Substrakt

What they do

Substrakt partners with arts and cultural organisations to build digital products and experiences. Their client list spans theatres, galleries and film festivals on both sides of the Atlantic — Theatre Royal Plymouth, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The Naples Players and the Vancouver International Film Festival all appear in their recent work.

The agency's output covers the full digital stack for a cultural organisation: public-facing websites, online ticketing journeys, donation tools and content streaming. They built Dulwich Picture Gallery's website using Wagtail CMS, and they are developing integrations between their own booking product, Viadukt, and third-party tools such as Preevue.

Alongside bespoke project work, Substrakt develops and maintains three named products. Viadukt is a flexible online booking path aimed at helping cultural organisations sell more tickets. Showcase is a branded on-demand and live streaming platform for distributing and monetising digital content. Quick Donate is a single-step donation tool designed to sit alongside campaign messaging. These products mean Substrakt can offer clients a mix of off-the-shelf tooling and custom development rather than starting from scratch every time.

The team describes itself as designers, developers, strategists and digital specialists, distributed across Europe and North America. They publish original research — their 2025 Benchmark Report covers the performance of 87 websites in the cultural sector — and run events and resources alongside client work.

Consultancy is listed as a separate service strand, though the source material does not detail its scope beyond the general positioning around strategy and digital expertise.

What sets them apart

Working exclusively in arts and culture is the clearest differentiator. Most digital agencies serve a broad mix of sectors; Substrakt has narrowed to one, which means their product decisions, research and hiring are all shaped by the same set of client problems.

The B Corp certification, achieved in November 2022, is a concrete signal of how they position themselves commercially. B Corp status requires meeting verified standards on social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. For cultural sector clients — many of which are charities or publicly funded bodies — that alignment with purpose over profit is likely to matter in procurement decisions.

Their published commitment to salary transparency, documented in a December 2024 post by Kathryn Mason, and their stated approach to inclusive recruitment reflect values they have chosen to make public rather than keep internal. The Show the Salary pledge means advertised roles carry a salary figure, which is still far from universal in the UK agency market.

The 2025 Benchmark Report, covering 87 cultural sector websites, is the kind of sector-specific research that takes time to produce and signals genuine domain depth. Publishing it positions Substrakt as a source of knowledge for the sector, not just a supplier to it.

Their team spans Europe and North America, which gives them coverage for clients in both markets — the Vancouver International Film Festival work being one example of North American reach.

What they offer

• Viadukt — a flexible, accessible online booking path built for cultural organisations to sell tickets, with integrations including Preevue.
• Showcase — a custom-branded on-demand and live streaming platform for distributing and monetising digital content.
• Quick Donate — a single-step donation tool designed to support campaign messaging and digital fundraising initiatives.
• Consultancy — a named service strand alongside bespoke website and digital experience projects, built on Wagtail CMS among other technologies.