About us

Ah, the early 90s… great times. It’s when The Surgery took its first breath as the child of three ambitious design and digital lads from London; ‘PC’ Paul Cohen, Nick Cordell and Robin Nicholl. 

Zoom forward to 2015, and The Surgery expanded to bring IC consultancy into the business driven by client need. 

We’ve grown up since then and moved to the country, a fabulous, converted barn space in West Sussex. We’re an agency with a difference. Okay, hold on, you’ve heard that line a billion times, right?  But you see, the thing is, we really are an agency with a difference.

Let us show you what we mean

Our eclectic bunch of ‘Surgeons’ (all 20 of us) really do care about each other, the work we do and our clients. We’re a proper blend of wise heads and the next new best things. Decades of experience all mixed up with people who know their way around a TikTok.

It’s a blend that works

Our clients come back to us not just because we’re award winners in design, digital and internal communications, although that does rather help. It’s mostly because of that blend thing.  It means we can provide design, copywriting, content services, internal communications strategy and campaigns alongside unique behavioural and psychology expertise, all under one big old barn roof.

We understand our clients’ why

We’ll audit, research, research and then do more research so we understand the challenge and create the best solution. We look at everything through our ANTI-BORING (trademark pending) lens. It helps to make the complex simple, meaning you get to engage with your audience at a real, authentic, people-to-people level.

Talking of people

We love seeing our people grow, develop and learn. We give them space and encouragement to try stuff out, to go for it and then learn from it. We celebrate the small stuff, the birthdays, the anniversaries, the life stuff. It’s all about that work-life balance. We might work from the barn or remotely from our homes, cafes, and even campervans. But we always make sure we get together, too. Because we have fun, our clients tend to as well.

We’re totally committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion and eliminating discrimination. Not just because it’s our legal duty but because it’s the right thing to do. Our social impact and the footprint on the environment we leave behind us matter, too. We work locally with community groups and help global brands and charities do some good around the world.

So…  let’s kick boredom up its boring old backside, and let’s create something beautiful together!

Our mission

We want to create a world where boring is banned… forever!

Why we do what we do

Because we love engaging people through creative solutions that tackle real-life challenges.

What we do

We banish boring through killer IC campaigns, empowering EVP and employer brands, daring design and dynamite digital solutions.

How we do it

By making the complex simple.

Follow us on Instagram
Poor mental health can affect all us at any time of year and for a host of different reasons. So, this #BlueMonday we decided to ditch the blue and go all out colourful! It brought a bit of fun to the day and by sticking the picture up in our kitchen it will act as a reminder for us all to take care of our mental health 365 days a year!
 
For the record, Caian won the prize with their bright and colourful hat!
Back to the office and we have some new arrivals 🥹🐷
Yesterday, we wrapped up the year in style at our Christmas Party!🎄✨ 
The team came together to eat, drink, and battle it out in our annual Christmas curling competition 🥌. Plenty of laughs (and a bit of healthy competition!) to see off 2024.

Wishing you all a magical festive break, and we can’t wait to work with you in 2025.

Merry Christmas from the Surgeons ❤️🎄
We are wrapping up the year with a bang at our Christmas party today! 🎄🎉 

A huge Merry Christmas to all our amazing clients, partners, friends of the Surgery, and the incredible Surgeons. We’re so grateful for your support this year and hope you enjoy a well-deserved festive break with your loved ones.

Enjoy this festive minimation by our talented animator Luke - fingers crossed Santa avoids any fireplace mishaps and delivers all his gifts on time! 🎁🔥

Wishing you all a joyful and restful holiday season! ❤️🎄

#MerryChristmas #FestiveSeason #ChristmasParty #MotionGraphics
Senior Copywriter James Blake, says his favourite project was one of the first he did for us! Back in 2019, Cadent needed our help. They needed to improve their position in the all-important Ofcom customer service table and their teams needed a motivation boost. As part of a wider internal communications strategy, they asked us to review how people were doing and what they needed to do to turn around performance. 
 
From the research, James created an engaging narrative which clearly spelled out the path ahead by setting out the why, the what, the who (not the band!) and the when. 
 
Together with a visually stunning rich picture, the narrative’s ‘mountain theme’ showing Cadent working as a team striving to get to various bases along their journey, really made their improvement story easy to understand and act on. The Cadent team even made Cadent Mountain cupcakes, and we love the Trustpilot Yetis throwing snowball reviews at them (the campaign won an award, too!)

#ILoveThisOne #FavouriteProject #InternalCommunications #NarrativeDevelopment