I got into the event industry because it’s another channel to deliver really good consumer-centric campaigns, which is what two of our businesses do. We have a creative agency called Wolfpack built to influence whichever people our clients see as their core target consumer, by whichever means are the most effective. We also have a specialist food and beverage sector marketing agency called Drink, focused on creating and changing consumer behaviour right along the path to consumption. Obviously for clients of both businesses, events are a key opportunity to deliver really good physical brand experiences for consumers, a chance to create positive vibes towards brands.
I have worked here since… hard to say, all my working life has led to this point really. As well as working for other people in various marketing-related disciplines, I’ve had another marketing agency in the past and then I met my partner and she had an agency in the same field. It made sense for us to join forces, which we did in 2011 in both a business and personal capacity. We’ve been on a roll since, opening two more businesses, moving house countless times, having a baby and who knows what else is on the horizon.
I was attracted to this particular role because of strategy, writing, developing ideas, concepts and campaigns. They've always been the things I’m best at. And now I’m surrounded by incredible, talented people so it allows me to get on with it. The catalyst for me was meeting my partner Jo. She’s the driving force behind our business, making sure things get done. I just flounce around being creative and I wouldn't be able to do that for very long without her making us commercial, or the team we’ve recruited delivering everything perfectly.
Not many people know that I left school early, without so much as an A Level qualification. People just assume because you work in the creative industries that you've navel gazed through a degree somewhere living on beans on toast. That wasn't for me. I wanted to get on with it. There’s no difference between doing a degree in geography or history and ending up in marketing and not doing a degree at all. It’s all about how much you want to do it. And I’ve always wanted to do it, so thought I should just make my own way into the business.
The best event I’ve been involved was the next one.
If I could do it all over again I would have a quiet word with inexperienced brand managers working for huge brands who believe the hype and treat their agencies badly and unprofessionally, that annoys me no end. The collective experience that is usually gathered on the agency side of the meeting room table is something that should be embraced and harnessed. And being a good client means doing just that.
The one thing I can’t stand is pitching for and then winning work that never materialises. It’s incredibly demoralising for agency teams.
Outside of work I spend my time talking about work with my partner. It’s all pervasive when you are responsible for the mortgages of everyone who works for you. You can’t turn it off. Our evenings and weekends are spent planning the future, discussing the present, interrogating ourselves about the past. Seeing how we can improve what we do for our team and our clients.
If money were no object I would develop a small chain of luxury London hotels. When it’s busy the money you have to pay for a night in even a very average hotel is obscene.
If I could switch places with anyone else in the industry it would be... I wouldn't. We’re on a mission, so whilst that's happening, I wouldn't want to be anyone or anywhere else. It's a hard earned privilege to run your own business and give talented people their break. When you are in such a position you value it and work hard to maintain it.
If I ruled the event industry I would abdicate immediately. As Groucho Marx said, I wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member. I prefer to be in opposition, it's a position I’m more comfortable with. I think all good creative thinkers need rules to bend, a system to push against, norms to challenge. You don’t change things when you take in the view from the top, you change things looking at them from the ground up.
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