The Ingenuity Group Celebrates 20 Years of Connecting the Marketing World 

This month, the UK’s largest connector of agencies and brands, The Ingenuity Group, celebrates its 20th anniversary, a significant milestone in a journey shaped by a strong belief in the power of meaningful connections. 

Founded in 2005 by Chris Kemp, Ingenuity started out as a lead generation business focused on helping agencies grow. As the team engaged further with both agencies and brands, an opportunity was spotted to create value on both sides of the industry, connecting brands with agency partners that matched their specific needs. 

This insight led Ingenuity to expand its offering to include the now well-established matchmaking sessions, designed to connect brands facing unique marketing challenges with agencies equipped with the expertise to help solve them. These sessions quickly gained recognition for their strategic focus and fresh approach to helping brands discover the right partners. 

As the business evolved, so too did its offering. Building on its core strengths, Ingenuity created an intermediary service for brands, while also broadening its support for agencies to include PR, content creation and growth consultancy. This evolution allowed the business to support both sides more holistically, helping brands and agencies not just win new business, but also build their presence and scale in a more strategic way. 

Ingenuity had firmly established itself as a key connector in the industry, but in the years leading up to its 20th birthday, the vision of being the go-to connector for brands and agencies grew into something bigger, creating a wider network of businesses that work together to connect the marketing world. Over the past three years, the Group has gone through its own period of growth, with a series of acquisitions helping it scale and meet the growing demands of the industry. 

In 2023, Ingenuity acquired Future Factory, a respected agency growth consultancy, strengthening its business development offering. This was followed in 2024 by the acquisition of Reg and Co, now known as Reg and Partners, building on existing specialist expertise in partnerships and sponsorships for brands looking to connect beyond traditional media. That same year, one of the UK’s most prominent marketing festivals, MAD//Fest, joined the Group, bringing a new platform for live engagement and community building. Later in 2024, Ingenuity’s intermediary service rebranded to Ingenuity Plus, offering the same trusted expertise with a clearer focus on improving the way brands connect with agencies. And in 2025, the addition of sales intelligence platform Pearlfinders took the Group’s data and insight capabilities to the next level, offering sharper, more targeted connections for agencies. 

Beyond expanding its services, Ingenuity also launched its Communities initiative, an invite only network designed to bring senior marketers and agency leaders together to share ideas, gain insight and build stronger relationships across the industry. 

Today, The Ingenuity Group is made up of more than 200 people, with expertise spanning lead generation, consultancy, PR, partnerships, content, events, matchmaking and sales intelligence. At its core, the mission remains the same: to help the marketing world work better together, and to keep building the connections that move it forward. 

As The Ingenuity Group celebrates 20 years in business and reflects on the milestones that have shaped its journey, it looks to the future with the same energy, ambition and belief in the power of meaningful connection that started it all.