John Doe

John Doe is an independent agency that attracts attention for the world’s most ambitious brands. Founded by Lee Beattie and Pam Scobbie from a kitchen table in the Gorbals, Glasgow, we now have offices in Glasgow, London and Manchester, delivering audience-obsessed, earned-first culture work fuelled by creativity and data. 2025 began with our strongest ever Q1, delivering a 24% profit margin. Then came a big agency game of whack-a-mole: our biggest client was lost through procurement, Pernod Ricard sold its wine portfolio, a mutually agreed management buyout reshaped our ownership, and a major pitch loss widened the gap. Very fun. Huge recommend. But - in the words of our Glaswegian owners - we kept the heid! We reset the agency around sharper leadership, a clearer proposition and our founding value: relentless creativity. Despite almost £1.5m in income being wiped out, we ended the year profitable, with £4m fees, £350k profit, 97% client satisfaction and 100% retention across H2. We won future-facing clients including Meta Reality Labs, Vinted, Caledonian Sleeper and the Scottish Government’s Fairer portfolio, then carried momentum into 2026 with Sephora, Lovehoney, Scottish Government Safer and Vinarchy Wines. Bottoms up. We invested almost £2,000 per person in training, built AI and GEO capability into the business, and grew Unlocked, our access programme for underserved creative talent, to 25 internships. Our team is 63% women, 40% people of colour and 27% LGBTQIA+, with no pay gap at any level. Not bad for a business that started at a kitchen table.