It’s been a while (it feels) since I wrote one of these (at least a few weeks?), and we’ve been at it again – attracting top talent from the area to become part of our ever-growing StrategiQ family! This time we’re welcoming two new members of the team, Senior Marketing Strategist Gemma White and Marketing Consultant Oli Hearsum!
*round of applause please*
So, let’s find out a little more about our two newest additions to the team. We’ll start with Gemma White (the marketing extraordinaire and super strategist!), who began her career as an Account Exec at a PR agency, carrying out relationship audits for clients across a range of sectors.
Upon discovering her flair for working with clients, Gemma swiftly moved into Account Management at an agency in London – which landed her the opportunity to work with huge brands such as Pizza Hut and Costa Coffee on new store openings, rebrands and product launches. Hard work and successful results then lead to Gemma becoming an Account Director for BP for seven years; managing all the below-the-line marketing, all on-site point of sale, strategy planning and promotional rollouts or experiential campaigns for Nectar, Wild Bean Cafe & BP Ultimate Fuel. She was also part of the team that led the marketing for the partnership trial and ultimate roll out with M&S! Faaaancy.
If that wasn’t enough to make us all feel a bit inadequate, Gemma then moved on to co-owning a brand consultancy called y? which delivered an array of branding services and consultancy for a number of big names, including Crown Worldwide, Domino Printing Sciences, Bourn Hall Clinic and The HALO Trust, among several others.
So, what does Gemma do for fun?
After all that hard work, she surely deserves some rest time – but alas! Gemma spends most of her time watching from the touchline of a rugby pitch, by the side of a pool or washing sports kits for her sporty, petrolhead family! To get a bit of peace and quiet for herself, Gemma loves to swim, enjoys a good session of pilates (don’t we all), a good circuit class (nobody really enjoys circuits) and a quiet bit of sewing. When she does actually get more than a few minutes to herself, Gemma is a bit of an adventurer and loves travelling the world – especially around Asia where she spent a lot of time as a child.
Why StrategiQ?
“Someone mentioned StrategiQ to me and said I should “check them out”. I emailed Andy and came in for a chat, and I was equally surprised and delighted with what I found – an agency that has a strong sense of direction and drive, with an open, friendly and caring culture – an agency that knew itself and where it was going. It was something I absolutely wanted to be a part of.”
Aww, thanks for coming to check us out, Gemma, we’re pleased you did!
Our second marketing maestro is sports-fan and sneaky spy Oli Hearsum!
Oli has joined the team here at StrategiQ as a Marketing Consultant, and began his career in marketing after doing a degree at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich. After graduating, Oli wasted no time and worked agency-side for over 5 years, beginning as a copywriter before moving into paid social advertising and PPC. Because apparently learning all those different specialisms wasn’t enough, he also more recently took a focus on SEO, and then moved into heading up the Digital Marketing team at a local agency – which required some super tough trips to New York (we all feel for you Oli…).
When Oli’s not learning every. single. possible. aspect of digital marketing, he’s a huge fan of sports – specifically football, rugby, cricket and golf (basically all the ones with a ball that England are OK at sometimes). Having confessed that he doesn’t support a ‘good’ football team – and that he’s not actually very good at the above sports himself – he also let out that he’s a long-standing (and suffering) Ipswich AND Colchester fan… maybe we’ll just stop there?
So what did Oli say when I asked why he chose StrategiQ?
“I’ve closely monitored StrategiQ’s growth over the last few years (see, a sneaky spy). After seeing both the reaction to the Spark tool from the very best in the industry, and the team be crowned Best Small Integrated Agency at the UK Search Awards last year – along with multiple presentations/webinars with members of the StrategiQ SEO team – I knew I had to reach out.
I’ve had the privilege of working with a number of the team in previous roles, so I know the talent that they all possess, plus I’ve heard and seen first hand the level of expertise that exists in the wider agency. I have no doubt that this is the place to be.”
He also ‘just happened’ to get a late call up to play 5-a-side with the StrategiQ team a few years ago…ever feel like you’re being watched?
Either way, we’re glad your spying ended well Oli, because we’re all really excited to see the impact you’re going to have on the team.
A huge warm welcome to both Gemma and Oli – we hope you enjoy becoming part of the family!
Have you been spying on us for a few years and fancy your own welcome blog? Or do you just like the sound of us and fancy a chat? Get in touch for a chin-wag or check out our careers page for our most recent vacancies.
