Itchen Valley Brewery is a small independent brewery in Hampshire operating within a crowded and low margin environment. Due to COVID my role became more varied as the months progressed. Immediately realised when performing a cost and competitor analysis that we were making a loss on every bottle of beer we sold and that our casks sales were 35% cheaper than our competitors. Repriced our products to start making a profit which included negotiations with national retailers such as Waitrose, Coop and JD Wetherspoons. Rebranded our beers into Core / Seasonal / Heritage Ranges Implemented sensible naming conventions for our core beers that resulted in a more end user-friendly experience. Expanded the core range of beers to include eight year-round beers. Undertook a remarketing of the brewery via print, DM, social and telesales to both B2B and B2C. B2C was important during the pandemic and through leaflet drops and my expertise in Facebook adverts, I doubled the turnover in our onsite Tap Room and delivered an increase of 200% via our website.With no CRM system for sales, I pulled together a weekly call sheet of loyal, lapsed and prospective customers this included information such as name, when they like to be called, what they order and pricing. I produced a weekly incentive to order based on inventory in our cellar which included discounts for multiple casks ordered. Spent approximately one day per week cold calling prospective new customers with many wins with the biggest being the Pig Hotel chain. Face of the brewery that led to national and regional coverage during the pandemic including a segment on ITV News where I was interviewed live.

SkiWeekends are a niche, family-run ski operator, based in Southampton.Part of the leadership team I was responsible for the strategy and implementation of the full marketing mix with the objective to grow the c.£5m turnover business.Developed and delivered go to market strategy for the business including the first joined-up marketing campaign across TV, outdoor, press, DM, and PR.Implemented a customer contact and data strategy in the absence of a CRM system this involved manually moving customers into data silos with the end effect of increased engagement and less churn/opt-outs. A key focus of the marketing department was on digital marketing channels (Web, SEO, PPC, Social, Email, Content). This focus increased the number of high-quality leads into the business in a challenging ski season in 2019/20.In a challenging ski season and through careful management of SEO and PPC the SkiWeekends website fared much better than the industry trend. For the period 1 Oct 2019 to 29 Feb 2020, the website maintained its traffic despite industry wide drops of 36% for “Ski Weekends” and 27% for “Short Ski Breaks”. Despite the industry wide decline, Google paid clicks were up 11% compared to last season despite 4% less in spend. The number of users stayed consistent and the cost per click dropped by 14%.Delivered a bespoke, fresh, and innovate new website that had been stuck in development hell for the two years prior to my joining the business. Despite launching amidst a global pandemic, the migration went smoothly with improved rankings across all our key words.Realigned all customer communications under a completely new set of brand guidelines, setting the tone of voice for the business and bringing this through in all customer touchpoints. Overhauled the designs of adverts, email templates etc to inject some passion, get across our brand values but most importantly to show skiing as something fun, fast-paced and energetic.

Responsible for all sales and marketing functions for an independent retail business spread across multiple locations. Improved sales and margins YOY.Set and lead the sales strategy for the business. Was the face of the business and selling was done face to face, through telephone negotiation and online. Spotted and exploited sales opportunities from customers. Managed the customer pipeline to align business need vs. customer wants/needs.Managed all pricing and margins for the business including customer and supplier negotiating. Developed a good working relationship with suppliers with promotional discounts and surplus stock being sold through the business at favourable pricing to customers and higher margins. Devised, developed and owned the sales and marketing plan for the business including forecasting for the 12-month period and setting and monitoring of sales targets for the team.Marketed the business though digital and traditional marketing with a bias towards digital due to cost and ability to instantly promote the business, sales and/or surplus stock. Primarily used Facebook and Instagram campaigns for immediacy and SEO, PPC and Emails for awareness.Implemented a loyalty club to enable the business to build a database of customers with their sales history and potential customers. This enabled us to run targeted DM campaigns, email triggers and to utilise customer demographics into leaflet drops, targeted newspaper and radio adverts.Improved customer engagement with a range of in store events from early bird Christmas opening to meet the suppliers to suppliers bringing end of line or surplus stock to sell at big discounts to the customer. One evening generated over £10k in sales.Planned, pitched and implemented a complete customer contact system, from the till, to inventory to running marketing campaigns from the back of it. This saved time and money but importantly elevated our business with regular and timely communications to our customers.

- Responsible for the strategic direction and profitable growth of the Merlin Annual Pass across four key markets – UK, Germany, USA and ANZ. A marketing and commercial role with responsibility for driving volume, yield and ultimately profitability.- Grew MAP in 2012 to deliver in excess of 300k Passholders with c. £35m in revenue and c. £15m in on park spend. Delivered over 20% growth in 2013 this was in excess of 60k new passholders. This was achieved by business reengagement, the implementation of a new CRM and retention strategy and key partnerships. - Challenged and transformed the business thinking behind MAP from a revenue ‘cash cow’ into a more strategic loyalty based product with greater long term business rewards this was achieved by a strategy of ‘winning hearts and minds’ from the boardroom to staff. Redefined the vision of and purpose of the Merlin Annual Pass proposition ahead of an exciting prelaunch in February 2014. - Delivered a number of key projects - these include vital MI such as tracking MAP usage between attractions and in attraction spend, evolving the data collection of the group, to combating MAP fraud and lastly implementing a monthly direct debit product that allowed us to capture both the affluent and everyday segments this helped achieve the growth of pass holders. - Implemented the first coordinated marketing campaigns both above and below the line across our attractions, online and via our call centre. Key highlight was delivering my first national TV campaign in 2012, proving its ROI enabling a repeat both 2013 and 2014. - Delivering a focused UK renewal strategy through digitally printed renewal mailings, bespoke emails, SMS and IVR messaging. Renewal rates increased from 20% to 25% (c.55k passholders), in 2012 and stood at 40% (c.85k passholders) in 2013. - Five direct reports with full P&L responsibility with a marketing budget in excess of £2.5m. - CRM strategy owner for the group with responsibility for a £3m account.

