An agency is only as good as its people
Please find a synopsis of the skills and backgrounds of some of our key team members. If you are a talented freelance marketer/creative, please send your CV/portfolio to people@abacusmarketing.co.uk - we only work with talented, senior people, ideally from big agencies with blue chip experience and award-winning credentials, as the heavyweight profile of our people is a primary proposition.
Stephen Brown, Strategy Director
Stephen has worked in the marketing agency world for 20 years. He has created award-winning strategies across the UK and Europe for blue chip companies including BT, ESSO, Britannic Assurance, Tesco Direct, Xerox, Land Rover and Ford Credit. He has worked at a senior level for two of the largest and most prestigious agency networks in the world. He has experience across multiple customer channels including business-to-business, consumer and channel. He has delivered marketing activities across almost every medium including; direct marketing, corporate branding, marketing communications, press and radio advertising, website strategy, digital marketing, multiple distribution channel marketing and live events (exhibitions, conferences, film and video). He has delivered digital marketing campaigns including; social media marketing, search engine marketing, mobile phone marketing, email marketing, online advertising, web 2.0 platforms, flash-based presentations etc.
Victoria Gibbs, Account Executive
Victoria is a recent recruit to Abacus. In June 2011 she graduated from the University of Nottingham with a First Class degree. Alongside her academic endeavours, she has managed to accrue some marketing experience, having shadowed the Head of Marketing for Cineworld Cinemas and worked for Barc Back Marketing. Victoria has also demonstrated her entrepreneurial flair through her promotion of the L’Oreal Brandstorm Competition in 2010 and the small-scale business she established to fund her study year in America. Though Victoria has not had a great deal of agency experience, this is atoned for by her diligence and indefatigable enthusiasm for any task she undertakes.
Adrian Kingswood, Concept Director
Adrian started his career at Saatchi and Saatchi, where he won his first creative award for work on the NSPCC. He went on to win many other industry awards and commendations for his work at Saatchi, rising to the position of Joint Creative Director. His work for the solid fuel advisory council has been voted one of the nation's all-time favorite commercials. Adrian joined Still Price Lintas, spending five highly successful years there and at its successor agency Ammirati Puris Lintas, as an Art Director and Creative Director. During this time, he worked, developing award-winning work for, amongst others, The BBC and The Economist magazine. Adrian was then offered the Executive Creative Directorship of CDP Dentsu and developed work for Honda, Canon and Gallahar.
Graham Forsythe, Creative Director
Graham has over 25 years through-the-line marketing experience and has been Creative Director at two of London's top five Marcoms Agencies. He was Creative Director at an international advertising agency group and is experienced in creating multi-national integrated multi-million pound marketing campaigns for 3 Mobile, Ford, Jaguar, Sony, iRobot, Coca Cola and Pepsi. His awards include 10 ISP gold/silver/bronze, 4 SPCA awards and 6 ITMA gold/silver/bronze.
Glyn Stratford, Promotional Marketing Director
Glyn has over 25 years’ experience as a Promotional Marketing consultant. Glyn has a rich career background that has included; classic FMCG research, brand management and multiple grocer promotions, and (on the agency side); a sales promotional career that has included heading up a top ten integrated Promotional Marketing agency. With his considerable experience, Glyn is able to provide solutions that deliver a balanced and targeted approach to Promotional Marketing briefs that are clearly focused on customer needs and the needs of the retail channel. His specific areas of interest include consumer promotions, trade campaigns, motivation programmes, customer loyalty, product launch and product development.
Brendan Chapman, Social Media Director
Brendan is a social media strategist. He has been helping people to communicate, online and offline, for over fifteen years. He has delivered integrated social media strategies for world-leading brands at top agencies including Porter Novelli and Fleishman-Hillard. He regularly appears on A-lists for key online influencers in the world of PR, social media and marketing - such as Ad Age’s Power150 list of top global marketing blogs and the BrandWatch 200 list of the best advertising, marketing, media, PR and digital blogs from around the world, ranked by traffic and social influence.
Richard Morgan, Senior Copywriter
With almost 30 years as a copywriter, Richard is able to bring an exceptional range of experience and writing skills to the Abacus team. His background in London agencies has ranged from successful startups to board level roles, and his client list has included major automotive names including Ford, Renault and Mercedes, Aerospace including BAE and Airbus, and a number of financial institutions such as Barclays, Cahoot and A&L. With a broad experience across all types of writing for print, Richard has also pioneered a number of techniques for writing for electronic media, and is currently developing approaches to make EDM more effective. His experience covers all aspects of writing from press and broadcast to brochures, social media and DM, but it has a single focus – maximising the response it generates for the client.
Lesley Singleton, PR Director
Lesley is a creative consumer PR specialist with vast experience across a broad range of sectors. She honed her skills at LDA Communications, a boutique entertainment PR agency. She furthered her career at Consolidated PR, a top London consultancy which scooped PR Week’s ‘Agency of the Year’ while she was there, before working client-side in senior PR roles for Monarch Airlines and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Lesley has devised and implemented strategic PR campaigns for Blockbuster Video, P&O’s Ocean Village and KLM. She has created extensive media campaigns for Universal Pictures, Swarovski Optik and The Open University, as well as for various start-ups, authors, pundits and experts. With an ability to sniff out a good news story at twenty paces, Lesley has extensive contacts in the UK press industry, as well as a no-nonsense approach to news generation, media relations and crisis PR.
Lee Freeman, Studio Director
Lee has 25 years agency experience, working his way to the top from the shop floor, and has managed large creative teams at large marketing agencies including Euro RSCG Skybridge. He has extensieve knowledge of the main design software competencies, including; Quark Xpress, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Acrobat Professional. Lee is a versatile member of the creative team, competently skilled in graphic design, artwork production, image retouching and various digital media techniques.
Agnieszka Schubert, Graphic Designer
Agnieszka is a skilled graphic designer and illustrator with 10 years agency experience in Poland and the UK providing creative services for print, digital, direct, branding and advertising media. She has worked with a number of blue chip clients including BBC, Nokia, Toyota and the British Red Cross. Her software skills include InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Quark Xpress but she is equally at home with a pad and pencil. She apparently hates rodents (she claims never to have used a mouse in her life...) and loves cats, coffee, chocolate and cars. Because of her frontline creative experience, she is exceptionally comfortable talking working directly with clients.
Lewis Armitage, Digital Designer
Lewis has gained over ten years experience working as a Digital Art Director for numerous top 100 creative and advertising agencies notably M&C Saatchi, AKQA, WCRS, BBH, VCCP and Crayon. A real passion and natural flair for design, animation, and illustration coupled with a solid understanding of interactive technology acts as the roots to all his work. Strong conceptual thinking and robust production methodologies have ensured return on investment for a wide range of clients such as British Airways, British Petroleum, Sky and Virgin Media. Having successfully produced and directed projects across the digital landscape, he has a hands on knowledge of application design, display advertising, website design and development, user interface design and development, character design and animation, data visualisation applications, interactive presentations and information graphics. Key applications include Adobe CS5 Suite using Flash, Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, InDesign. Programming competencies include AS3 / XML / HTML - CSS.
Alex Whiteman, Digital Strategy
Alex has worked in integrated marketing for 15 years for agencies on accounts including Anheuser-Busch, Vodafone, Allied Domecq and O2. He has specialised in the digital landscape for the last five years, where he has delivered complex strategy for multinational technology organisations. His experience includes ecommerce, affiliate marketing, strategic partnerships, social media, digital PR and viral marketing.