The New Media Unit is a new digital strategy and implementation team within the Government Communication Service. The NMU takes a best practice approach to digital comms, focussed on creativity and effectiveness, with the aim of boosting public understanding and engagement.

I lead the Department's marketing and in-house creative team, working in collaboration with my colleagues, Ministers, special advisors, key external stakeholders, senior policy colleagues, and the Government Communication Service.

Working with brands, rights holders and agencies such as Extreme-E Racing, Sky TV, and global Gen Z influencer agency Pulse Advertising to deliver advertising concepts & branded content across multiple markets.

In this newly created contract role at the world's biggest Gen Z social publisher I worked across briefing, strategy, creative, and client solutions to ultimately increase pitch conversions on high value, high priority briefs. Working as a coach/consultant, I collaborated with the best social-first talent in the industry to push strategic and creative thinking further. As a team, we created excellent work across brands like John Lewis, The AA, KFC, Muller, ITV, Tesco, Nissan, Paramount, and Specsavers.

I created and developed an agile, digitally advanced creative & content agency serving UM’s largest clients such as Coca-Cola, J&J, H&M, Microsoft, Just Eat and AMEX. I worked across campaign concepting, branded content, original content, and advertising. Working closely with insight, strategy and programmatic teams, I launched our addressable content & advertising product in late 2018. As the agency’s creative leader, I consulted across all clients which gave me a fascinating understanding of a range of sectors, audiences and creative approaches. I never missed my revenue target, and grew by over 10% every year.- Created, developed and managed an in-house advertising agency.- Board level management of a full-service agency.- Hired, trained and evaluated all creative and production staff.- Developed the skills and confidence of creative directors for 10 years.- Forecasted and managed agency P&L, increasing revenue every year for 7 years. Always overachieved versus revenue target.- Created and directed creative campaigns for local and global clients, overseeing post-production and media distribution.- Wrote and led creative pitch presentations.- Developed the agency core competencies initially from creative strategy to add in-house production, branded content, original content, through to addressable creative strategy & implementation.- Led, presented and supported numerous local, regional and global new business pitches for the wider agency.

As UM's first ever Head of Ideation, I drove the creation of innovative ideas to meet our clients' objectives. I led brainstorming sessions to develop bold, strategic concepts for campaigns, content, and branding, ensuring each idea was tailored to the client’s goals and target audience. Collaboration was at the heart of my role—I worked closely with insight, strategy, media planning, and account management teams to ensure ideas were seamlessly integrated across disciplines. I inspired and mentored my team to push boundaries, fostering a culture of innovation and creativity within the agency. Engaging with clients was a critical part of my work, presenting compelling concepts, responding to briefs with standout solutions, and building strong relationships to deeply understand their needs. I also oversaw the execution of ideas, ensuring the transition from concept to production maintained the originality and integrity of the vision. By measuring the success of campaigns and analysing performance, I refined the agency's ideation process to ensure every idea delivered maximum impact. My approach combined creativity, strategy, and leadership to drive UM’s ability to deliver standout, effective campaigns in a competitive media landscape.

The newly created role of Head of Youth Strategy allowed me to play a unique role in the Viacom business. My responsibility was to work with MTV’s marketing and commercial teams consulting on client strategy, and working with the insight team to identify youth trends and behaviours. I also acted as an advisor for their media agency, and consulted each week on programming acquisition with the executive team.

I launched the first sponsorship department in ZenithOptimedia’s global network with the legendary Tim Brady, bringing innovative strategy to an agency better known for the strength of its traditional buying departments. After a sustained period of growth for the team, I co-founded Newcast, a larger new strategic partnership division within the agency, working across all channels and focussed on measurable creative strategy.