Virens named Digital Marketing Agency of the Year 2026/27
We’ve got some rather lovely news.
Virens has been named Digital Marketing Agency of the Year in the London & Southeast Prestige Awards 2026/27.
We’re very pleased with this one. Not least because the award looks at the things we care about most: doing good work, looking after clients properly and running the business in the right way.
What the judges looked for
The Prestige Awards judging panel selects winners based on merit, taking into account areas including:
- Service excellence
- Quality of products and services
- Innovation
- Customer feedback and reviews
- Ethical and sustainable business practices
- Overall consistency and business performance
That makes the recognition particularly meaningful to us.
Awards are nice. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t chuffed.
But we’ve never wanted Virens to become the sort of agency that spends more time talking about itself than helping its clients.
Our job is still the same tomorrow as it was yesterday.
What this award means to us
For us, the most important part of the award isn’t the title itself. It’s what sits behind it.
We’ve built Virens around working closely with small businesses, giving straightforward advice and recommending what we genuinely think will make a difference.
That often means paying attention to the less glamorous bits of marketing too. A contact form that isn’t working properly. A Google Ads campaign quietly wasting budget. A website page that looks fine but doesn’t give people enough reason to enquire.
Those things don’t always make exciting case studies, but fixing them can make a very real difference to a small business.
Being recognised for consistency, service, customer feedback and the quality of what we do feels like a good reflection of the way we’ve tried to build the agency.
Good marketing doesn’t need to be complicated
We work mainly with small businesses, often with small teams and plenty of other things competing for their attention.
They don’t need marketing made to sound impressive. They need to know what’s working, what isn’t and where their money is best spent.
Sometimes that means building a better website. Sometimes it means improving SEO, fixing a Google Ads campaign or sorting out a neglected Google Business Profile.
And sometimes the best advice we can give is not to spend money on something.
That’s the kind of agency we’ve always wanted Virens to be.
Small agency, proper attention
We’re deliberately a small team, and that shapes how we work.
Our clients deal directly with the people doing the work. There aren’t layers of account managers, long chains of emails or a different person appearing every few months who needs the whole story explaining again.
It also means we get to know the businesses we work with properly. Their busy periods. The services they actually want more of. The areas they want to target. The bits of marketing that have worked before, and the bits they’d rather never pay for again.
That context matters. Good marketing decisions are usually much easier when you understand the business behind them.
A big thank you to our clients
A lot of this award comes back to the businesses that trust us with their websites and marketing.
Thank you to every client who has worked with us, recommended us, left us a review, challenged an idea or trusted us when we’ve suggested doing things a little differently.
Many of the businesses we work with have been with us for years, and that matters far more to us than collecting trophies.
The trophy is still going somewhere visible, obviously.
And thank you to the people who recommend us
A large part of Virens has grown through recommendations, local connections and people passing our name on when another business needs help.
We never take that for granted.
When someone recommends a marketing agency, they’re putting a little bit of their own reputation on the line too. Knowing that clients and contacts feel comfortable doing that means a lot to us.
It’s also a good reminder that the small things matter. Replying when you say you will. Explaining things clearly. Owning mistakes. Telling someone when you think they don’t need to spend the money.
None of that is especially flashy. It just makes for better working relationships.
What happens next?
Nothing dramatically different.
We’ll keep helping small businesses make better decisions about their marketing. We’ll keep improving what we do. And we’ll keep being straight with people when we think something isn’t worth their time or money.
We might just be doing it with Digital Marketing Agency of the Year 2026/27 added to the shelf.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your website, SEO, Google Ads or local marketing, we’d be happy to take a look.
About Emily Williams
I help small businesses turn marketing ideas into work that actually brings in enquiries.
Before Virens, I spent 20+ years in digital marketing, working with brands including Friends Reunited and XE.com. I’ve led teams, built growth plans and helped high-growth businesses get ready for the next stage, including sale.
At Virens, I focus on Google Ads, customer journeys, campaign planning and conversion. In reality, that means helping businesses stop guessing, spend more wisely and make it easier for the right people to become customers. I like the creative side. I like the data side. The useful bit is when the two meet.
