Rankin built an ad agency for bespoke work — AI and a tax bill liquidated it

Rankin — the photographer John Rankin Waddell — set up his advertising agency around 2019 as Rankin Creative, later renamed Rankin Group, 100% financed and owned by himself. For its first three years the business did well, selling exactly what his name stood for: bespoke creative services built around storytelling and brand building.

Then the market for that work disappeared. Budgets shrank across the economy, and the commissions went to programmatic buying and AI-based solutions instead; after the pandemic, even the face-to-face relationships that agencies like his lived on went away. 'The technological revolution has essentially gutted a lot of the creative services agencies delivering great non-programmatic work,' he said. 'It's been a perfect storm.'

The end came from a direction the market decline hadn't prepared for: an unforeseen six-figure tax bill. 'Up until that point, we were looking at a recovery plan or, in the worst-case scenario, a winding down. Even after the demand, I tried to work out a deal, but it was just too late.' In October 2024 the company was forced into liquidation, owing more than £1M to HMRC, over £300,000 to former staff in redundancy money, and £258,000 to trade creditors. Rankin's photography and production business, Rankin & Co., stood outside the liquidation and kept trading.