James Clifton takes up CEO role at Marketing Practice

Former Mission Group boss James Clifton, who quit last month after 5 years heading the business, is joining global B2B marketing agency The Marketing Practice, as chief executive.

Founded in 2002, The Marketing Practice has offices in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore, and Australia; its clients include Virgin Media O2 Business, Sage, NTT Data, Microsoft, Quest and Citrix.

Clifton will take up the position on January 2 and be based in the UK. He will oversee operations and be responsible for strengthening The Marketing Practice’s client base and growth strategy, globally.

Clifton started his career at Renault, then had spells at Black Cat, RMG Connect and JWT before joining Balloon Dog as chief executive in 2007. A year later the agency merged with Big Communications to form Big Dog and was acquired by Mission in 2012.

Under Clifton’s leadership, Mission became a prominent group of digital marketing and communications agencies, employing over 1,100 professionals across 28 locations spanning three continents.

Clifton, who had been Mission CEO since 2019, said: “The Marketing Practice’s proposition is market leading, and my priority is to ensure the organisation not only continues to deliver on its promise to its clients but that its teams are best placed to target a new phase of growth throughout 2025 and beyond.

“Having run an entrepreneurial and empowered agency network, successfully expanding its capabilities and client offer, I feel well placed to lead the Marketing Practice in this next phase.”

Marketing Practice founder and non-executive director Clive McNamara added: “The Marketing Practice possesses an exceptionally strong client portfolio and pipeline and an array of talent, we look forward to welcoming James in the new year as we look to build on that success.

“The last couple of years have been a time of economic challenges and uncertainty within the tech and agency sectors, which we have had to navigate alongside our clients. With James at the helm, we will continue to focus on client and employee experience in order to support our clients in driving sustainable growth.

“James has a commitment to building people-centric businesses, to learning and development and nurturing world-class talent. I’m more than confident he has the experience and expertise to drive the business forward for the benefit of existing and new clients and also our teams.”