What makes us different

The Gate Worldwide has offices in major commercial centres in every time zone: Edinburgh, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, New York, London, Shanghai and Singapore. Working for world-class organisations, the group’s heritage is in delivering ‘iconic’ brand properties: communication strategies and advertising ideas with proven longevity and brand value.

This is made possible by the specialist expertise and unique planning discipline we bring to the client’s business issues.

See TheGateWorldwide website for more information on our global reach.

The Scottish office is run by Helen Hourston and Pete Martin. Our business focuses on ‘maximising opportunities and solving problems for clients’ through effective communications. But, for the sake of clarity, it’s worth spelling out what we do.

We think/do.

We adopt a media neutral approach. We describe this as ‘nonline’ thinking. (Our first thought is not is the solution above-the-line, below the line or online? Our first ambition is to fully understand the issue.) As a result, we deliver Consultancy and Implementation, and, generally, our clients come to us for a combination of Strategic Consultancy, Communications Planning and Creativity. The final outputs may be:

- Brand Strategy

- Communications plans
(Corporate/Stakeholder/Internal)

- Advertising

- Online Marketing
(From natural search to adserving)

- Brand and Design

- Direct Response

- Public Relations, delivered by our specialist sister company SMARTS

The agency has a long track record of combining marketing insight with powerful, brand-building ideas. This is reflected in the range of awards the firm has won for marketing effectiveness, as well as creativity.

A bit of history

In Scotland, the agency began life in 1990 as SMARTS, founded by Pete Martin and Rob Morrice. The agency’s first employee was Helen Morrison – better known these days as Helen Hourston, The Gate’s Managing Director in Edinburgh.

Among the UK’s first ‘integrated’ agencies, SMARTS grew to become one of the largest agencies outside London.

In 2003, Pete became the Executive Creative Director of The Gate Worldwide in New York, before returning to Edinburgh as Creative Director.