Helen Hammond
The team at Elephant Creative starts with Helen Hammond… that’s me. I could go on about how I have over 10 years experience of professional services marketing and business development but my profile should have shown you that already.
So, who am I and why am I qualified to be Managing Consultant at Elephant Creative? I started out with my father on his exhibition stands at the big defense shows. By the time I finished getting a degree in rowing (officially, marketing and business) it was the height of the ‘dot com’ boom and I jumped straight in – juggling work for a number of charities (fundraising, strategy and events) with spells in IT start-ups (including as Head of Events at one of the most successful professional online communities still in existence).
Since then I’ve worked with a wide range of clients – from law firms, accountants and major blue-chip organisations through to start-ups, SMEs, charities and public bodies.
I set up Elephant Creative because I wanted to focus exclusively on delivering an imaginative, professional and totally unique service. I had worked in-house at some large law firms and I thought things could be done differently… and dare I say it better… where their marketing was concerned. Gone are the days of boring, theoretical marketing plans that sit on a shelf.
But it’s not all about me! What makes Elephant Creative really special is the wide network of consultant partners and suppliers that I call on. I’ve worked with all of them personally and only recommend people I actually trust to provide exactly what my client is looking for. It’s all about knowing the right person for the job, isn’t it?
Importantly we believe in common-sense… both in the advice we give and the way we phrase it. Some consultants “talk” and others “do” and we most definitely “do”!
Julie Parmenter
Julie lives the rural idyll in deepest darkest Herefordshire, balancing this with a busy career as an independent PR consultant. She has nearly 20 years’ agency and in-house experience, directing campaigns for wide-ranging b2b, consumer and public sector clients. An experienced strategist, planner, campaign director, practitioner, writer and trainer Julie works with clients ranging from the public sector and Government, through to her local Primary School and an amazing little-known (but not for long when Julie works her magic), Herefordshire secret art-gallery.
Other clients have included Children’s Workforce Development Council, Learning and Skills Council, Home Office, The Electoral Commission, Royal Navy, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, National College of School Leadership, Training and Development Agency for Schools, City & Guilds and such corporate heavyweights as Ernst & young, BDO Stoy Hayward, CMS Cameron McKenna, RBS/Natwest, Zurich, NFU Mutual, Honda and Tiny Computers.
Julie’s work with Elephant Creative focuses on her education and public sector expertise, and she’s already working with a number of education clients to help them clearly articulate their messages and develop their brands.
www.bramptonpr.co.uk
Rebecca Hunt
Rebecca is a Freelance Copywriter living in Manchester with her photographer boyfriend and very photographed cat. She started writing in February 2011 when she decided to rebel against the stereotype of a graduate not being able to find work. With a degree in English Language and Linguistics from Lancaster University in one hand and a novelty pen in the other, she took on her first job.
Since then she has developed an extensive portfolio of clients ranging from local magazines to household name holiday companies. She does interviews, press releases and everything in between. She’s even had to write a 300-word answer to the question ‘how many quarters are there in a half?’ She’s pretty good at making something out of nothing… Which leads nicely onto her expertise in impressive social media content. She’s got great experience managing Facebook and Twitter accounts, either from the very beginning or taking them on halfway through.
www.rebeccawrites.co.uk
Jessie Allen
Jessie is Founder and Managing Director of Present Future Media. She’s worked with Helen for more years than both admit to in public, starting with the PR for a law firm.
What Jessie is really excellent at, though, is her understanding of Integrated Communications including B2B, B2C and online (making all your PR work together as a suite, to achieve your objectives). Most recently that’s involved working on online retail launches, fashion range launches, media, broadcast, professional services and B2C consumables.
Jessie enjoys all elements of PR but is particularly interested in joining up print and online communications – Helen usually calls on her when she needs help with tricky online brands, start-ups and those requiring ‘beyond the call’ imagination and sparkle.
Hilary Williams
Hilary actually has a mission… to help businesses reach their true potential through tailored sales and marketing programmes.
Having worked in IT and Telecoms for over 10 years, specialising in channel development and marketing planning, she finally made the leap from corporate life in 2009 and says she hasn’t looked back since.
