HdK

What HdK does

HdK (legal entity The Hans de Kretser Associates Ltd, trading as HdK / Artfully Digital) is a London-based, founder-led digital agency that designs and delivers websites, digital marketing campaigns, digital strategy, and ongoing technical support exclusively for arts, culture, and heritage organisations. Founded by Hans de Kretser around 2004 after in-house roles at English National Opera and Sadler's Wells, the firm has served more than 425 organisations across ballet and dance companies, theatres, museums, galleries, heritage sites, and cultural charities, including The British Museum, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert, Alexandra Palace, Dance Umbrella, and Arts Council England.

The firm's core technology stack is WordPress, delivered with bespoke 44-block content architectures, Advanced Custom Fields-based editing, and integrations with sector-specific platforms including Tessitura, Spektrix, Patronbase, DigiTickets, Beacon CRM, Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Mailchimp. Beyond standard websites, HdK has built two notable platform products: Rambert Plus, a membership and on-demand video platform for contemporary dance, and the All In accessibility platform for Arts Council England incorporating WPML multilingual support and Signapse British Sign Language translation. Accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1 AA), sustainable hosting, and B Corp-certified operating practices are positioned as standard rather than premium.

The business model is predominantly professional services: project-based website builds priced from approximately £10k to over £100k, complemented by recurring support retainers covering security, hosting, and CMS maintenance, plus multi-year digital marketing retainers (paid social, SEO, email, content). Go-to-market is direct and community-led, driven by referrals, sector word-of-mouth, case studies, a monthly webinar programme (4,730+ attendees since 2022), and organic content across LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. Revenue is not publicly disclosed; the firm is bootstrapped with no external funding and operates within a 11-50 employee band from a single Hoxton office, suggesting a specialist-agency economics profile rather than a scaled platform business.

Name

HdK

Legal name

The Hans de Kretser Associates Ltd

Website

https://wearehdk.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

HdK is a London-based, founder-led digital agency that designs WordPress websites, delivers digital marketing campaigns, and provides ongoing support exclusively to UK arts, culture, and heritage organisations, having served more than 425 clients over 22+ years.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

NAICS

Graphic Design Services (541430)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Digital Archives, Libraries & Institutional Access Platforms (MPAJAMAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

White-Label/Hosted Publishing Platforms (MPACAIAJ)

Keywords

• Website design services
• Digital marketing agency
• Arts culture websites
• WordPress development
• Cultural sector digital

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Website Design & Development: Full design and build of websites for arts and culture organisations, from discovery workshops through to launch. Pricing varies widely based on scope; the company has delivered projects ranging from approximately £10k to £100k+. Invoiced prior to or at the point of service delivery.
2. Digital Marketing Campaigns: Strategy, planning, and delivery of digital marketing campaigns including social media management, paid advertising, email marketing, SEO, and content production. Includes ongoing retainer-style support relationships with clients such as Birmingham Royal Ballet and Alexandra Palace.
3. Ongoing Website Support: Ongoing technical support to keep client websites secure, up to date, and running smoothly. Includes sustainable hosting, regular updates, and fast turnaround on fixes. Support portal available for clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

HdK designs and builds WordPress websites for arts, culture, and heritage organisations, integrated with ticketing, CRM, and e-commerce platforms. The company complements builds with digital marketing campaigns (social, paid, email, SEO), digital strategy services, and ongoing technical support and hosting retainers. Work is delivered as bespoke projects, with Rambert Plus and the Arts Council England All In platform as notable sector-specific platform builds.

Product overview

HdK (The Hans de Kretser Associates Ltd) is a digital agency specialising in arts, culture, and heritage organisations. The company offers a portfolio of integrated services centred on website design and development (built on WordPress), digital marketing campaigns, digital strategy, and ongoing web support and maintenance. Key platform work includes Rambert Plus (a digital membership platform with on-demand video, live streaming, and podcasts), the All In accessibility platform for Arts Council England, and Beacon CRM integrations for client organisations. Additional offerings include webinar programmes for the sector, ticketing integrations (DigiTickets, Tessitura, Spektrix), e-commerce solutions (Shopify, WooCommerce), and analytics dashboards (Looker Studio). The company recently underwent a brand refresh in 2024, reflecting over 20 years of sector experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Garden Museum: +75% total users, +57% site visits, engagement rate from 80% to 95%
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments1 record

