Oystercatchers News

What makes a winning awards entry?

To help you submit your best entry into the Oystercatchers Awards, we asked our 2025 judging panel what makes for an outstanding entry.

The Future Isn’t In-House or Agency. It’s Intentionally Hybrid.

A few months ago, Oystercatchers and InnerGroup started discussing a question that many marketing leaders are wrestling with: what does the optimum hybrid marketing model actually look like? Most organisations today operate somewhere between fully in-house and fully outsourced. They have internal creative teams, agency partners, specialist consultancies, production partners and an increasing number of […]

The Human Edge: Cultivating Judgment in the Age of Agents

At the latest Oystercatchers Club event, the conversation explored not just how organisations embed AI into teams and culture, but something arguably more important: the role of the individual operating the technology.  To unpack this, we were joined by an expert panel featuring Matthew Kershaw, Rahim Hirji and Alexandra Foster. The Real Differentiator: What Humans Bring to AI  The […]

Oystercatchers X-Series

Turning Conversations into Opportunity

Last night’s Oystercatchers X-Series brought together a group of early-career agency talent to focus on a skill that underpins long-term success in our industry, but is rarely taught properly: networking. Led by Benj Chilcott, the session explored a practical and grounded approach to using networking as a key facet of a career in agencyland. In […]

Oystercatchers Club Evening Panel

Relevance Reset: Five Lessons from the Oystercatchers Club

The corporate graveyard is full of brands that once looked invincible. BlackBerry. Blockbuster. British Home Stores. For years they dominated their markets until suddenly they didn’t. At the latest Oystercatchers Club evening we gathered a group of senior marketers to explore a simple but uncomfortable question: how do brands stay relevant when the pace of […]

Oystercatchers Awards Presentation Evening

It’s finally time to announce the winners of the Oystercatchers Awards 2025. This year we received a record-breaking number of entries. Our judges have spent weeks reviewing the work, both online and in person, challenging each other, debating the detail, and celebrating the quality on show. Reaching agreement was no small task, but we are […]

Our Three Lessons from 2025

2025 started off relatively sedately. But there were already some indications of the seismic shifts that lay ahead. Speculation on one of the biggest mergers in this industry’s history had started, Donald Trump’s imminent return to office was upon us and NASA confirmed that 2024 had been the warmest year in history. But what has […]

Is your Marketing Operating System Helping or Holding you Back? 

Most marketing leaders recognise when a plan should be working.   A clear objective, smart channel choices, sufficient budgets. Yet often work still moves too slowly, teams feel stretched and spend doesn’t convert into momentum and business impact.   In our experience, the gap isn’t always the plan. It’s the operating system that turns intent into […]

Barclays Appoints Omnicom to Lead Customer Marketing and B2B Strategies

Barclays has appointed Omnicom Group to handle customer marketing, B2B operations, and production for its Barclays UK and Barclaycard brands. The process, which began in April last year, was managed by Oystercatchers. The new partnership will be led by Rapp and OMD UK, marking a strategic step in Barclays’ marketing and communications efforts.

The Very Group appoints Zenith as media agency of record

The Very Group, the parent company of digital retailer Very, has selected Zenith as its media agency of record. Zenith will handle all media planning and buying for The Very Group, offering strategic direction on digital execution and retail media. They will also help accelerate the “Let’s make it sparkle” brand platform and supporting the […]