From shoestring to icing on the cake

The first ten years were spent in arts marketing, stretching shoestring budgets in the dedicated pursuit of bums on seats. Deft at envelope stuffing, in-house design and endless direct mail campaigns, I also mastered marketing plans and funding applications. 

I drove around Yorkshire in a council van brimming with brochures, then trod the streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh with posters, Blu Tack and smile at the ready. My life was press releases by day and press shows by night. Working in the arts was great and a hard act to follow! 

With some delight, I was able to side-step into the whisky industry. Same side of the fence but a very different field; the next few years were spent as Marketing Manager for The Scotch Malt Whisky Society. During this time, the Society transitioned from a feisty independent spirit, to jewel in the crown of Glenmorangie, to the icing on the cake within Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. My swansong was project managing an award-winning rebrand for The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, encompassing new product development and all on and offline presentation.

In your shoes

Throughout my marketing career, I’ve commissioned and worked with a multitude of agencies and consultants including design, PR, publishing, market research and digital. As the client, I understood these relationships made the difference between the success or failure of a project, not to mention a good or bad day! I knew the standard of service and expertise needed to get the job done.

Over the years, I encountered and learned a lot.  For example, I experienced what it’s like:

• not to be listened to 
• to be fobbed off
• to feel the slow-build stress of not being kept informed of project timings, progress or budgets
• to be nagged by an agency when there are more pressing priorities to juggle

Thankfully, such scenarios were the exception. For the most part, I worked with some of the best agencies in Scotland and around the UK. I developed great working relationships and enjoyed collaborating on fantastic projects great and small.

‘Don’t fence me in!’

All of this stood Noble Ox in good stead from the very start. So much so, that despite perhaps being perceived as ‘the other side of the fence’, my daily default is to jump over to look at things from the client’s perspective.

Just to stretch the metaphor a little further, Noble Ox is rarely on or at the other side. There is no fence! Quite simply, we are by your side every step of the way.