9 Years of Filter: Growing with Purpose, Delivering with Impact

As we celebrate nine years of Filter, we’re proud to reflect on how far we’ve come, from an ambitious startup to an award-winning digital agency of 45+ people, leading the way in WordPress innovation.

Founded in 2016 by Oliver Morrison (CEO) and Paul Halfpenny (CTO), Filter was created to be an agency that prioritised people, progress and performance. We’ve grown significantly since then but we’ve stayed true to our values: delivering exceptional digital experiences, supporting our team’s wellbeing and constantly investing in the future.

This past year has seen a challenging agency landscape yet we’ve continued to move forward. We’ve strengthened our services across Data & Analytics, SEO & Paid Media and expanded our Continuous Improvement programmes, helping clients grow at every stage of their digital maturity journey.

Investing in Innovation: Filter AI and PersonalizeWP

Our commitment to improving the WordPress ecosystem continues through our two flagship plugins: Filter AI and PersonalizeWP.

Filter AI offers AI-powered tools to help WordPress users create better content, faster, from generating alt text and product descriptions to rewriting copy and setting a consistent brand tone. More features, like AI-powered FAQs and platform customisation, are on the way.

PersonalizeWP has grown from a pandemic side project into a game-changing plugin that fills a major gap in the WordPress market. It brings personalisation tools like cookie-less targeting, audience segmentation and behavioural rules to users of all sizes.

PersonalizeWP’s innovation and impact earned us a Gold Award at the 2024 BIMA Awards, recognising both its technical achievement and its sustainable development approach. We’re proud to be building tools that empower businesses to deliver more meaningful and efficient digital experiences.

Meaningful Work That Makes a Difference

This year, we’ve delivered impactful work for a diverse range of clients across the UK and beyond. From high-volume hospitality to international enterprise and purpose-led non-profits, our projects have combined creativity, technical expertise and measurable results.

For JD Wetherspoon, we developed a new Order & Pay app and introduced a streamlined menu management solution using PersonalizeWP, helping to support over 800 venues, more than 42,000 employees and 22.5 million customers per quarter. For Medivet, we continue to leverage data driven insights and comprehensive user testing to increase customer engagement and boost conversions.

We’ve also been privileged to work on meaningful tech-for-good projects, partnering with organisations such as Children with Cancer and Fundraising Everywhere. Internationally, our work has expanded to include large-scale digital platforms for 123Dentist in Canada and Laguna Tools in the United States.

AI is now a part of every major project we deliver, whether through intelligent content automation or more personalised user experiences, helping clients deliver smarter, faster and more targeted digital solutions.

Recognition, Awards and Growing Influence

We’re proud to see the impact of our work reflected in the recognition we’ve received across the industry.

Rachel Berry, our Head of Client Services, was appointed Co-Chair of the BIMA Scotland Council, a well-deserved honour that highlights her leadership and contribution to the digital sector. Our CEO, Oliver Morrison, joined the BIMA 100 judging panel, further strengthening Filter’s position within the UK agency community.

In addition to the BIMA award, we were recently shortlisted for an Independent Agency Award for our PersonalizeWP plugin. This achievement celebrates the plugin’s innovation, user-friendly design and commitment to sustainable digital practices.

We’re also expanding our product ecosystem, and continuing to refine our services, ensuring that AI and personalisation continue to be embedded into every project.

Celebrating Our People and Looking Ahead

This year, we have welcomed many new team members, including some talented new Developers and our Head of SEO and Paid Media, taking us to a team of over 45 people.

Even more excitingly, we also welcomed a 2025 Filter Baby! We’d like to offer a massive congratulations to our team member Fatima, on the recent birth of her baby boy.

If you know us, you’ll know we always enjoy getting together in-person for a catch up, food and drinks. This year we took our team to Birmingham for a bake-off competition, we all had a blast and came away with some amazing cakes (if we do say so ourselves).

We’ve also just planned our next adventure, where we’ll be setting sail along the Thames, more on that soon!

What’s Next?

As we look ahead to the rest of 2025 and beyond, our focus remains on sustainable growth, innovation and continuing to support our clients’ digital ambitions.

We’re updating how we present our client stories, improving design and messaging to better reflect the creativity and complexity of our work. We’re also expanding our product ecosystem, refining our services and ensuring that AI and personalisation are embedded into every project.

Above all, we’re proud of the team we’ve built, the culture we’re creating and the impact we’re having within the digital space. We can’t wait to see what our 10th year brings.