House of Oddities

House of Oddities launched two years ago with £200 in the bank, four cats and a strong sense that the creative industry was talking a lot about diversity while doing very little about it. Four groups remain wildly underrepresented: women, people of colour, people from working-class backgrounds and people living with disabilities. Our CEO comes from all four. Our CCO from abject poverty. SO we set out to change it – not to look good. But because we believe difference makes better work.

In a year where big agencies have got bigger, slower and safer, we’ve grown by doing the opposite. We won 87% of the pitches we entered. We turned fresh dog food into a £1m cultural moment. Helped Childline drive a 97% increase in calls from at-risk boys. Took Tony’s Chocolonely from DOOH to global TV. Brought This Girl Can back to TV with real women and real cultural impact. Our revenues grew. Our profits grew. We got a real office (we kept the cats). We stayed independent. We stayed weird. We stayed human. We won this award last year. But so much has changed, it seems silly not to go for it all over again.