ASSOCIATION AGENCY OR SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR
Barley Communications
Barley Communications is an award-winning, B Corp certified agency that helps charities, public sector organisations and purpose-driven businesses engage and communicate with audiences on the issues that matter.
Mission: Communication that matters
Vision: Smart people making a difference through brilliant work
Values: Curiosity; energy; integrity
We remain committed to walking our talk when it comes to our values. We don’t greenwash or ‘purpose’-wash and we never will, as we believe this is essential to bringing about sustainable positive change for society and the planet.
In our 2024 survey, our clients rated their overall experience of working with us at 4.7 out of 5 (up from 4.63 in 2023), with 100% stating we contributed to their impact objectives.
Cantarus
Cantarus is the UK’s leading digital agency for membership organisations and associations. With over 20 years of experience and a team of 70+ experts across the UK, USA, and Moldova, we deliver transformative digital experiences that engage members, streamline operations, and drive lasting impact.
We’re proud to work with over 100 clients across education, healthcare, sport, and the wider membership sector – including organisations featured in the MemberWise Influence 100. We have achieved 99.1% client satisfaction, achieves a +75 Net Promoter Score, and delivered 100+ successful projects impacting over 5 million members.
Our recent highlights include:
– Reimagining Federation of Master Builders’ digital presence with a new CRM-integrated platform and app, driving 753 daily users and 282 forum topics in just 6 months
– Launching an accessible, high-performing website and online community for British Mensa, resulting in a 65% increase in successful form completions
– Delivering a 92% performance improvement for ECA through a strategic Kentico upgrade
– Supporting BIMCO’s global member base with a new site achieving 2m 37s average engagement time
From award-winning builds to AI-led research and CRM expansion via our FlexRM acquisition, we’re proud to lead digital innovation in the association space.
MCI on behalf of European Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgeons
Over the last four years, MCI has deepened what it means to be a true strategic partner to a professional society. As global agency partner to the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS), MCI UK leads a multi-office collaboration that delivers strategic leadership, operational excellence, and long-term value across every aspect of the organisation.
Our role extends into ESCRS’s governance and strategic development, aligning activities across its five pillars. MCI UK coordinates delivery and stakeholder engagement, while MCI USA and Switzerland support publications and congress delivery.
We work side-by-side with more than 15 committees, aligning workstreams and ensuring all initiatives are strategically focused, creatively driven, and impactful. MCI’s global presence across 62 offices enables scalable delivery and cost efficiencies, while providing local insight that helps ESCRS reflect the diverse needs of its international membership.
MCI doesn’t just deliver — we embed, evolve and drive results. Our work with ESCRS shows what’s possible when an agency truly partners with a professional society to realise bold, long-term impact.
Redactive
Redactive is the content marketing agency ‘where membership thrives’. Over the period these awards cover, we have ensured our 40+ clients have prospered by:
• Developing their brands through innovative initiatives that perfectly align with industry trends and the expectations of audiences today.
• Maintaining our position as the UK’s leading content marketing agency for membership organisations, recognised by a slew of industry accolades (including Best Membership at the International Content Marketing Awards 2024, for the third time in the past five years).
• Bucking market trends with our commercial team’s stellar advertising and sponsorship sales performance.
An aspect of Redactive’s business that truly sets us apart is our employee-owned status. And 2024 saw the agency create a Business Plan that invited contributions from every member of staff. We’ve also turbo-charged our internal knowledge-sharing initiatives and enjoyed a record year for contract renewals and some significant new client wins.
Sunday
In the last 12 months, Sunday has cemented its reputation as a global leader in content marketing, delivering exceptional results across B2C, B2B and membership sectors. We’ve driven multi-million-pound ROI and smashed KPIs through data-driven strategy, creative innovation and true multi-channel excellence. From TikTok to podcasts, SEO to print, our work meets audiences where they are – while staying rooted in insight, performance and storytelling.
We’ve led major content transformations, including relaunching Modus magazine for RICS, repositioning Waterlife for WWT, and evolving CISI’s content from quarterly print to a high-performing digital-first programme. Our ICAEW campaigns have supported national policy conversations, and our English Heritage relaunch has helped to reconnect the organisation with its 800,000 members.
Alongside creative excellence, our commercial team drives revenue growth, and in 2024 we delivered our fifth consecutive year of financial success. We’ve also invested in leadership and launched a dedicated Membership Hub to support organisations in digital transformation, revenue generation and audience engagement.
Above all, Sunday is a great place to work – with 93% of staff saying it’s the best company they’ve worked for. We’re proud to be an agency where creativity, results and culture go hand in hand.
Think
2024/2025 was a time of impactful innovation for Think and our clients.
We helped organisations be brave, saying goodbye to old ways of working, thinking and communicating and hello to more integrated content planning and targeted insight-led initiatives.
From powerful new C-suite networks, intelligent proprietary research projects, record-smashing on-location podcasts and profile-raising insights to sticky digital-first content programmes and trend-bucking commercial growth, Think is leading the way in the race to help member bodies remain relevant.
All this, while continuing to provide valuable free advice to the membership sector through its Re:member thought leadership programme.
Think is proud to be the agency challenging the way ‘things have always been done’.
Wonderly
Wonderly is a progressive agency and a transformative partner to the association sector, dedicated to enhancing the member value proposition through innovative and collaborative solutions. We deliver a comprehensive suite of services, from managing large-scale conferences and exhibitions to pioneering digital publishing transformations and executing sophisticated commercial strategies.
Our approach ensures every event becomes a vital platform for professional development and networking, every publication builds a stronger community, and every commercial success provides associations with the resources to reinvest in their members. By embedding ourselves as a strategic extension of our clients’ teams, we drive sustainable growth and help associations advance their aims in an ever-evolving landscape. Our work consistently empowers membership organisations to thrive by delivering impactful experiences that resonate deeply with their communities.
Your Business Angels
When SSA members were struggling to see a return on their digital marketing, YBA stepped in — not as just another supplier, but as a strategic partner helping the Self Storage Association deliver greater value to its members.
In 12 months, our partnership helped SSA members generate over 15,000 sales enquiries and an estimated £4 million in revenue, significantly strengthening SSA’s member offering and reputation. By delivering transparent, industry-specific support — including one-to-one audits, benchmarking reports, and free educational workshops — YBA enabled the association to provide a level of digital marketing expertise that would have been difficult and costly to build internally.
This value-first model required minimal effort from SSA, yet drove member retention, new member acquisition, and increased member satisfaction — directly supporting SSA’s strategic goals. The impact has since inspired other associations, including those in removals, funerals, and cleaning, to adopt similar partnerships with YBA.
YBA became a trusted growth partner — helping SSA stand out as a forward-thinking, results-driven association that actively supports its members’ commercial success. This entry demonstrates how the right supplier partnership can elevate an entire association by enhancing its reputation, deepening member value and driving measurable outcomes.