Passionate about supporting growing businesses, she set up Bright Black Marketing to provide cost effective, outsourced marketing solutions, enabling companies to take on the expertise of a skilled marketeer, but without the often preventative overhead of employing full time staff.
Since then she has developed a wide range of clients from online retailers to agronomy (no, we had to look it up too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agronomy) but her real passion is working with online companies and local businesses… in particular, online retailers. As a result she does a lot of work with start-ups and small businesses, keeping on top of all the latest trends, hot topics and products.
Hilary is a real problem-solver. She thrives on a challenge and most importantly gets great pleasure from seeing well planned and executed marketing programmes deliver real results to clients. Hilary’s work with Elephant Creative focuses on working with small and innovative companies and start-ups.
www.bright-black.com
Rich Mehta
Rich, from Factory Pattern, is a web developer who creates online software, builds websites, knows the social web (think Facebook & Twitter!) like the back of his hand and makes sure everything works the way it’s supposed to; if it doesn’t then he always conjures up magical ways to solve the problems. His focus is on making software that works for the user and he has the skills to make sure out of the box software does everything you need it to. From Facebook pages to full blown E-Commerce, Rich has the skills to get you online.
Rich speaks both computer and human equally as well so you won’t find it a struggle talking to him. Given the time, he thinks he can solve almost any software problem thrown at him. You see, he loves to help and make people happy and sometime that requires a bit of imagination!
Pip Finch
Pip Finch is a designer with real spirit… or at least an agency called Spirit. Based just down the road from us in Cirencester, Pip likes working with small and medium sized businesses in the consumer and b2b world. She’s a real one for making clients feel that she’s a part of their in-house marketing team, rather than just an outsourced service. We can assure you that considerable time goes in to making sure she really understands what’s important to you, and how you need her to help.
Of course we don’t expect you to take our word for all this. If you’re the sort of person that takes comfort from knowing a few of the “big names” Pip’s worked for then that’s fine with us… sometimes there is security in knowing that you’re in good company… Kraft Foods, Kenco, Toblerone, Carte Noire, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, B&Q, Somerfield, Sealine Yachts, SSP Rail, Dairylea and Triumph International Lingerie. Nowadays, clients vary from hypnotherapists to solicitors, cafés to sustainable energy companies, sports bra suppliers to hip joint suppliers, country clothing suppliers to mortgage advisors.
Pip is the person we recommend to companies looking for quick, simple design and print materials. She’s best at advertising, point-of-sale, corporate branding and literature but she’ll turn her hand to pretty much anything and does mean Twitter backgrounds!
http://www.spiritda.co.uk
Donna Hewitt
Donna speaks plain English, why use 20 words when 10 will do? Never afraid to ask questions, Donna will get to know your organisation and won’t take anything for granted.
She enjoys nothing more than getting under the skin of an organisation to find out what needs to be done to help them grow. It’s what she’s really excelled at over the past ten years, working both in-house and with agencies.
Although her real passion is for B2C marketing, Donna has gathered experience across a wide range of industries including education, telecoms, consumables, furniture, IT and manufacturing. Her focus is on multi-channel campaigns, ensuring that every channel is working as hard as possible to target the appropriate audience with the right message.
Donna is working with Elephant Creative as an education sector specialist, as well as helping a number of SMEs to put order in their marketing ideas.
Abby Wright-Parkes
Abby set up Optimist Consulting because she wanted to share her optimism (hence the name) and love of marketing. You can’t help but be inspired by her drive and determination… that’s why we love her, here at Elephant Creative. Abby specializes in working with voluntary organizations, membership organizations and social enterprises. She spent 15 years working in marketing and membership development and, most recently has worked for the influential ACEVO (the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) as Director of Membership and Marketing, and then as Director of Membership for the Institute of Administrative Management, a professional body with 20,000 members.
Her work generally covers marketing elements from strategies to plans to social media masterclasses. Like the rest of the Elephant Creative team, is known for her pragmatism and easy to follow advice.
