About me
FRACTIONAL HEAD OF COMMS
24 years of observing, learning, working with and getting under the skin of brands
Over my career, I have developed a deep strategic understanding of how communications is essential to a brand or company’s commercial success.
I devise commercially-driven integrated brand communication campaigns built on audience insight and media and/or channel knowledge.
I’ve acted as quality control and creative lead, often having to stand up for my ideas and beliefs with clients and the C-suite.
As a digital native with marketing experience, I’ve always worked across all channels encouraging clients, brands, teams and colleagues to trust me and my results.
Brand experience
Background
70s child, Middle sibling, Generation X…
…I could be labelled in many ways, but I was the child that asked my parents ‘Why?’ a hundred times a day, if not more (sorry Mum).
Never happy to let things lie, ‘Why?’ soon turned to ‘How?’ Education sated my curiosity short term; science and maths explained how things worked. At home my Dad taught me about mechanics by tinkering on cars, bikes and trying (mostly successfully) to fix everything, and my Mum taught me about sewing, books and gardening.
“You can’t be a pilot because you are a woman”
Sometimes I was let down by the responses to my questions ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’ (no thanks to my school careers advisor for the above response) but those shortsighted replies often only served to galvanise me. I studied literature and computer programming at university and fell in love with the web, coding and digital communications well before Google had been launched. Travelling, living and working abroad exposed me to languages, culture and art. And I learnt to fly a plane too. I still do.
Landed with a bump
In the end, it was my age (a ripe 26 years old no less) and 9/11 that put an end to my dreams of being a commercial pilot, not my gender. London beckoned and a role working on some of IPC Media’s first ever websites. I had to think creatively about the sites and what they would do for companies that didn’t even have an email address. I was answering everyone else’s ‘Why?’ questions for the first time.
In the end, hard telesales wasn’t for me but I thrived when I was leading a team, devising and selling in creative concepts, and developing strategies for business owners and brand managers based on their business goals. I had found my career.
For the next seventeen years, I worked in-house and agency-side for a wide variety of lifestyle, interior design, architecture and construction brands. This dual experience gave me a deep understanding of the communications issues faced by brands, and the creative ability to resolve them.
Since 2019, I have worked as a freelance communications consultant and this has progressed into a fully fractional CCO role. My clients come to me mostly by word of mouth either as referals from existing clients or through my extensive network.
