Making It Work: Dublin marketing firm Mixtape targets €3m revenue on back of new deals

Mixtape Marketing, a Dublin-based marketing business, is eyeing double-digit growth over the coming years and is targeting annual revenues of more than €3 million by the end of 2025.

Based in Ballycoolin, Co. Dublin, Mixtape Marketing was founded by Niamh Kellett, Neil Devlin and Albi Larkin in 2012. The business has 10 full-time staff and 50 part-time employees, who work on a contract basis.

It had revenues of €2 million in 2023 but is growing strongly after securing contracts with a number of large businesses, including 123.ie, Mondelez, Sports Direct and Musgrave. Mixtape describes itself as a marketing agency focused on brand activation, experiential marketing and event management.

“Our job is basically to get your product into consumers’ hands. We specialise in getting new products out at high footfall events and locations. We bring a bit of personality to a brand and help consumers develop a friendly view of a brand,” Kellett said.

“For example, 123.ie is one of our newer clients and insurance isn’t that interesting to the average consumer. We are bringing life and personality to it. They sponsor Irish Athletics at present, so at the most recent Irish indoor championships we were at the National Sports Campus running events and games to bring some personality to the brand.”

Kellett said the company grew out of her and her co-founders’ shared experiences from years working in the marketing sector and the mutual knowledge built up between them.

“We knew each other for years. Neil and Albi were in school with my older brother so I’ve known them both since we were teenagers. Our careers crossed paths quite a bit while working with different agencies,” she said.

“I got to a stage where I wanted to make a change. As I got talking to the other founders, they decided they wanted to work on something with me as well. We had an idea but nothing more. So we knuckled down and got down to business,” Kellett added.

After starting the agency, each of the co-founders was able to bring a couple of clients to give the new business a decent start early on. However, Mixtape got its first big break when it landed a contract with gambling giant Paddy Power ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London.

It was a classic case of guerrilla marketing, Kellett said. Mixtape worked with the betting giant to host an egg and spoon race in a small agricultural village in the south of France called London.

Paddy Power then ran a poster and billboard campaign across the British capital stating it was the official sponsor of the “largest athletics event in London this year”. There were some legal to-ings and fro-ings on the back of the campaign, but the plan ultimately worked.

“It was a huge success and we won a global marketing award on the back of it. Thankfully, since then, we’ve gone from strength to strength,” Kellett said.

She added that she is confident Mixtape has the solid foundations to capture future growth, with a core focus on organic and steady development.

“By the end of next year we’d like to hit €3 million in annual revenues. We’re quite ambitious and we know it’s achievable. We’re adding new services so we’d like to make some key hires in the next 18 months to aid that,” Kellett added.