Substance Global

What Substance Global does

Substance Global is a privately held, boutique creative marketing agency headquartered in London that serves major entertainment and pharmaceutical brands through integrated social, creative, publicity, paid-social, experiential, and digital-strategy services. Operations span four offices — London (HQ), Los Angeles, Dallas, and Buenos Aires — with claimed Singapore market presence, enabling simultaneous multi-region campaign rollouts that exceed what the firm's 11–50 headcount would ordinarily support. The legal entity is Substance001 Ltd, a UK private limited company; the firm is independently owned with no parent, no disclosed institutional investors, and no funding rounds on record.

Revenue is generated on a professional-services basis through project- and retainer-style engagements with enterprise clients. On the entertainment side, the firm works with the largest global studios and streamers — Disney, Universal, Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount, Warner Bros, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Sony, Xbox, and The Pokémon Company — on tentpole film, series, and gaming releases. On the pharma side, it serves biopharma clients including Amgen, Blueprint Medicines, and Shasqi, applying entertainment-sector creative techniques to regulated healthcare communications while offering compliance and conference content services. Notable campaign outputs include 81M views / 298M impressions for the NFL Big Game Night Channel 5 campaign, 726 content pieces and $3.5M+ earned media value for Prime Video's Young Sherlock, and 124% follower / 400% engagement growth for Blueprint Medicines on LinkedIn.

The business is founder-led: Andrew Freedman has served as CEO and Co-Founder since 2003, with Colin Swift as Managing Director from 2015 after 21 years inside the firm. Substance Global is a Certified B Corporation and operates without a proprietary technology platform, earning industry recognition through the Clio Entertainment Awards, UK Social Media Awards, and Shorty Awards rather than through productized IP.

Name

Substance Global

Legal name

Substance001 Ltd

Website

https://substanceglobal.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Substance Global is a London-headquartered independent creative marketing agency serving global entertainment studios, streamers, and biopharma clients with integrated social, creative, publicity, paid, and experiential services across offices in the UK, US, and Argentina.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Creative Marketing Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Healthcare/Pharma Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAJ)

Keywords

• Creative marketing services
• Entertainment marketing agency
• Social media campaigns
• Experiential activations
• Pharma healthcare communications

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Creative Marketing Services: Full-service creative marketing agency providing social marketing, creative production, PR and publicity, experiential activations, and digital strategy services to entertainment and pharma clients on a project/campaign basis.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Substance Global is a boutique creative marketing agency that conceives and executes integrated campaigns for entertainment and pharma clients, spanning social marketing, creative production, publicity and PR, paid social advertising, digital strategy, and experiential activations. Services are delivered on a project and campaign basis by a global in-house team across London, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Buenos Aires, with deep specialization in entertainment IP marketing and cross-application of those storytelling techniques to regulated biopharma communications.

Product overview

Substance Global is a creative marketing agency providing strategic and digital content marketing services across two primary sectors: Entertainment and Pharma/Healthcare. The company operates across three continents (London, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires) and offers a full spectrum of services that roll out insight and creativity across Social Marketing, Creative production, Publicity & Promotions, Smart-Spend Social Advertising, Digital Strategy & Insights, Experiential activations, Conferences support, and Compliance services. The Entertainment division handles film, TV, and gaming campaigns for clients including Disney, Netflix, Prime Video, and Paramount. The Pharma division applies entertainment-sector innovation to healthcare marketing, supporting biopharma clients with social campaigns, LinkedIn strategies, and digital presence. The service offerings work together as an integrated marketing solution—starting with strategic oversight and rolling out across digital, creative, PR, and experiential channels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Social Marketing Conceives and implements creative, bespoke methods of reaching and engaging existing and potential fans on social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X. Designed for entertainment and brand clients seeking standout social-first campaigns.
• Creative
• Publicity & Promotions
• Smart-Spend Social Advertising
• Digital Strategy & Insights
• Experiential
• Conferences
• Compliance Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 24.5M users reached on Meta platform in single campaign
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Channel 5 (UK)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Substance Global runs NFL Big Game Night in partnership with Channel 5. The campaign supporting the new weekly TV show blending gameshow fun with live NFL coverage ran across the 23-week season from August 2025 to February 2026.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• ID PR: Entertainment, lifestyle and luxury PR and influencer marketing agency. Comparable because it operates a similar boutique model serving film/TV clients with publicity and influencer services, competing for the same entertainment marketing budgets.
• Think Jam: Independent entertainment marketing agency with offices in New York and London delivering social, creative, publicity and digital strategy for film studios and streaming platforms. Directly comparable due to similar boutique scale, integrated service mix (social/creative/PR), and shared enterprise studio clients (Paramount, Lionsgate).
• MKG: Independent creative marketing agency building campaigns and experiences for entertainment, culture and lifestyle brands. Comparable because both are independent, boutique-scale shops combining social, creative and experiential work for marquee entertainment clients at similar team sizes.
• 42West: Entertainment PR and marketing agency serving film, TV and streaming clients with integrated publicity, influencer and social campaigns. Comparable as a similarly-sized boutique with overlapping service mix and shared enterprise entertainment client base.

Broad incumbents

• The Marketing Arm (Omnicom): Full-service entertainment, sports and lifestyle marketing agency within Omnicom. Relevant incumbent — serves many of the same film, streaming and brand clients with a much broader service portfolio and global bench, representing the scaled alternative Substance competes against for enterprise mandates.
• Allied Global Marketing: Mid-to-large entertainment and consumer-marketing agency offering integrated creative, publicity and digital campaigns for film studios and streaming platforms. Directly relevant — competitive overlap on entertainment studio clients with a larger operational footprint.
• PMK*BNC (Interpublic Group): Entertainment, talent and lifestyle PR and marketing agency now operating within IPG. Relevant incumbent — represents the holding-company-scaled, integrated PR/entertainment marketing offer Substance competes with on enterprise relationships.
• GPJ — George P. Johnson Experience Marketing (IPG): Global experiential marketing agency owned by IPG. Directly relevant given Substance's experiential marketing services (SXSW activations, premieres, influencer events) — represents the scaled incumbent option for brand-experience mandates.
• Jack Morton Worldwide (IPG): Global brand experience agency within IPG. Comparable for Substance's experiential and live-activation work, including pharma conferences, and represents the incumbent option competing for the same brand-experience RFPs at enterprise scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/substanceglobal
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCoEUXTbzGU8gBbfDpTJAFpQ
• Facebookfacebook.com/substanceglobal
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/substance-ltd
• Instagraminstagram.com/substanceglobal

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Substance Global