Our origin story
Established in 2003, Livewire was born from a passion for helping businesses succeed. Our strategic marketing approach has seen businesses across many sectors attract and retain customers. As the years have passed, we've grown and adapted to the evolving terrain of technology and consumer behaviour.
The rise of The Livewire Agency
Or as we were known, Livewire Intelligent Media Ltd. Our agency started as a humble printing management company focused on commercial print.
The birth of gift cards to the UK market
Our director, Graham Lycett, developed and licenced the M6+ format gift card and launched the UK’s first gift card mall in 600 Sainsbury’s. The M6+ format went on to win The Card Awards Best Card Design of the Year award in 2009.
From Southampton to the Middle East
Our Saudi Arabia retail project included on-site marketing for 12 malls, 15 food and 75 fashion brands. We successfully introduced the Low Price Everyday initiative into the Géant Hypermarket in the Middle East. The agency also developed a unique telecoms format card.
Continuing our Middle East journey, we were invited by a business consultancy to work with them to rebrand and relaunch the RSS in Amman. We had the pleasure and honour of working with HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan in her role as president of Royal Scientific Society. A thorough review of the brand and positioning was conducted, developed and launched to position the RSS as the MIT on the Middle East.
Joining the Jellyfish Family
Jellyfish Group acquired Livewire Intelligent Media Ltd after its involvement in a new card-related solution and this paved the way for Jellyfish to become involved in the gift card industry. Our digital agency (Jellyfish Livewire) was created here. The digital agency catered to Jellyfish Group clients who didn’t fit into their agency set, and this underpins our agency we are today.
Jellyfish was instrumental in developing what is now the brand synonymous with the paradigm shift in the gift card industry, moving from toxic plastic to environmentally friendly alternatives for card production, Green Gift Cards.
Expanding into bespoke software - Hub app for Intu
Intu’s hub app was one of the first bespoke solutions we created, and it set the foundations for our software and applications offering. Intu Shopping Centre (a group of nine shopping centres) came to us looking for a tailor-made interactive way-finding map for all its shopping centres. The interactive map program was placed on giant touch-sensitive screens and allowed customers to find the stores and services in the centre and navigate to them. In the past 12 months, each map generated an average of 76,046.5 views.
Building a site that expands with the company and business's global goals - EV Hire
The website that changed our agency’s philosophy. Previously, the agency had been building brochure-like websites. They were still tailored to the customer's brand but weren't built with the future in mind. We went from building brochure websites to seeking clients who wanted tailored solutions that supported their goals and ambitions.
So when EV Hire came to us with a 5-year plan to grow their business from a national eco-car hire company to an international powerhouse, we knew we had to build this website to be future-proof. Initially, we built them a car hire website bespoke to their need to differentiate themselves from their competition through a modern, high-end design feel. The site started out as a simple, easy to use electric and executive car hire site with a heavy focus on design, look and feel and an exclusive feeling user experience. It was built with international expansion in mind, as well as multiple 3rd party integration capabilities.
In 2023, we launched 3.0, an expanded version of their website, to allow them to offer their services to a worldwide audience. Ultimately, our goal was to grow EV Hire’s business by building on what is already considered one of the best online platforms offering niche vehicles. The aim is to continue to improve the volume of relevant, quality traffic being driven to the EV Hire website and to serve high-quality leads.
Capturing the work of heroes in Iraq - Optima Group
In 2017 & 2018, Our MD went with a small team made up of cameraman Giles Cornah and renowned filmmaker Sam Howson and client Optima to Iraq to create a documentary of their work locating and neutralising explosive threats placed by ISIS in Mosul and the surrounding areas immediately after ISIS were defeated. Optima used the footage to convey to the UN, the humanitarian aid donor community and the wider security community Optima’s Counter IED work and the reality of the situation the Iraqi people faced with the explosive threat left after the ISIS occupation. The work carried out by the operators saved countless lives and allowed Iraqis to start to rebuild their country. The agency’s work with Optima in Iraq changed the way the agency participated in supporting communities and set a new standard for how we help our own. It was a unique experience as civilians to enter a modern war zone that, even through captivating storytelling through film, it was difficult to convey the true horror of war and the incredible courage of the people whose lives were impacted.
Becoming an independent agency
With much love and respect, in 2019, we became independent from the Jellyfish Group and became our own agency again. Jellyfish went on to become the largest independently owned agency in the world… the rest, as they say, is history. Slowly, we changed our identity to the Livewire Marketing you see today. The Jellyfish DNA from the early days still runs through us and helps set us apart from other agencies out there.
Since 2018, our agency has sponsored our local football team, AFC Totton. In 2020, as part of our sponsorship, we created a new website and improved their marketing and overall branding and appearance - Challenge accepted! Between 2020 and 2023, we’ve:
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Recreated and defined their branding and position as the most professional club at their level and indeed those leagues above
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Built them a bespoke website that includes automatic integration for the league (fixtures, league table and score),
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Created and integrated an online merchandise shop
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Doubled their YouTube views
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Increased the newsletter opens to 50% and increased their social media following by 46.9% (1.2K) and content interaction by 12.6K
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Recently, AFC Totton secured an international sponsor, Garmin, which they attribute, in part, to our work on improving their brand and digital presence.
