascinating to be poacher turned game-keeper! Day-to-day, we work with multiple clients whose purpose is to improve the lives of the communities in which they operate, which, in turn, provides me with a great sense of personal purpose; so that’s my highlight for this year, and every year.
Hannah Channing, Director
It has been a privilege to work with a swathe of new clients this year, whilst continuing to work with our long-standing partners across the built environment. Some of the new places and projects we have represented in 2024 include delivering new place propositions for the globally-significant Olympia transformation and for Leatherhead town centre in Surrey. Our work with the latter has also included delivering public consultation and stakeholder engagement to support a proposed major town centre transformation project.
This autumn, we also began working with the BOXPARK team on the brand positioning and PR for their new BOXHALL City concept. As an East Londoner, the Liverpool Street area is one I visit regularly, so I am both personally and professionally excited about its opening next spring.
Katie Balcombe, Senior Account Director
This year my highlight was having the opportunity to help shape the future of the Culture Mile. We worked with the Culture Mile Business Improvement District (BID) in London to develop a unique proposition and comprehensive communications strategy to support their vision to become a top cultural destination. We engaged with local residents, businesses and cultural organisations to identify the destination’s USPs, and ensure the vision we helped create aligned with the wider vision for the City.
Working in the heart of London’s cultural landscape was both fulfilling and inspiring. The process allowed me to combine creativity with strategic planning, crafting ideas to position the Culture Mile as a must-visit destination.
Alexander Peel, Account Director
My highlight of the year is a straightforward one – joining the team at Coverdale Barclay. In the seven months I’ve been a part of the agency, it’s been a deeply rewarding experience working with a wide range of clients across different sectors, and supporting them in their commercial ambitious through tailored strategic communications.
I have particularly enjoyed developing long-form, high-impact thought leadership for clients including Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation, Placefirst and Untold Living.
Tayla Benson, Senior Account Manager
In 2024, navigating a rapidly shifting political landscape to support our clients as they play their part in creating a more supportive environment for the industry has been a rewarding challenge.
Additionally, it’s been a year of notable growth and progress, with our clients delivering projects that actively alleviate housing pressures across the UK. Celebrating Stockport MDC’s fifth-year milestone and Placefirst’s East Midlands expansion emphasises their resilience and the success of their approaches considering the challenging macro conditions — true highlights of a transformative (and at times turbulent) year.
Neha Iyer, Senior Account Executive
My highlight this year is the media coverage we secured for our clients’ various ‘summer of sport’ events.
Borough Yards, Sugar House Island and Devonshire Square all hosted screenings of the sporting events during the summer, as well as food, drink and retail activations by occupiers.
We supported with press and media hosting, which resulted in great coverage in The Independent, Time Out, Evening Standard, Country and Town House, Glamour, The Handbook, MyLondon, Londonist and London on the Inside, among others.
It was great to see the buzz around these events which brought the wider community together during summer.
Sara Boytchev, Agency Coordinator
My 2024 highlights include welcoming our most recent colleagues Alex, Edward and of course our canine companion Alan to the Coverdale Barclay team. It’s been really great getting to know them and seeing the team expand, alongside the ever-growing roster of exciting, broad-spectrum clients.
We also welcomed the launch of the new Coverdale Barclay website, which was a pleasure to work on and I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to support on client projects – namely Trinity Village, Leatherhead and New Park Road.