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration17 records

AI capability3 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Cardboard CitizenscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025HDK's chosen charity partner since 2025. Cardboard Citizens is a London-based theatre company working with people who have lived experience of homelessness. HDK supports them across a range of projects on both paid and pro bono basis, and donates to their cause every time client feedback is received.
• DigiTicketscoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partner for event and ticketing data for clients such as Garden Museum. HDK builds integrations that pull event and ticket data automatically into client websites, reducing manual admin.
• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationE-commerce integration partner for retail clients. Garden Museum's site integrates Shopify for a fully integrated shop bringing the museum's retail offer into the main site experience.
• Beacon CRMcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partner for Dance Umbrella's CRM needs. HDK guided the integration of Beacon CRM with Dance Umbrella's website and payment systems, centralising audience data across events, donations, and communications.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processing integration. HDK used Stripe webhooks to bypass costly third-party integrations for Dance Umbrella, tracking Digital Pass purchases and video views in real time.
• MailchimpcoreTechnology or IntegrationEmail marketing and audience communications integration. Artis Foundation's resource library is integrated with Mailchimp to capture contact details at the point of download, supporting ongoing audience communications.
• Accessible by DesigncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAccessibility partnership for Arts Council England's All In platform. Accessible by Design provided design feedback and conducted accessibility audits throughout each phase of the project, partnering with HDK to ensure the platform met the highest accessibility standards.
• Four CommunicationsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrand agency whose brand guidelines HDK worked within for the Arts Council England All In project. HDK developed a design system from Four Communications' brand guidelines.
• SpektrixcoreTechnology or IntegrationTicketing platform integration for Alexandra Palace. HDK built a custom Spektrix plugin giving Alexandra Palace greater control over event data, keeping listings accurate and up to date across the site.
• PatronbasecoreTechnology or IntegrationMembership and ticketing data integration for Rambert's Rambert Plus platform. Custom Patronbase integration gives Rambert a single view of membership data across all their sites and makes reporting significantly more straightforward.
• Google Display NetworkcoreTechnology or IntegrationDigital advertising platform used alongside Meta for Dance Umbrella's festival marketing campaigns. HDK runs campaigns across both platforms with audience segmentation to reach new and existing festival audiences.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Substrakt: Manchester-based digital agency that builds websites, ticketing integrations and digital platforms for arts and cultural clients (e.g. Liverpool Philharmonic), directly competing with HdK for the same UK arts sector buyer.
• Soapbox: UK digital agency that builds websites, runs digital marketing campaigns and provides strategic support for charities and nonprofits, competing for the same purpose-driven UK marketing budgets as HdK.
• Reason Digital: Manchester-based digital agency specialising in websites, digital marketing and campaigns for charities and nonprofit organisations, overlapping HdK's content marketing, web build and ongoing support service lines.
• Useful Projects: UK digital design and strategy studio focused on charities, social impact and cultural organisations, providing website builds and digital strategy that competes for the same arts/culture/charity budgets as HdK.
• Bigger Boat: Bristol-based digital agency that builds websites, runs digital marketing and provides ongoing support for charities and nonprofits in the UK, closely aligned with HdK's vertical, delivery model and WordPress-style stack.
• Manifesto Digital: UK digital agency delivering website design and development alongside digital marketing services to a comparable client mix including purpose-led and cultural organisations.

Broad incumbents

• Blue State: Larger US-headquartered digital agency serving nonprofits, cultural institutions and progressive causes with strategy, fundraising and digital marketing, representing a scaled broader incumbent targeting the same cultural/nonprofit verticals.

Emerging players

• Whole Whale: US-based digital agency and training provider focused on nonprofits, offering websites, digital marketing and data services for cultural and charitable organisations, an emerging specialist in HdK's adjacent space.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wearehdk
• Instagraminstagram.com/wearehdk
• TikToktiktok.com/@wearehdk
• Xx.com/we_are_hdk
• Facebookfacebook.com/WeAreHdK

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 HdK