Protecting people and assets through digital capability - Triton
Independent threat intelligence company Triton Intel approached us to develop a technical solution to overlay a new modern capability over their 15-year legacy database of explosive and terrorist threats. Our brief was to create a bespoke application to capture events as they unfolded globally before the media outlets reported them. This was for the benefit of their clients, who could use the real-time data to protect their people and assets in areas of high risk or conflict, such as Iraq.
The expanded application enabled the creation of immediate alerts in real-time as categorised threats occurred. This data was recorded into a comprehensive threat intelligence database. This data was used to build detailed reports that could be used to help organisations active in the regions understand the level of threat to their people, assets and organisations. By harnessing Brandwatch's real-time social media listening, historical data, and expert analysis, Triton was able to obtain vital and meaningful security-focused data. The application was a unique use of the Brandwatch capability and led to concise, actionable reports and insights.
Unique Gift Card Proposition needed an equally unique website and software solution - Little Starts
When tasked with creating a unique digital solution for Little Starts Gift Cards, the UK’s leading multi-brand gift card provider for children's activities, we faced a series of complex challenges.
Little Starts offers an innovative gifting experience, allowing customers to purchase a gift card that provides access to over 20,000 activity classes nationwide for children aged 0-5 and their grownups and caregivers. This ambitious project required a bespoke website and software platform designed to meet the specific needs of the business, consumers and activity providers.
One of the primary challenges was the complexity of the system itself. The platform needed to integrate multiple interconnected components, including a comprehensive services directory, a secure gift card management system with both physical and digital fulfilment capability, a dedicated portal for activity providers and a full eCommerce solution for consumers. Ensuring that these various elements worked seamlessly together while delivering a cohesive user experience was a significant undertaking.
The platform required seamless connections with major retailers, processors, aggregators and distributors to facilitate the sale and redemption of gift cards. Navigating the technical and logistical complexities of these integrations was a critical aspect of the development process.
Automated gift card fulfilment workflow - Green Gift Cards
Tapping into our expertise in the gift card sector, which spans card design, production, packaging, point of sale and even software, our next logical area of growth in this sector was to create an automated fulfilment workflow. Sister company and multiple award winners, Green Gift Cards is known as the pioneer and disruptor in the card production industry, championing sustainability and playing an instrumental part in the transition away from plastic to paperboard cards.
Green Gift Cards has managed the production of tens of millions of cards since 2006, and fulfilment is a growing area of the business, so when approached by one of the world’s best-known and most demanding luxury brands to manage card production and B2C and B2B fulfilment, Green Gift Cards turned to the agency to build an automated process focussed on speed and efficiency.
The criteria include complex data handling, intuitive execution, reduced number of interactions for personnel throughout the fulfilment process, and efficiency through a frictionless process, all while safeguarding secure data.
This solution has been adapted for Green Gift Cards and has helped to secure fulfilment contracts for a leading sports ticket tech company, Fanbase, with thousands of football season tickets being printed and fulfilled in a similar way. Our bespoke approach to solving problems for clients helps to set us apart. We are more than just an agency that designs and builds websites.
A quantum leap for self-serve, automated gift card and packaging production - JARVIS W2P
With the recent emergence of the unique short-run, fast-turnaround, and more sustainable digital print solution from Green Gift Cards and leading commercial print manufacturer Ricoh, Livewire has developed a unique and powerful platform that leverages this new print capability. Introducing J.A.R.V.I.S W2P, which amusingly stands for Just Another Really Versatile Internet System created for Web 2 Print. (a nod to Marvel)
To exploit this new print capability for short-run card and packaging production, Green Gift Cards wanted a solution that would enable scale production for multiple clients without the need for increased staffing.
Designed specifically for organisations that manage cards for multiple brands, J.A.R.V.I.S W2P enables Green Gift Cards clients to set up their own accounts, user profiles, admin rights, and customers. The platform empowers clients to create and manage their gift card print jobs seamlessly with end-to-end production overview from quote to delivery and every step in between.
With 24/7/365 capability, J.A.R.V.I.S W2P never sleeps.
The next generation of gift card management designed for shopping centres. - Shopping Centre Gift Card
Livewire is part of a successful group of companies specialising in FinTech for gift card programmes.
Giftstarr from Crunch Payments has vast experience in the gift card market and has developed products and services specifically for shopping centres. Gift cards in shopping centres help to boost footfall, and increase spending and loyalty. With 34% of gift card holders visiting new stores and 74% spending more than their gift card value, Giftstarr gift card programmes are the perfect way for shopping centre owners to drive growth.
To enable Giftstarr to quickly and efficiently ‘switch on’ new shopping centres, they required an entire gift card programme management platform. This solution enables rapid set-up and deployment of a new gift card-specific microsite that seamlessly integrates into the Shopping Centre’s core website, providing a joined up customer UX. The platform supports every aspect of the programme, from purchasing gift cards and packaging, balance checks, new centre setups, and the fulfilment of digital and physical gift cards for multiple shopping centres.
