St Luke’s 2025: The Independent that Keeps Punching Above its Weight

St Luke’s spent 2025 quietly proving why independence still carries weight. Without noise or theatrics, the agency delivered a series of warm, witty and deeply public-facing ideas that reminded the market how effective emotionally intelligent advertising can be when it’s built for real people rather than for show. It was a year that felt unmistakably “St Luke’s” - British at heart, human in tone and deceptively clever under the surface.

Inside the business, the agency simply kept its footing: steady client relationships, selective wins and a creative culture that remains confident in its lane. 2025 wasn’t about reinvention or scale; it was about consistency - the sort that comes from knowing exactly who you are and what your ideas contribute to the world. St Luke’s ends the year not louder, but surer, and that assurance is what continues to set it apart.

We asked Neil Henderson to tell us about the agency's year.

Neil Henderson, St Luke's CEO, on its 2025

What three words would you use to describe 2025?

Hit after hit

Talk us through some of your agency’s highlights this year?

On innovation, 2025 saw the coming of age of our entertainment arm Apostle. We have two exciting branded content projects on the go and more to come next year. It’s great to be having a different kind of conversation with brands.

Creatively, this was a year when our work really stood out from the crowd. Life is tough for a lot of people out there at the moment, so in response brands have the chance to bring some joy into the world. It’s an opportunity we have been grasping whenever we can! The new work we launched for Heathrow, KP Nuts, Whole Earth and THIS™ were all great examples.

For Heathrow we brought back their much-loved bears, Doris and Edward - last seen in 2016 - in a new TV campaign directed by Si&Ad at Academy. Hitting the emotional high notes and capturing the zeitgeist the ad received the maximum 5.9 score from System 1, one of the best scores ever recorded for the category.

Following our appointment last year, we created a (plant based) rib-tickling TV and outdoor campaign for THIS™ to persuade die-hard sceptics that meat alternatives can be delicious, “THIS™ changes everything”. They are a fantastic client with a real hunger for shaking things up.

When we brought KP Nuts back to TV advertising after a three-year absence, we knew it had to be big. So we introduced a trio of rapping, nut-loving, woodland creatures - known collectively as the Woodland Clan - to launch our new brand idea for KP Nuts, ‘A Handful of Happiness’.

We grew our partnership with KP further in 2025 when we were awarded the Whole Earth brand. We created an eyecatching outdoor and social campaign later in the year, encouraging us all to ‘Breakfast Better’, and there’s more to come. We now have 5 brands within the KP portfolio, a testament to our enduring relationship.

We also expanded our partnership with South Western Railway and delivered two hard hitting campaigns, firstly, to tackle fare dodging, highlighting the consequences of travelling without paying and, secondly to stop aggression directed at staff by reminding people that bodycams provide evidence for prosecution.

And finally, looking after our people has remained our key focus, we proudly retained our ‘All in’ Champions status and became a Campaign ‘Best Places to Work’ winner for the 7th year in a row and were awarded IPA CPD Platinum for the focus we place on training and nurturing our talent.

What one thing are you proudest of this year?

30 years of independence. In a year when networks have been dispensing with their agency brands we believe in the enduring power of ours. We don’t make a big thing of our age, we always focus on what’s next. But three decades of making great work and being a beacon for agency culture gave us a brief moment of pride.

And what’s been your biggest challenge?

We are always looking for new ways to set the agenda for our clients and ourselves. Our move into the branded entertainment space is allowing us to tell brand stories in a new way. We are still in development but we are already learning so much about a different kind of story-telling, a new commercial model and the opportunities for helping brands engage their audience in a way that advertising or social can’t.

What are you most looking forward to in 2026?

We have a fantastic team of rising stars in the agency who are absolutely smashing it, and I’m looking forward to seeing them increasingly step into leadership roles over the next year.

And what one change would you most like to see in our industry next year?

An end to short termism. Clients have been having to react so relentlessly to fluctuations in the economy, geo-political volatility, and fiscal policy shifts, it’s been hard to prioritise longer term strategic thinking. With the uncertainty of the budget out of the way, let’s hope we see some green shoots of longer-term thinking becoming healthy saplings.

Creative Salon on St Luke's 2025

For a fiercely independent agency, 2025 was the year St Luke’s reminded the market why independence still matters. The London shop spent the year creating quietly brilliant, public-facing work that combined warmth, wit and commercial clarity - the kind of advertising that earns attention without shouting for it.

The headline moment came in autumn with Heathrow Airport’s 'Must Be Love', which resurrected the airport’s much-loved teddy-bear couple, Doris and Edward Bair. The 60-second film and surrounding campaign - its debut for the airport - captured the emotional pulse of travel with understated charm, showcasing Heathrow’s modernised experience.

The work was as British and heartwarming as any Christmas campaign gets - nostalgic, sweet and technically polished - and a reminder that St Luke’s remains one of the best in the business at making sentiment feel smart.

Earlier in the year, the agency turned its behavioural-change muscles to more grounded territory with South Western Railway’s 'Dodge the Fare, Pay the Price'. The OOH-led campaign replaced station-board destinations with words like 'Regret' and 'Shame', transforming an everyday compliance message for prospective fare-dodgers into something more psychologically resonant.

It was clever, empathetic and visually arresting - proof that St Luke’s can make public-service advertising every bit as interesting as any other category.

And then there was Star Pubs’ 'Takeover' - a spirited content series for Heineken UK that invited famous faces like Nicola Adams and Farmer Will Young to run a pub for a day.

Equal parts recruitment, entertainment and brand storytelling, the films explored the idea that “everyone has a pub inside them,” blending social reach with commercial purpose. It’s the kind of light-footed, populist work that demonstrates how St Luke’s earns its reputation for ideas that travel.

Meanwhile, in the first ad campaign for KP Nuts for three years, St Luke's introduced a maverick gang of three rapping woodland creatures to lift the nation’s mood. The spot also introduced KP Nuts' premium Signature range.

Taken together, these campaigns reveal an agency that consistently produces: emotionally intelligent, audience-first, and deceptively mainstream. There’s no creative grandstanding here - just solid, well-crafted ideas that work in the real world. That’s what makes St Luke’s such a consistent presence on the UK landscape.

2025 wasn’t a year defined by new-business fireworks (although winning Whole Earth Foods was a boost), but by consistency - St Luke’s held onto its enviable client roster and reinforced its reputation as a rare indie that feels both emotionally intelligent and commercially grown-up.

Creative Salon says: St Luke’s continues to prove that independence and intelligence make a potent mix. 2025 saw the agency lean into its strengths: emotional craft, cultural intuition and ideas built for real people. What links its output is tone - empathy and humanity, delivered without ego. While St Luke’s remains smaller than its network rivals, its work feels bigger than its size, consistently earning attention through insight rather than scale. St Luke’s ends 2025 as the shop that still makes advertising feel warm, witty and unmistakably British.