2006-2020

Founding Partner, Creative Director, Managing Director

Daisy Direct and Digital Marketing was my own creative agency set up with creative partner Gareth Lloyd and client services partner Rob Mortimer and with clients mainly in the financial sector. Financial clients included AIG Direct, AIG Life, Vanquis Bank, Ageas, Canada Life, NewDay, Markel International, Hymans Robertson, AXA, Aegon, The Pensions Advisory Service, GE Life, LV=.  All clients were won in competitive pitch against much larger agencies or came to us by recommendation. Ageas were a client for 12 years.

The concept of Daisy was to disrupt the traditional agency model. We built bespoke, agile project teams to deliver the creative vision by bringing in partner consultants (a chain). Think of it as a virtual agency built around lean creative and strategy. The network was on demand and enabled Daisy to scale up or down as each project needed and bring in partner specialist as needed, and plugging in a client’s in house resource or existing suppliers. It worked because we knew lots of other senior people from data, planning and production who’d also set up their own consultancies and didn’t want to be part of a big unwieldy agency anymore. It meant clients got the pick of genuine experts deployed on their projects, resourced appropriately and costs reduced.

My role was delivering integrated creative strategy and creative direction. I also managed all aspects of running the business, leading on new business and managing the on-staff team, contractors and partner companies.

Other non-financial clients were always part of Daisy’s work and in particular Not for Profit organisations. We worked with Family Action, SOS Children’s Villages, Vision Aid Overseas and consulted with The Big Issue Foundation. Sightsavers were a client for a number of years and you can see some of the work we did in my portfolio.

In other sectors, we worked with government contractor, Babcock Engineering, The Utility Warehouse developing the main websites and campaigns, CRM campaigns with CSMA Club (Boundless), Prime Location, Airmiles (now Avios) and a number of ventures developing an effective MVP method of working.