ABOUT ME
Inspiring and connecting with businesses by embracing the journey with measured curiosity to drive success consistently and deliver future growth
Hello!
I’m Sophie, a marketing and digital transformation leader with experience across various industries, including travel, e-commerce, and tech, at both multinational and start-up levels. I have a proven track record of driving growth, increasing revenue, improving customer engagement and driving high performing marketing teams throughout my career.
In the creation of Literally Marketing, I work in partnership with businesses to understand their vision, objectives and challenges to develop bespoke strategy that is focused on driving performance and success across your business.
Passionate about storytelling through data, performance and audience behaviour.
A little bit
about me
Originally from Yorkshire, I’ve been based in Newcastle for over 20 years, and I really do love all that the city and its location have to offer…
I love the outdoors, and you’ll often find me out and about walking, whether it’s alongside the beautiful Newcastle quayside or hiking up the Cheviot Hills, just being outside and active does it for me! I find my balance and calm through regular yoga practice and burn off excess energy when playing netball or running.
While we’re talking about ‘loves’… Coffee and cheese. Yes please!
By nature, I’m driven by challenges, and always throw myself into a good puzzle – the more challenging, the more appealing! I’m curious, goal orientated and action focused, and when working to problem solve or strategise, I put these skills to effective use.
In my moments of quiet, it’s all about thrillers, true crime and discovery documentaries; whether in books, on Netflix or in podcasts. Forensics, criminology and psychology are three topics I find fascinating, but what really sparks my imagination with the art-of-possible is space!
My proudest moment so far has to be climbing Kilimanjaro in July 2023 – physically demanding, mentally challenging, but a whole heap of fun!
I’ve got a sociable personality and enjoying meeting new people, catching up with friends and contacts, and planning the next adventure…
CAREER EXPERIENCE
Director, Board-Level and Senior Leadership experience
Silverbean - Associate Director
Creation, build and development of a high-performing team focused on enterprise level clients. My goal was to optimise profitability and create unrivalled experiences for both clients and employees. We aimed for gold-standard service and strategy, exceeding expectations every time.
Focusing on clear communication, strong relationships, and centring to client expectations and requirements, the development of streamlined processes and data deep dives aimed to drive performance and growth.
Some of the awesome brands I worked with included global players like IG.com and HelloFresh, along with multi-region powerhouses like Amazon, Ralph Lauren, and The Body Shop. In the UK, I collaborated with major names like John Lewis & Partners, Waitrose, and Tesco.
Hays Travel - Head of Marketing
Leading the digital transformation for the UK’s largest independent travel agency, with the goal of incremental profitability and diversifying their traditional retail business. Through a major overhaul of their online presence, my goal was to increase visibility and represent industry-leading customer care online.
Spearheading the launch of a brand new e-commerce platform and migrating their CRM system to improve engagement capabilities. We also got smarter about tracking marketing performance, proving the value of our efforts and a deeper understanding of customers.
With a marketing department of over 50 talented individuals to lead and guide, I focused on skills, motivation, loyalty and both team and personal success.As part of the senior leadership team, I had the opportunity to represent the marketing function at Director board level.
DFDS - Head of Distribution Marketing
Leading the acquisition & CRM marketing strategies, with a focus digital-first to drive traffic to their website, increase bookings across their routes, and growth competitive market share. Building, developing and motivating a pan-European specialist team and strong collaboration with senior management.
I was responsible for developing and implementing the digital acquisition and retention strategies, managing multi-channel performance, and optimising for CPA and ROI, included overseeing multiple marketing channels with seven-figure budgets.
Working towards implementing a single customer view and creating a dynamic and personalised brand experience, to drive incremental performance. Working closely with global media agencies and holding direct partnerships with Google and Facebook to maximise expertise .
Specialised, Local and Start-Up experience
START-UP
Salecycle - Campaign Manager
Joining in the very early start-up phase of Salecyle as employee no.5 being responsible for full-cycle campaign management and optimisation, specialising in booking flow abandonment recovery.
As the only Campaign Manager, I was the driving force behind successful campaigns, combining technical expertise, creative vision, and client management skills.
Leveraging my affiliate industry expertise, I was able to create a highly commercial route to gaining traction with clients via affiliate networks, operating as a publisher.
SPECIALISED
buy.at - Account Manager
Working within a specialist affiliate technology platform to manage client programmes and relationships with large brands across multiple sectors. The platform was acquired in the middle of 2010 by Awin.
Responsible for key strategic growth and success of clients’ programmes, and managing relationships with multiple affiliates, agencies and other tech platforms.
A heavy focus on performance with growth and results at the centre, combined with creative thinking to activate and energise relationships to drive revenue.
LOCAL
Online Consultant - Wansford Digital
Beginning my career with a summer placement based in a local search marketing agency, which led to a full time role. Supporting local SMEs with their organic search performance, as well as paid ads activation.
Working with business owners across various sectors to understand what their objectives and priorities were as a business to build search strategies and activation plans.
Learning on the job about search marketing, client experience and engagement, and how to run an effective agency operation.
COMMUNITY & EDUCATION
The Girls Network Volunteer Mentor
The Girls' Network’s mission is to inspire and empower girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them with a volunteer mentor and a network of professional role models who are women. All girls should be supported to realise their ambitions, to discover their self-worth, and to develop their capacity to shape their world and their future.
St. Michael's Hospice Volunteer & Fundraiser
Saint Michael’s is part of independent charity North Yorkshire Hospice Care offering support to people affected by terminal illness across the Harrogate district. Providing vital hospice care, emotional wellbeing and bereavement support, as well as specialist services regionally and nationally. The majority of Saint Michael’s care is funded by the generous support we receive.
Northumbria University Guest Lecturer
Delivering guest lectures to undergraduate and postgraduate students within digital marketing. Sharing in-industry expertise, best practice, principles and applied learnings to inspire, support and provide industry context to students with case studies, projects and module assessment across a variety of topics and themes.
Gateshead College Guest Lecturer
Partnering with teaching staff delivering Travel & Tourism courses to multiple level of students. Bringing in-industry marketing examples and tasks to complement the syllabus and aid students' progression Into the workplace. Providing support and guidance directly to students live during sessions to support on projects, coursework and overall learning.
PODCAST
Hear me talk through my career journey so far, starting with a couple of foundation as to what I enjoy during my time at university. Gaining experience through various roles in digital marketing – search, affiliate, email, social & media – before progressing into leadership roles within large travel businesses over 10 years, and finally, launching my own consultancy. discuss my passion for data-driven problem-solving, the importance of understanding consumer behaviour and cultural nuances, and the challenges of transitioning from corporate environments to self-employment, as well as offer advice for aspiring marketers on the power of creativity and curiosity.