Thirty, split between three offices in London, Leeds and Ipswich. Oh, there are also our avatars working away at our fourth office in Second Life.
Who does what?
Katherine Jerman and Jamie Riddell founded Cheeze in 1999 (they're also married) and have steered us to great things. Katherine is managing director, while Jamie runs Cheeze 2.0, as well as being director of innovation. Matt O'Brien, head of client services, runs the media teams. Kirsten Sangster, financial controller, works with Graham Bowler to keep us all in check. Michelle Barber and Emma Ingrey run all our offices - and our coffee supplies, which is a heady responsibility. Craig Mytton is search group head at the London office. Pete Oxlade and Jenny Stollery look after the Ipswich teams, while James Lunn, aka "Big Daddy", is group head of new business and marketing, a roving reporter based in the Leeds office.
Who is the biggest character and why?
There's Adam Russell, who refers to himself on Flickr as "Geek with a bit of chic". Then there's Mr Lunn. He's a legend. He used to be a teacher and Boney M wrote Daddy Cool about him. Then we've got Nate Cook, Cheeze 2.0 account manager, and our own Mr Soho in Ipswich.
What is your office atmosphere like?
Bi-polar and varying by office. Mondays and Tuesdays can be very quiet, as these are results days and we are busy doing sums. The rest of the week passes more noisily, depending on coffee and cake quotas.
What stands you apart from the rest of the industry?
We are a cutting-edge digital agency that builds stunning creative, can audit and orchestrate search engine optimisation and has strategy and planning teams as well as strong buying credentials. We know everything there is to know about paid-for search. We build landing pages, run a blog and podcast directory, have created RSS-fed banners, as well as offline creative for our clients. At heart, we are direct marketing experts with a peculiar affinity for maths.
What does it take to get a job in your team?
We get more than 600 applicants a year, so you need to be good, and you definitely need to know your percentages (without a calculator). We recruit from all disciplines: creative, strategy, direct and media owner side, as well as non-media specialists.
How are staff encouraged to hit targets?
We could sum it up perhaps by saying that seeing our hard work pay off is pretty good motivation - combined that is, with a fridge full of white wine and St Peter's ale.
Where do you all let you hair down?
As we are split between three offices, it's often quite random. The Ipswich local would be The Greyhound, the Devonshire Hotel up near Leeds is another Cheeze haunt. But like most people, we take the opportunity to let our hair down as often as possible, wherever we are.
Is your team the best in the business?
E-mail julia.martin@haymarket.com.
.jpg)
.jpg)