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As another year draws to a close, it's the perfect time for me to pause, look back and truly appreciate the incredible journey we've been on this past year.
As we sign off on 2025, the progress we’ve made is remarkable, setting the stage for an even more impactful 2026. Taking moments such as these, to sit down in a quiet room (Gemini) on my own, and reflect over the past twelve months and the steps we’ve taken forward, is incredibly important to me.
We started 2025 in a position we’ve never been in before, facing the unknown.
The change in the UK government and the subsequent budget meant we were finding things tight, especially after making significant investments, not only into our premises but crucially into our team, tech stack and infrastructure. Our clients were also struggling to commit to new costs due to the wider economic uncertainty, which unfortunately made the start of 2025 quite tough.
That was underlined when the very first working day brought a phone call from a client choosing to take their marketing in-house. It was a bit of a blow, but we were ready to rise to the challenge.
It was a blow - but one we were prepared to respond to.
Embracing D.I.Y.
Throughout 2025, we’ve seen a noticeable trend of businesses bringing their marketing in-house, often (if not always!) driven by a desire to reduce costs and leverage AI tools.
While that’s understandable in the short term, the harder-to-see long-term implications are worrying. To help navigate this shift in 2026, we're committed to creating free, no-obligation resources to raise awareness of the true cost of these short-term gains and to clearly explain the medium to long-term implications.
These assets will help business owners of all sizes understand the broader implications of managing marketing in-house versus working with a professional agency such as ours.
We're optimistic about this, and that's proven by what has been our greatest achievement this year: collaborative partnerships.
The value is in the thinking.
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2025 was our first whole year of positioning ourselves as thinkers, not just do-ers. Linked to the D.I.Y section above, any output can be copied or emulated, but the thought of a campaign, a design, an idea?! That's special. So, how are we doing that? It's simple. Workshops. Discovery. Holding off on sending a proposal until we truly know what we're working on.
I've quickly asked Co-Pilot to look at our two meeting rooms for the past year, and it's come up with 42 workshops that we've hosted. WOW.
The fact that for all of these workshops, clients and prospects have taken time out of their schedules to travel to our office and sit down and discuss/create/dive deeper into ideas is amazing.
Anyone reading this, growing an agency, your strength is in your mind, your collective team's mind. Nothing will ever be able to replace that, so use it! Then what do you do with all those ideas? You "do the do".
The team.
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To start this section is somewhat bittersweet, as this year we said goodbye to Jeanne and Jamie as they pursue other careers outside of the agency space. I want to personally wish them both the very best in their futures and thank them both for their contributions to GEL Studios. You both are missed. There have also been other developments; we celebrated internal growth!
- Beth was promoted to Creative Strategist, and it has been amazing watching her grow and develop this relatively new offering for us - content strategy and creation.
- Elisha, now a Senior Creative. She is a true success story, having been with us since straight out of university, marking seven years now with GEL Studios!
Now, for the new team members joining us in 2025.
David, (Head of Sales and Client Success) joined us midway through the year. His expertise has been transformative for a company of our size, providing dedicated sales leadership. The significant growth in client activity that David is driving speaks for itself. Thank you for an impactful start!
Robbie, Marketing Executive, returned to the agency space to join our team. I'm personally delighted to finally be working with Robbie after wanting to collaborate for some time; the stars have finally aligned! Welcome aboard, Robbie - we look forward to many successful years together.
Dani, Senior Creative, has already proven invaluable, focusing on many of our high-profile campaigns. Her immediate focus will be on leveraging her significant creative experience to help transform Swindon's public image. It’s been wonderful seeing your impact in the past few months.
Mariah, Website Developer, is our latest addition, joining us to bolster our technical capabilities. Bringing Mariah's extensive WordPress expertise on board enables us to better serve a broader demographic of clients and keep pace with the evolving market. A warm welcome!
Our impact in 2025.
In 2025, we continued to build on our core pledge of working with even more organisations on even more meaningful things, ensuring we make the greatest possible impact for everybody.
We have positively impacted almost 85,000 people in the local community, supported over 17 local causes, and, through our sponsorship of the Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance, we have powered 12 life-saving missions. We even won TBE's Positive Business Award for our impact within the community. Our team committed almost 590 hours of resources to good causes, which, if you put a monetary value on, comes up to just over £66,000. That is something I am incredibly proud of.
Below is a quickly compiled list of some of the organisations/charities/people we've helped in 2025!
- Swindon Carers Centre
- Festival of Tomorrow
- Old Town Beer Festival
- Wiltshire Air Ambulance
- Next-Gen work experience: Romi, Francesca, Ryan, Lauren, Hannah, Eliska, Rosie
- Phoenix Martial Arts
- Exit Advisor
- Threshold
- Swindon Paint Festival
- Society Without Abuse
- Save Swindon Oasis
This commitment is only going to grow!
With Dani now joining the team, I've carved out a specific amount of resources per month for Elisha to focus on more grassroots initiatives, to make sure we're helping make an impact not only with established charities/organisations for good, but also with individuals.
We've also just announced the winners of our annual win a creative solution competition after 1,700 local people voted The Harbour Project, The Kelly Foundation and Teamability CIC as the organisations who will win £5,000 of pro-bono support in 2026. This simple, yet effective graphic demonstrates in just a few words why we do this every year.
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The strategy bit.
Looking ahead, 2026 is set to see us grow even more strategically.
This year, we formalised our five-year plan for the business, and along the way, we successfully put in place our employee share scheme, which is now in effect. This scheme makes 30% of the entire GEL Studios offering available for staff, both present and future, who join us on our journey.
It’s about sharing success and future growth with the people who make it all possible.
In closing.
It has been an incredible year.
Compared to where we finished off last year, we are now working on some amazing projects which are going to benefit lots of people in and around this place we call home, Swindon.
We are equally focused on talent and opportunity. At the time of writing this in early December, we’ve already got somebody new joining us right on the very first working day of 2026, which is fantastic. We’ll also be looking at recruiting other key roles, such as Head of Operations, Head of SEO, Account Manager, and a few others as well.
In summary, 2025 was a year of positive growth, not just financial certainty, but equally in terms of us as a business understanding where we are and what we do. We are very much looking forward to 2026, and I’d just like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all our clients for their continued custom.
Our vision statement, Inspiring Change Through Creativity, has never been stronger, and thank you to everybody who has believed in that along the way.
