What I do
Went freelance in September 2000 and in the last 9 years have worked for some 80 clients and well over 100 different brands.
Written articles for Admap and Market Leader both in 2008
Won the prize for best new thinking at the Market Research Society 2004 conference (shortlisted for best paper as well)
Speaker, facilitator and trainer for WARC, APG, IDM and MRS
Former agencies include CDP, FCB, Bates, Grey Integrated and Carlson
Former roles: planning director, brand consultant, shortlisting judge
Writer: Currently writing an introductory text about account planning. Contributed chapter to Papers on Account planning published 2008 Ed H Weichselbaum. Contributed a chapter on the Alpha Phenonomenon published June 2007. Also a chapter on researching religion to Qualitative Research in Context, AQR in Sept 2000
Some clients in 2008 Communications planning Research Facilitation Training
MSB – London Eye Brand development
Mabox Reed pitch
Insight Research
pitch development research for COCAA, NSI
AIS – EDF
CRA – Oxford Diocese
Birdlife International
Pascal Jewellery
Planning training – Inferno, DAD
IAA Romania – IAA school – Marketing the next level
with Mike Imms Generating Research insights
IE Business School Distance Learning Masters: online research
IDM – Propositions and positioning
I offer business people, marketing people and agencies the following services
Communications strategist/planner – I develop communications strategies. Which is a lot more complicated than it used to be since these days you have to be willing to use any of the hundreds of communication channels available. When I was an advertising planner in the 1980s the answer to any marketing problem was advertising. But as one of the first planners to move outside of a conventional advertising environment from 1990 I’ve now been working through the line (to use the jargon) over 15 years. So have been used to brief sales promotion, direct marketing, sponsorship, the web the list goes on. My work is used to brief and shape the creatives and designers when they shape campaigns. One of the most exciting challenges of the last few years has been working with media specialists where we don’t plan the content at all but instead look to optimise the communication plan.
Qualitative Research Practitioner and Research buyer. Wide experience in buying in carrying out qualitative research for clients or buying in research on behalf of clients. What In the period I have been running the company I have developed broader expertise in delivering research to develop brand positioning, new product development, and to research how products fit into people’s lives. One of the most exciting challenges is to pull together a team of specialists to work on a particular project. I can assemble a team of people more expert than any single research agency in the country could expect to keep together on a payroll just to work on that one project. And what I tell clients is that you only pay for them when they’re working on your business. You’re not paying for rent or to keep other junior staff employed. Working with the best people and without overheads we work faster and cover more ground.
Facilitator. Another string to the planners bow. A facilitator who knows how to energise a group of people and keep the ideas flowing. I have run workshops for clients who wanted to grow their businesses dangerously fast, clients who wanted to get a large number of people to agree a common communication plan within a matter of hours, even therapy type work for teams who had fallen out with each other big time, And then there’s the more standard work of brand development or developing product ideas. One of the main benefits of facilitation is that every programme can be bespoke and it is also possible to change direction midflow if required.
Trainer as well. I train up communications planners – in fact I’ve trained whole agencies to use planning tools. But I run courses about marketing, about research, about how to work more effectively generating insights, running debrief meetings, how to use multimedia in your presentations. Most recently I have been developing training courses about running online research projects.
I think that’s probably quite broad enough!