Gaynor Ferrari
Gaynor says “now sprouting at least two grey hairs, I can safely call myself a senior-level communications and PR consultant”. She provides expert counsel, strategy, and delivery across corporate communications, public relations and marketing campaigns. In plain English, she works with organisations to create winning strategies that get under the skin of the issue and meet true objectives, rather than simply generating column inches.
Gaynor cut her comms teeth in Local Government, working with tiny budgets and big issues. She then worked in a busy press office of a leading health education and research charity, launching some of
the biggest health stories going, before eventually moving on to manage the biggest and best government marketing campaigns at the Department of Health – including tobacco control, change4life, flu immunisation and the alcohol (know your limits) campaign.
She joins Elephant Creative as a Health and Social Enterprise expert (although her work is wider than that) and is currently working with the Royal College of Surgeons, Albert Bartlett potatoes, Zone creative and WCG Healthcare.
Claire Marshall
Claire is a former senior news reporter who traded her role in the news room to work freelance. In plain English that means she helps businesses to get publicity in the local and national media. Having read thousands of sub-standard press releases during her time as a reporter she was inspired to offer her own no-nonsense service, using her contacts in the media and her knowledge of the industry. But it doesn’t just stop at press releases. Claire’s expertise spreads across the media with email marketing, blogging and online copywriting a real speciality.
The project she is most proud of is bringing the Nibley Music Festival to the attention of the whole country – the festival sold-out in 36 hours this year, over three months earlier than the previous year.
She continues to write freelance for lifestyle and food magazines… in whatever spare time she has.
Mark Stockley
Mark is web guru who has felt his way down more digital branches than you could shake a stick at. A qualified illustrator, he moved into the digital age in the late 1990s and since then, has followed the guiding star of “making websites better for everyone”. In short, shock-horror… that they might actually generate sales/enquiries.
Passionate about user-centred design, beautiful code, SEO, testing testing testing, and working smarter, Mark has led countless teams of programmers, designers, wordsmiths and business beans to deliver clever, honest websites and web applications for some of the country’s leading technology companies.
Mark has forsaken inhouse roles in line management, information architecture, and development to pursue his consulting career and join Elephant Creative as a web performance expert.
Simon Quance
If you’re looking for imaginative, strategic social media… rather more than just some random tweeting… then Simon is your man! He has worked in the entertainment and digital marketing industries for over 20 years including projects with major global brands including Universal Music, Warner Bros, Disney, Nivea and Allianz, plus household UK high street businesses such as Nationwide Building Society and WHSmith.
After 11 years of working in the music industry Simon was in need of a change and joined internet start-up Peoplesound. Once there he established one of the UK’s first online PR operations before moving on to award-winning Bristol agency Hyperlaunch, where he started another ‘first’ by way of a new-fangled social media marketing team. Subsequent developments saw him hold management and planning roles at agencies including Hyperlaunch DMG, 20:20 and latterly EquiMedia, where he established their social media and brand engagement division, 6th Sense.
We’re thrilled to have Simon on the team, bringing his extensive experience in social media marketing & reputation management, online PR and link building, as well as a thirst for technology & innovation.
Gill Hudson
Gill lives in the heart of the Cotswolds (lucky Gill), with her partner of 25 year, Rob. She’s the proud mother of Rebecca and has two grandchildren, Leah (7) & Charlie (5). That said, you wouldn’t know she was a granny to speak to her… which brings us onto her real expertise… that of being a telemarketing guru. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that we’ve yet to find anything she can’t make to sound convincing and interesting.
Gill has worked with businesses of all sizes and across many sectors, helping them to communicate more effectively to their clients and customers, as well as follow up existing marketing. Eternally practical, we love how she makes it all seem so easy!
Sallie Clack
Sallie is a bit of a pro… she has over 20 years experience as a creative in the marketing and advertising industry. Started out as a magic marker visualiser – before we all got Apple Macs – she worked her way up working at agencies such as Proximity, DMB&B Direct, Brann London, Dekko and Williams Lea. She’s worked across nearly all sectors and for clients ranging from small start ups through to blue chip and FTSE 100 companies.
