Not Actual Size: The agency built on deep listening‍

"We often hear from clients that we've revealed something new about their audience that they never would have thought of," says Laura Jackson, managing director at Not Actual Size. 

It's a telling comment from an agency that has spent nearly two decades doing something most independents struggle with: maintaining excellent standards without chasing industry applause. Founded in 2007 and now approaching its 20th year, Not Actual Size has built its reputation not through awards or self-promotion, but through long-term client relationships grounded in what Jackson calls "deep listening."

The agency's name captures its founding philosophy: that the seemingly small things like details about people, audiences, brand nuances, often carry the most significance. Jackson, who joined in 2013 and now describes herself as "custodian of the current era," traces the agency's origins to a founder frustrated with bigger network practices. "There was a feeling that there had to be a better way," she explains. "A better way of doing everything from the way we operate as a team to the output of the work."

That restlessness with industry norms has crystallised into a distinctive approach, though Jackson is careful not to overstate it. "Every agency is searching for that answer," she acknowledges. 

Starting with listening, not creative

The agency always begins with what Jackson calls an "intelligence phase," even when clients haven't asked for it. "We always bake in a deep listening and intelligence phase—audience research, trend analysis, behaviour insights. It's the foundation of everything we do."

This isn't strategy as a separate department handing down briefs. "We don't have a siloed strategy department," Jackson says. "We're all in that together. From a client point of view, that looks like having very close relationships with the strategic and creative minds on the brief, not just an account team."

That collaborative ethos is reflected in the agency's leadership too. As a women-led business, Not Actual Size has consciously built a culture that prioritises listening, openness and long-term partnership over hierarchy or ego.

The approach can lead to uncomfortable conversations. Jackson recalls a recent pitch for Degree, Unilever's US deodorant brand, where the brief called for the usual social execution: ten posts per month, community management and ongoing content output.

But after what Jackson describes as a deep listening phase, analysing Reddit conversations, the brand’s existing community behaviour and the broader cultural mood around hygiene brands trying too hard on TikTok, the agency reached a different conclusion entirely.

“We were quite provocative,” she says. “We really pressed the client on whether they even needed owned social. Does anyone care about deodorant on Instagram?”

That intelligence phase ultimately reshaped the agency’s response to the brief. Rather than treating social as an executional requirement, they reframed it as a brand-building challenge. “The original brief was extremely executional,” Jackson notes. “But we were able to elevate the conversation and move it on from just what was asked of us in the RFP.”

They won the pitch by questioning the assumptions behind it.

The agency also prizes what it calls "anti-complacency"—refusing to let work go out that's merely good enough. "We're very big on really always pushing for that extra mile," Jackson explains. "You have to ask uncomfortable questions. You have to be willing to tell the client that we need a bit longer."

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Flexible models for a fragmenting industry

Laura highlights commercial flexibility as one of Not Actual Size’s key differentiators. "We never make a client to fit into our team structure or process," Jackson explains. "It's always a very collaborative approach, we flex the commercial model to find the right setup for that client."

That might mean a secondment, placing someone inside the client's team. It might be a subscription model where clients access cultural intelligence without commissioning creative work. "We're constantly looking for ways that we can set up teams and partnerships that feel not your traditional agency setup," she says.

This adaptability matters more as the industry fragments. Laura points to macro shifts like in-housing, AI, the democratisation of marketing, as forces that demand sharper positioning. 

One trend she finds particularly fascinating is the rise of creators becoming senior marketers. "When you've got TikTokers becoming in-house brand heads of social just because they've posted about a product, that fundamentally changes how agencies work," Jackson observes. "The business of people and talent is maybe an interesting space for how agencies might be adding value to clients in the future."

Measuring success beyond the echo chamber

When asked how the agency knows it's done a great job, Jackson bypasses the usual metrics. "Our measure of success is whether real people responded to it outside of the industry or outside of our clients' network," she says. "If we see someone sharing it who had nothing to do with it being created or doesn't understand where it might have come from, that's when we feel we've had the most success."

It's a gut-instinct approach that reflects the agency's purposeful spirit. Jackson highlights recent pro bono work with Unseen Tours, which runs London tours led by guides with lived experience of homelessness. "The team just loved unearthing all of those amazing stories about London, about the tour guides themselves," she says. "When the work feels like it's got a bigger impact, that's something that people really enjoy."

The agency is a B Corp and employee-owned trust, structures that reinforce this orientation. "We're looking for people who think like partners in the business and see a future and see how they're contributing towards that shared goal," Jackson says.

The questions clients should ask

Jackson wishes more potential clients would start with a simple question: "What do you know about our audience that we don't?" It signals humility and openness to uncomfortable truths. "From that, I think we know that they're going to be willing to hear ideas that might make them feel uncomfortable or go against their assumptions," she explains.

The dream brief, paradoxically, isn't a brief at all. "The best brief is when there isn't such a predetermined outcome," Jackson says. "As long as they're really crystal clear on the problem or the impact that they need to see, then I prefer it if the rest of it is a little bit unfilled in."

Looking ahead, Jackson is focusing on making the agency's cultural intelligence layer a standalone offering. "Clients can subscribe to it, and can access our thinking without necessarily always having a great big project or campaign brief in mind," she explains. "That's the area of the offer that's feeling most in demand right now and most unique."

It's an evolution that plays to Not Actual Size's core strength: noticing what others miss. In an industry increasingly dominated by speed and scale, the agency's bet is that depth still matters. That the small things, the audience insight no one expected, the detail that changes everything, remain the foundation of work that actually performs.

"We've always been grounded in strategic thinking and understanding people," Jackson says. "I think that becomes even more important in the next few years, whether that's understanding people as clients or as audiences."

For brands willing to be challenged on their assumptions and patient enough to let insight lead execution, that philosophy offers a different path through the current chaos.