I’ve spent over 20 years as a Strategist, working with and for some of the biggest and brightest agencies in the UK.
I’ve been employed as a Planner by CWG, Poulters, Brahm/Brass, Bloom (now Jaywing Leeds) and First 10 (now part of IMA) – the last two as Head of Planning. I’ve also freelanced for Havas People, Golley Slater, Live & Breathe, Chatter, Journey Further, Zeal, IMA and Blackdog among others.
I’ve deep sector experience in retail and health/fitness with past clients including ASDA, Halfords, Bensons for Beds, Boots Hearingcare, DW Sports Fitness, LA Fitness and Anytime Fitness.
Notable work includes:
– Repositioned and rebranded the world’s largest at-sea retailer (including hedge fund and ex FTSE100 CEO stakeholder interviews) and then worked on retail activation campaigns for them, contributing to them winning Cruise Retailer of the Year two years running.
– Repositioned and rebranded the UK’s second-biggest FTG bakery, oversaw significant investment in customer closeness research, developed customer personas and created a campaign platform.
– Led DW Sports Fitness’ rebranding strategically from the first brand workshop through the acquisition of Fitness First to a successful brand rollout, a new CRM system and app and through the line campaigns. Resulting in a brand strong enough to attract a strategic partnership with Nike.
– Won a pitch to work with Haven Holidays on a regional trial to increase caravan sales. Starting with deep understanding of their business model led to a minimum 10% increase in average margin per sale across all 7 trial parks and 6 of the 7 parks smashing their overall sales targets
– Worked with ASDA on category insight projects impacting directly on buying and merchandising decisions, identifying new cross-category customer occasions and contributing to a 335% YoY sales uplift in one subcategory.
And I was chuffed to be a finalist for Strategy Freelancer of the Year at the 2023 Freelancer Awards.
Recent recommendations include:
“Gemma is someone my team & I wish we could work with every single day. She is not only an incredible, clear minded, thoughtful and creative strategist; she operates with great gravitas at senior levels and cuts through nonsense with great charm. She is also great at mentoring more junior teams, is reliable and just all round brilliant.” UK Head of Strategy, global network agency
“Gemma is a pleasure to work with – she accomplishes the balance of leading her discipline – strategy and planning from the front, but also understands the importance of working alongside account handling and creatives as part of a team. We have relied on Gemma to deliver some very crucial strategic elements of projects and campaigns and she has always delivered these with the highest level of professionalism. I would highly recommend Gemma for any work and look forward to continuing to work with her.” Growth Director, Shopper Marketing agency
Find out more here about exactly how I can help brands and agencies