Since setting up on her own in March 2012, Sallie has been turning her talents to helping out clients with customer journey mapping, pitch work, annual reports, design and branding projects… and pretty much any challenge they care to throw at her. Unlike many designers she’s actually genuinely helpful, unflappable and ready to solve your problems!
In her own words “I see myself as more than your average designer – I see the bigger picture – I can’t just produce something pretty – who’s it going to? why? when?!!”
Mark Stevenson
One day, when we were tearing our collective, Elephant Creative hair out over a website project, we asked who the best person to help was… and Mark’s name, along with his team at Karolo, came up.
Mark is Founder and Creative Director of Karolo Design. Specialising in custom web design and development, Mark has a real passion for user-experience design, taking the complicated and making it simple. His team are an experienced mix of designers and developers, enabling them to produce clever, intuitive websites that achieve the most complicated of requirements.
Born in Birmingham, but having happily lost the accent, Mark studied in Wales and after 6 years in the design industry, decided to launch his own design agency with technical director Chris Hardwick. Mark focuses his time on project management and creative direction, priding himself on producing websites that utilise the latest technologies in combination with eye catching design.
We’re thrilled to have welcomed Mark to the Elephant Creative herd, building on our already great list of techy-webby-guruy type people. He’s here to particularly help out with complex ecommerce, online auction and online data projects.
Helen Gerlach
Helen is brilliant at going into a professional services organisations, working out what is broken and fixing it. That means strategy, logical action plans, recruitment and development of a team… all whilst tackling different time zones and cultures. With 18 years of experience under her belt she knows how to roll up her sleeves and get it done, as well as plan it out – so don’t worry that she’s all talk!
Most recently she headed up the marketing planning team at the ICAEW (The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and won a recognition award for her role in bringing together a top team to launch their award-winning magazine. She loves working within big, international professional services organisations, particularly in the US and London, helping them to gain success on a regional, national and international level.
When she’s not winning awards for her hard work she’s finding new ways to practise her French for business and pleasure or checking on her little vine at the bottom of the garden for any sign of grapes.
Graham Munday
Graham is a highly experienced strategic marketer with a strong track record in communications. His career has spanned professional and financial services, working for both international and regional organisations. Graham has led and developed successful marketing teams at Norwich Union (now Aviva) and WSP with a skill set that includes shaping approaches to market, stakeholder engagement, internal communication programmes, client communication, programmes, online strategy and public relations. His amazing list of capabilities has been delivered on an international platform as well as a national and regional level.
When he’s not busy chairing the Professional Marketing Forum Yorkshire Committee, occasionally you’ll catch Graham acting in local productions. His past credits include Jack Worthing in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ and Lysander in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. He may have been a latecomer to fitness but he’s now regularly running 10ks, an achievement that makes us almost as out of breath as listing his skills.
Daniel Bourhill
Daniel is a CIM accredited marketer living in Port Sunlight village with his partner and a French bulldog called Bert. He joins the Elephant Creative team to help out with marketing strategy and branding.
After leaving university with a 1st class BA honours degree in Business and Marketing, he began his pofessional marketing career in the not-for-profit sector. Since then, Daniel has worked across a range of B2B and B2C sectors, including retail, professional services and FMCG.
Daniel says he has “a passion to show that marketing can demonstrate measurable returns” and is experienced in planning and executing marketing communications plans and brand development strategies… as well as being one of the most frighteningly organised planners and list-makers we’ve
ever met!
Jessie Price
Jessie describes herself as ‘a reliable and conscientious Virtual Assistant’ but she’s so much more… in short, she keeps the wheels on the Elephant Creative vehicle, employing all her experience in a variety of industries including Insurance, Health Services, Charity Sector and Multi-disciplinary construction. Because she has previously worked in a variety of office-based roles, from administrator to management PA, she is able to herd the cats and tackle pretty much everything we throw at her – be that research or invoicing, VAT returns or arranging meetings..
We couldn’t cope without her!
Sophie Bosworth
Recently moved to London from Devon to study Graphic Design Communication at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Sophie loves being involved with exciting projects and changing hats to try new things.
