A groundbreaking Dublin digital marketing agency is achieving global recognition, having won Best Integrated Agency Globally at the Global Search Marketing Awards. Known for its disruptive approach to digital marketing, it is also pioneering new forms of governance, having shifted to an employee ownership model last year.
Alan Coleman is the founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency. He is ecstatic that Wolfgang Digital won their most recent award back in October, but is also keen to impress that the win is the result of some very hard work and not a small amount of ambition.
“Four years ago I told the team our new ambition is to be world leading in all we do. We love a KPI [key performance indicator] in Wolfgang so we decided winning best agency globally trophies was how we were going to measure our performance,” Coleman explains.
Highly motivated and energetic, the team set about doing just that. In fact, the recent win was the sixth best global agency award they have placed on the office shelves, placing them top of the table for best agency wins at the Global Search Awards. “The team delivered much faster than I thought they would,” he admits. “We are really proud to be a homegrown Irish business doing world leading digital marketing out of Dublin.”
READ MORE
Coleman believes that awards, whether national or international, offer a form of external validation and also serve to imbue their clients with an enhanced sense of confidence in their marketing agency of choice. “Our promise to our clients is world leading digital marketing. So if we are winning awards, it gives our clients a lot more trust that they’re with the right people for the long term.” These clients are some of the most recognisable names in Ireland, including Brown Thomas, Zurich, Xero and Intersport Elverys.
And Wolfgang Digital tends to do things slightly differently. According to Coleman, the common denominator for their broad spectrum of clients is the focus on a tangible commercial result. “We don’t really speak the language of impressions or engagement. We speak the language of revenue and profit,” he notes. “Many of our clients have told us that what they really like about us is that we don’t really indulge in marketing jargon. Instead, we speak about how much they spent versus how much they made.”
The agency is also forward-thinking when it comes to how it is owned and governed. It made headlines - and history - last year when it became the first Irish company to transition to an employee ownership trust a move many saw as brave. Coleman explains that he has been approached on multiple occasions by potential acquirers from countries such the Netherlands, Japan and the US. While the big sale to the big company is the dream for many entrepreneurs, he admits the conversations around selling out made him feel somewhat queasy.
“It was clear to me the corporate acquisition is not a good deal for the clients nor for the employees,” he admits. “I’ve observed many rival agencies sell out. They rarely become a stronger competitor after the sale. Truth be told, they often wither away.”
Yet, as he freely admits, every entrepreneur needs an exit plan. Coleman’s solution? An employee ownership trust. In this model, a board of directors still runs the company, But employees take a stake and have a say in how the business is run and benefit from a profit share.
“In the UK, the government legislated for what they call the John Lewis model, which is an employee ownership trust. When I looked into it, I fell in love with the idea. I knew this would be a great fit for Wolfgang and a better deal for everybody connected to the business.”
While he was “strongly advised” not to proceed with such a model, Coleman could not be dissuaded. “The professional advice was don’t do this, you will pay a lot more tax than in any other scenario. However, I’m a big believer in skin in the game and I believe there is pent up potential sitting in every workforce in the world. I believe that employee ownership unlocks that pent up potential. And Wolfgang will quickly outgrow our tax bill as a result.”
The numbers already show this to be the case. Research from the UK suggests there’s an eight to 12 per cent productivity uplift for employee-owned companies. Wolfgang Digital has seen a 20 per cent increase in client success metrics as a consequence of employee ownership feedback. “The employees now own 25 per cent of the business,” Coleman points out. Employees also receive a profit share every three months. “In the first 12 months, it was worth an extra month’s pay,” he explains. “So they worked 12 months and basically got paid 13.”
Digital marketing is evolving at lightning speed, and Coleman says Wolfgang Digital are endeavouring to be at the forefront of any developments. In its best integrated agency win, the judges were impressed with the company’s “innovative use of custom GPTs. Coleman predicts the next significant industry innovation will be the addition of advertising to Chat GPT.
“This presents a brilliant opportunity for advertisers,” he says. “Google has never had real competition in search” Yet research commissioned by Wolfgang Digital suggests that up to 30 per cent of Irish consumers research purchases on Chat GPT. “In 2026 our clients most innovative and most profitable marketing will take place on Chat GPT,” he predicts.
