A digital marketing and video agency founded in Birmingham by a former Dancing on Ice star and experienced ad executive is creating new jobs in the city after securing a string of client wins.
Pull The Pin launched last year and is the brainchild of magician and illusionist Ben Hanlin and his lifelong friend Sam Hufton who previously worked for Birmingham advertising agency M3 and Found in London.
The pair are now recruiting four new staff members to its 15-strong team after securing contracts with household names such as financial services firm PwC, English Golf Union and restaurant chain Leon.
They said they were expecting to hit fees of more than £700,000 by the end of this month, with plans to double the size of the agency by 2023.
Mr Hanlin, who appeared on the hit ITV show shortly before the first covid lockdown in March 2020, said: "We've always talked about doing something together and then Covid-19 happened which accelerated our thinking.
"Some people thought we were nuts starting a business during such difficult times but it's something we had kicked around for long enough. The added increase in online use, and especially video, meant it just felt like the right time and opportunity.
"Sam is very well known throughout the sector while my job meant I was used to creating lots of content that gets millions of organic views."
Referring to when the company launched, he added: "All of my bookings and tours vanished overnight so I started to focus on building a massive online following.
"I thought ‘Why don't we help companies to do just that?', especially those that may not have the in-house capability or are wasting thousands of pounds on polished content that few people view."
The agency has installed a series of initiatives for employees aimed at recruiting and keeping staff such as 30 days of holiday a year, regular early finishes to celebrate milestones and a new plan to allow staff to work from anywhere in the world for four weeks a year.
Mr Hufton added: "We want to attract the best talent and the best creative minds so we have to reflect this in our working environment and the culture we are trying to build. This is seeing us win high-profile accounts and attract growing businesses who are looking for innovative ways to connect with their audiences."