Over the past 3 years she has been working in the creative education sector – project managing creative summer schools at the University of the Arts London and getting involved/speaking at events such as Creativity Accelerators and Learning Without Frontiers. The highlight (and one we’re a little bit envious of), however, has been speaking at the TEDx Education Revolution at the Roundhouse – the most nerve racking yet incredible experience of her life, so she says! She has been involved recently with the development of a new online careers and education platform for young people, which is being developed with partners such as Facebook, Formula 1, Universal Music and the Ideas Foundation among others. She describes herself as an opportunist and super organised person who enjoys being ridiculously busy. She can’t sit still and if there’s nothing to worry about, she says she worries even more! Sophie joins the Elephant Creative team to manage social media, copywriting and helping out with the odd bit of design work.
Harriet Kendall
Yet another member of the Elephant Creative team to love cats and cupcakes, Harriet says she is “captivated by communicating”.
As a graduate of Social Anthropology she hasn’t followed the conventional steps into a media based career but has decided to go it alone! Whilst studying she interned, wrote, blogged, tweeted, networked, filmed and did whatever she could to secure a career in PR. Working with a number of agencies she’s worked with some great brands (and great people) but her heart really lies in freelancing… It means she gets to mix all of her skills into one, working on social media, research, writing and video editing.
Harriet currently lives in St.Albans but hopes to move to a ‘funky area of London’ as soon as she can.
Lizzie Lucas
A big fan of tea and cake, Lizzie is a perfect fit for the team. Originally from London, she’s currently studying English at the University of Exeter. Having spent most of her teenage years on Facebook, social media seemed like Lizzie’s ideal job. Her degree and work experience has helped her develop a range of skills that vary from designing to blogging to website redevelopment.
Lizzie’s been working in marketing since the young age of 16 and has managed social media accounts for a variety of clients big and small. She’s ambitious, committed and can’t bear to be bored. The perfectionist in her loves to start new challenges and projects that she can approach in original and innovative ways.
Millie Kidson
Millie is a hardworking postgraduate studying Politics and the Mass Media. When she’s not underneath a pile of books at the library, she can be found editing the student newspaper and whizzing about on social media. Two years ago she turned her passion for Twitter into a job and these days she’s a little bit obsessed with finding solutions and statistics to make social media better.
Originally from beautiful Gloucestershire, Millie can now be found residing up north in Liverpool covering all of her possessions in glitter and tackling the latest knitting patterns.
Michelle Thwaites
Michelle is a social media guru currently in her final year of studying Business and Accountancy at the University of Lincoln. Although relatively new to the freelancing game, she’s already got some impressive clients on her books ranging from plastic surgeons to record labels. She’s been actively creating campaigns for the music industry and is a sucker for a new challenge with unsigned bands and artists. Getting into the heart of a business is what really floats Michelle’s boat. She likes to understand their goals and aspirations before tackling a project, then enjoys seeing the results unfold.
Often told that she knows a lot about a lot of things, Michelle’s friends and family say she’s a fountain of useless knowledge. She chooses to see that useless information as the facts and figures that make a difference.
Katy Jones
Katy is second year student at Newcastle University studying International Business and French. She’s one of those keen students whose list of credentials is as impressive as the degree itself. When she’s not recording jingles for the student radio, playing hockey, captaining the intra-mural netball team or working on her own business, she’s a bit of a social media whizz. Her campaigns have reached thousands in a matter of weeks and been bought out by local businesses.
If that wasn’t enough, she’s also an aspiring filmmaker on the hunt to interview people on current affairs and to get them excited about things that matter. With an entrepreneurial mindset and a proactive attitude, Katy is determined to gain as much experience as she can before graduating and fit some studying in along the way.
Jane Price
Finance Administrator by day, ambitious quilt maker by night, Jane lives in Port Sunlight with her marketing mad boyfriend Daniel and their 2-year-old French Bulldog Bert. After completing her degree in Geography from Bangor University in 2009, she homed in on her love for statistics and her ability with numbers and applied it to the world of finance. She specialises in wealth and investment but has joined the Elephant Creative team to get involved with research projects and updating our website.