- Tasked with developing and managing the communications strategy in accordance with customer insight, commercial and brand priorities.- Increased response rates using all available CRM channels – Direct Mail, Email and Outbound calling from an average of 0.35% to over 1.90% this generated c.32k passengers with booking revenue of over £66m through segmentation, data integration and an integrated direct mail plan. - Nurtured and developed a measurable guest loyalty programme, with the aims of differentiating Cunard from competitors, encouraging retention and increasing the lifetime value of our guests. - Interrogating and analysing the customer database to ensure its effective use. Using the various variables to build models to better understand our guests and their value to the business. A key member of the project team that facilitated the data sharing across brands for CRM purposes. - Implemented a management reporting structure within my department to pull together dashboard information from the UK, Europe, North America and Australian markets to disseminate to management to facilitate budget planning, trend analysis, new build requests and to gage what is happening in the market place. - Expanded the customer database through relationship marketing activity such as list acquisition, partnership marketing, telemarketing and exploiting our association with various national charities.- Manage a team of 3 direct reports and responsible for their progress and development. Successfully integrated the team to form a tight cohesive unit. Coaching is a big part of my management style. - Seconded to the project team working on the implementation of a ‘Single Customer View’ database which involves the merging of the 5 databases of Carnival UK. - Plan, monitor and control marketing budget of circa. £1m, to ensure business objectives can be met within budget and on time to a high standard.

Was responsible for several Royal Bank Of Scotland insurance products including Options, Journeywise and MediCover travel insurance, ensuring that they are developed through an integrated marketing and communication strategy with the aim of ultimately selling them to competitors. Develop optimal pricing strategies balancing the needs and wants of the customer whilst meeting the aims of the business. Assimilating research findings to develop new products, brand extensions and product over hauls as the customer, company and market place dictates to maximise customer spend within our products. Amplify retention by nurturing loyal customers, and turning them into advocates.Manage the strategy shift from telephone to web based sales by careful management of PPC and SEO coupled with a thorough understanding of web and email based marketing. Redesigned key websites to improve the customer journey and conversion.Creation of campaigns in-line with newly created brand propositions thus ensuring relevant brand messaging in all printed media, promotional, event and website communications.Source and manage outsourced media/design/web/search engine optimisation agencies.Reviewed campaign successes and ROI analysis and presented results to all Senior Managers (RBS Insurance, external stakeholders and underwriters).Transformed MediCover into the leading travel insurance provider. MediCover’s sales grew year on year whilst the business created has been balanced and profitable.Initiated and project managed the re-launch of Options Travel Insurance with the key aim of modernising the product with the key enhancements making it the best value travel insurance provider.Stabilised JourneyWise Travel Insurance - a joint venture between Inter Group and AIG. Differentiated it from Options Travel Insurance on pricing, target market and quirky marketing campaigns.Plan, present and manage budgets of circa. £650,000

Keytools was the market-leading supplier of adaptive IT equipment to the computer-enabled market. In this small but rapidly expanding niche market Keytools turnover over last financial year was circa £2.5m.The infrastructure of the department was based on the organic promotion of the brand, through B2B, B2C and third party resale. There are 5 key focuses: Web Design; Direct Mail & Data; PR; Training and Graphic Design. These areas drove the overall business plan and my role was crucial in the creation and management of this plan.I benefited from a thorough understanding of literature production, including print buying. Budget was dependent on the objectives of the 5 key focuses above. In terms of yearly marketing spend, I was responsible for was just over £50,000. Oversaw all marketing communications operations, including database and direct mail analysis, online marketing campaigns, publicity, event management and web development.Key liaison between sales and marketing, ensuring that data was effectively shared.Responsible for the management and development of 5 reports.

Octagon operated 5 motorsport venues in the UK: Brands Hatch; Silverstone; Oulton Park; Cadwell Park and Snetterton. Events held at these venues include The Foster’s British Grand Prix, American Champ Cars and the World Superbike Championship.Marketed the corporate hospitality packages for all main events. My role also included creating awareness in the market place of our B2B facilities such as conferences and race days. During my brief tenure I planned, briefed and undertook several direct mail campaigns. I also implemented a new advertising strategy to monitor effectiveness for the B2B sector, radically changing previous mail shot formats and increased response rates by as much as 15%.Set up a regular newsletter to go to our B2B customers and bought in lists to inform, persuade and promote special offers we were running at the time.Organised HTML emails to corporate hospitality buyers featuring our corporate hospitality packages.Researched and implemented product enhancements and added value offers for large organisations to temp them to book corporate hospitality places.Undertook a major photography campaign to update current literature, which was looking tired and dated.In partnership with our PR agency organised a Grand Prix Party featuring Damon Hill, Eddie Jordan, Status Quo and others. Liaised with the organisers and band management/agents, including logistics of VIPs, media partners and photographers.For the first time in many years hospitality at the Grand Prix and World Superbikes was over subscribed which was a huge result. We succeeded in making Silverstone the premier venue for hospitality.

During my period of employment Ducal went from being a family run company to part of the Silentnight Group of companies. Ducal was the brand leader in the UK cabinet furniture market. Turnover was circa £26m (Trade).Research proposal and management including brand positioning and evaluation. This led to new product development which in turn led to the introduction of several new ranges of furniture. Competitor and customer performance analysis.Introduced a floor model tracking analysis system. Category management.Pricing of current furniture and new ranges to ensure that customer and business aims were achieved whilst maximising income and the value of the products sold.Advertising, planning, booking and analysis.B2B marketing, including advertising, direct mail and PR.External call centre management.