The Marketing Communications Manager role at Andor Technology, reporting to the Director of Product Management, involves the management of a team of 7 highly-skilled professional Marketers, including a front-end web developer, graphic designer, global events coordinator, digital specialist and lead generation executives. The role necessitates a close relationship with the Product Management team, creating and editing marketing material for multiple forms of web and print. While consistency across all forms of media is critical, each message is tailored specifically for the audience that we are seeking to engage.While adhering to brand guidelines, we embrace opportunities to evolve the style of our communication, often exploring new and unique methods to reach our customers. These have included an interactive tradeshow game called FINDING NEO (https://youtu.be/QiFtN6vn_Sw?t=227), developed entirely in-house, our Rubik's Cube campaign entitled ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES, ONE SOLUTION (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YumAkoqwu3o) and a suite of Virtual Reality experiences through the custom-designed IMARIS VR app. With over 100 global events annually, a portfolio of more than 80 core products and a 10,000-strong market of scientific research and OEM customers, our sizeable budget and long-term strategies require dedicated planning and meticulous execution. The same could be said for every activity we engage in. As such, we are constantly striving to improve our processes, allowing us to deliver effectively and efficiently on our key messages every time, both internally and externally.

With the growth of the e-Marketing Executive role, and subsequent responsibilities, a further web developer was brought into the department. I was tasked with training him and managing his responsibilities until he became comfortable with the code, structure and expectations.I continued my current role (e-Marketing Executive since March 2008), now set with the objective of achieving 30% growth rate in website visitors and Quotation Request. As of March 2015, the corporate websites of Andor, Bitplane, Spectral (acquired) and Apogee (acquired) amassed a total of 58,000 unique visitors (38,000 from www.andor.com - up 245% since March 2008) and almost 500 Quotation Requests (280 from www.andor.com - up 460% since March 2008).Multimedia responsibilities were added to my role, with the requirement being to add branding to internal videos and presentations, assist in the creation and branding of training and self-help videos for the website, editing and cleaning of webinar video and audio for availability online and the creation of new content for product launches.In April 2015, following the departure of the Marketing Communications Manager, I was asked to take on the role of managing the Marketing Department at Andor. The department consists of a Graphic Designer, Events Coordinator, Web Developer, Digital Marketer and 3 Lead Generation Executives (2 based in the US).

In March 2008, following the departure of our in-house Web Developer, I was asked to take on full responsibility for Andor's two corporate websites, www.andor.com and www.emccd.com, which generated 12,000 unique visitors and 50 Quotation Requests each month. This included the design, development and content management of each domain.By March 2012, I was managing 5 corporate websites, bringing 40,000 unique visitors each month (32,000 from the two original sites) and generating over 300 Quotation Requests. The corporate site, and newly acquired www.bitplane.com continued to be built on their existing framework as I taught myself the ASP.NET framework in preparation for a future redesign and restructure of both sites.I also managed the created of Andor's first iPad Application, which, now on its 4th edition, is still being used on a daily basis by Andor sales and distributors across the world. The App has also been distributed to the sales network of Oxford Instruments, a company of over 2,000 employees and turnover of almost £400 million.During this time, I introduced the oDesk Marketplace to Andor. oDesk (now Upwork) is an online freelance agency whereby a business or individual can secure the services of highly skilled web developers, researchers, graphic designers and other technical areas of expertise. This enabled us to significantly increase the output from Andor's Marketing department at minimal cost to the business. As of 2015, Upwork is still proving to be a vital resource within the department, and wider Oxford Instruments business.

Working as an assistant to the Creative Services team I was involved in the editing and managing of content for Specification Sheets, Flyers, Brochures and Technical Articles. Over time I was given the responsibility of creating and designing further collateral, as well as liaising with the Product Managers and Application Specialists to agree on styling, content and availability of the material. I was also put in charge of maintaining stock levels, ordering merchandise and finding and managing third party Literature Fulfillment services to support Andor's global network of salespeople and distributors.As Andor began to seriously consider the role of Digital Marketing in the global strategy of the business, I was asked to develop the company's presence online. Initially working alongside an in-house Web Developer, I set up profiles for Andor on YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn, immediately engaging with potential customers. As one of the first companies in our market to make full use of the social channels, we received significant engagement despite, at that time, very little new content being created. We began to move towards the creation of more video content, and I was involved in working externally with design companies and internally on the website, taking time to learn and apply the principles of HTML, CSS, JS, ASP.NET (C# and VB).

This position represented an opportunity to join a global technology company, based locally, in a scientific industry. This was a natural step on from my recently obtained BSc in Physics with Astrophysics at QUB. Although my time in the Production department was short, I have since gone on to spend 10 years at Andor Technology, having recently been given the task of managing the Marketing Communications department.