Hot on the heels of winning Best Agency (more than 40 employees) at the micebook V Awards earlier this month, Cheerful Twentyfirst’s parent owner Aeorema Communications has announced its strongest trading year on record.

The group, which also owns Eventful, said that revenue increased 130% for the year ended 30 June 2022, and it expects to report revenues (subject to audit) of no less than £11.8 million for FY 2022 (FY 2021: £5.09 million) and profits before tax (subject to audit) of no less than £700,000 (FY 2021: loss £159,698).

Aeorema had an incredibly busy period leading up to the close of its financial year on 30 June 2022, in part due to the increasing return of live events including its largest presence to date at Cannes Lions. Coupled with a continued strong performance from the U.S. office along with new U.S. based client wins, and a high demand for virtual and hybrid events, the company has produced its strongest financial performance in its history.

Steve Quah, CEO, commented: “I am delighted to be reporting our best financial performance in the history of the Company, demonstrating the success of the shift in strategy over the last two years. This is because despite facing headwinds with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, which was a major disruption in the middle of our financial year, we have once again shown incredible spirit and talent to help our clients navigate another challenging period and deliver some of our best work ever.

“We continue to support our clients to help them achieve their strategic and communications objectives, and I am very proud that we are also being recognised for our work; to recently win Best Agency in the Micebook V Awards is both humbling and had brought an incredible feeling of pride for the agency.”

Award-winning entry

A global brand experience agency based in London and New York, Cheerful Twentyfirst successfully pivoted to virtual in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, resulting in 90% of revenue coming from virtual events in FY 2021. Judges were impressed with the excellent entry presentation detailing the agency’s virtual journey, varied and innovative case studies, and recent D&I initiatives.

Over the past year, the agency has continued to invest in improving the user experience on its virtual platform solution, led by evolving insights into how audiences are engaging online. Alongside this, Cheerful Twentyfirst has formed strategic partnerships to design and deliver the best possible audience experiences in virtual and formed a metaverse working group to explore brand and audience opportunities in a new virtual space.

Headcount has grown 20% globally, and the new office space has been designed to better support virtual event work, with a bigger and more advanced post-production studio. Recent projects include launching The Wall Street Journalʼs first non-fungible tokens gallery, transporting Vodafoneʼs global community through the metaverse, and building custom 3D worlds for Loewe Foundation.

This year, the agency is doubling down on its commitments to sustainable, inclusive and ethical business. It recently launched a new client carbon reporting programme that aims to reduce and report on project emissions across their portfolio of global event work. Cheerful Twentyfirst is also reviewing its D&I commitments and has introduced a series of internal programmes designed to give employees the space to build their networks, be creative and train in new skills.