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manc&dandy
2,669 messages delivered to founder-led creative agencies across the UK — configured in about 40 minutes, live two days later.
- 2,669 messages delivered
- 26,802 URLs analysed
- ~40 min of setup
- day one client reply to our own outreach
How we met them
There's a certain irony here: the best test of a prospecting tool is someone whose job is prospecting. Rob has spent 12 years finding clients for creative agencies. On 10 June 2026 at 3:36 am, our AI-written message landed in the contact form of his own website. At 10:10 the same morning, he replied:
“The system clearly works, but your well-written copy is what’s made it effective here.” — Rob Edison, manc&dandy — reply received 10/06/2026 at 10:10 am
The client
manc&dandy provides outsourced, fractional new business for creative agencies in the UK — Rob and his associate Mike sell precisely the service murmur automates: finding clients for agencies. Twelve years on this market.
- Contact : Rob Edison
- Country : United Kingdom
- Trade : Fractional new business for creative agencies
- Experience : 12 years
- Agreement : UK exclusivity on the creative-agency segment
The problem
Small creative agencies are brilliant at telling other brands' stories — and never find time to sell their own. New business rests on the founder, so it only happens when the order book empties: the worst possible moment. Man & Dandy sells the fix to that problem, and was facing it for its own pipeline.
What we built
Targeting drawn from our UK index — around 2 million companies, of which roughly 1 million were queryable at the time. During the discovery call, a live search on Wales alone surfaced about 380 agencies. The filter: creative agencies and professional services, under 100 staff, founder-led. An AI verification layer checks every target before sending and discards anything outside the profile.
The setup: about 40 minutes of configuration through the client link — details, targeting, message, personalisation — and the campaign went live two days later. Every reply lands directly in the client’s inbox; nothing transits through us. The complete file of contacted companies is delivered at the end of the run.
- ~380 agencies surfaced in Wales during the live demo
- <100 staff — founder-led filter
- D+2 from configuration to launch
Messages actually sent
Excerpts from the campaign, anonymised — the facts are kept, the names are not. Validation test: if you can swap the prospect’s name for a direct competitor’s and the message still works, it is too generic.
N° 01 — Independent filmmaker — 16 years, national broadcast roster
It makes sense that an independent filmmaker with sixteen years' experience and a roster that spans the BBC, Channel 4 and Olympic Broadcasting would build a business that's built squarely around your craft.
A career résumé no competitor could borrow.
N° 02 — eCommerce agency — founder-led since 1999, South Wales
It's refreshing to see an agency that's been founder-led since 1999, keeping that independent spirit while turning out serious eCommerce work for clients like Cardiff's best-known bike retailer.
A named, located client reference pulled from the portfolio.
N° 03 — Drone filming operator, Sussex
Twenty-six years behind the lens, 17 shooting, over a decade as a drone operator — it's the kind of career that builds itself on craft, not on chasing new business.
Three career figures, read straight off the site.
N° 04 — Independent marketing agency, Portsmouth — founded 2006
I saw that the agency was founded in Portsmouth back in 2006, and you've kept the team deliberately lean since then. That independence is something a lot of agencies aspire to, but it means new business rests on very few shoulders.
Founder, city and year on the prospect's about page (name withheld here).
N° 05 — 3D visualisation studio, Nottingham — founded 2022
I noticed the studio is a deliberately independent operation founded in 2022, just a handful of people running a full-stack 3D visualisation and software shop from Nottingham.
Recent founding year and exact speciality — nothing generic survives the test.
The numbers
Campaign — UK creative agencies
- Messages delivered : 2,669
- Successful URLs : 2,642
- URLs analysed : 26,802
- Send windows : 10, 13 and 15 July 2026 (+11 residual sends until 3 August)
- Personalised messages : 100% of sends
Why the channel isn’t saturated
- No exploitable contact form : 3,067
- Ghost or inactive sites : 1,560
- No delivery confirmation : 1,070
- Anti-spam filtering : 485
- Screened out by the AI profile filter : 14,832
- Other technical failures (network, timeouts, fields) : 2,441
- Delivered on 1st / 2nd / 3rd attempt : 1,059 / 675 / 445
- Delivered beyond the 3rd attempt : 463
Over half of delivered messages required technical retries on reluctant sites — volume a generic blast would simply have lost.
What came back
Replies landed directly in Rob’s inbox. A few, anonymised:
“Your appointment has been confirmed: July 15, 11:00 am BST, 45 minutes, Google Meet.” — A Welsh studio — booked a slot straight from the message, via the calendar link
“I’d be happy to take a 30 minute call but just a heads up; I’m quite sceptical re outsourced biz dev.” — A Manchester digital studio — scepticism included, call accepted
“I have just received your email to our hello@ address. I have half an hour next week for a chat.” — A creative agency, South Wales
No response rate published: the dashboard figure for this campaign was inflated by automated acknowledgements, and we told the client so in writing. Volumes and verifiable replies only.
The client’s verdict — unpolished
I’d definitely like to keep going as I can see real value. There are a couple of leads that I’m quite optimistic about!
What worked
- Interesting leads came through, including a couple Rob rates as genuinely promising.
- The sorted inbox on the client link: “definitely helpful” — and he would much rather see false positives than miss a reply.
- Forty minutes of setup, live two days later, every reply in his own inbox.
What we fix next run
- Leads skewed smaller than hoped — mostly one-man bands. Rob attributes it to the copy angle: next run tests other messages.
- The follow-up message wasn’t distinctive enough; next run adds a secondary ask or offer to lift responses.
- A forward-only reply address had no junk folder, and several replies landed there — caught only because they were also forwarded to us. Onboarding now flags this setup explicitly.
What's next
A new run on the remaining target with copy variants and a secondary offer in the follow-up — same setup, no reconfiguration.
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