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Work Background
Epoch DesignStrategist
Oct. 2023 - May. 2025United Kingdom, BristolAs a Strategist, I deliver brand strategy, visual identity, and communications projects for FMCG brands at local, regional, and global levels. I moved sideways into the role from client services, pursuing a new challenge to add depth to my breadth of experience.
Responsibilities
Research & Insight
• Conducting primary and secondary research, incl. enhancing desk-based discovery with:
o Qual: Creation of interview guides, leading 1:1 interviews or small group discussions, and conducting field visits to observe behaviour at POP, audit a category, or have informal discussions with staff/consumers.
o Quant: Design, build and monitoring of surveys with Pollfish, plus analysis of responses in Excel.
• Distillation of findings to identify patterns and uncover those unspoken yet ‘obvious when you see it’ insights that inspire exciting, effective creative.
• Conducting comms, pack and cultural audits to identify category and cultural codes.
Brand Strategy
• Developing original and distinct, strategic concepts for new brands and product innovations.
• Interrogating and simplifying existing brand strategy frameworks (positioning, purpose, personality, etc.), as well as respectfully evolving those of much-loved heritage brands.
• White space mapping to analyse and identify areas of opportunity for positioning and product innovation.
Brand Identity
• Reviewing, testing and analysing brand asset distinctiveness, recommending next steps for development.
• A deep understanding (and obsession) with packaging and the role it plays in a brand’s wider ecosystem, able to prioritise complex messaging hierarchies on-pack and recommend when they belong off-pack.
• Heatmapping and quant testing pack designs, before analysing and making recommendations against KPIs.
• Exposure to restructuring complex architectures of branded house/endorser sub-brand portfolios to defined objectives, without compromising equity in existing assets.
Commercial Strategy
• Defining the omnichannel commercial strategy for global brands (identifying channels and touchpoints in line with defined objectives), expanding this in detail across specific channels, and tailoring with bespoke offerings to key customer accounts.
• Developing sell-in tools for customers, including writing the narrative and the creative brief to develop bespoke activations which excite and unlock additional shelf/display space in stores.
• Devising a ‘combo’ strategy for partnerships and auditing creative tactics for physical tools at the POP.
• Developing system engagement plans to educate, engage, and excite cross-teams on new campaigns.
Brand Communications
• Developing comms strategy, propositions and CCIs for multi-national, integrated campaigns, with a particular focus on shopper (on-trade, off-trade, traditional, ecom), experiential, ATL and social.
• Comms and touchpoint planning to prioritise messaging sentiment and activations across the consumer journey/sales funnel.
• Multi-brand, content calendar planning, especially TikTok, for evergreen and campaigns, organic and paid.
• Exploring potential brand partnerships, developing strategy to inspire mutually beneficial creative ideas and translation across channels, including limited edition products.
Catalysing Creative Development
• Crafting concise yet effective creative briefs and delivering them with excitement.
• Facilitating internal ideation sessions to catalyse creative thinking.
• Cross-team collaboration to ensure creative alignment to strategy and represent the consumer in the room.
• Planning agendas, exercises and stimulus for workshops.
Presentation & Facilitation
• Turning strategy into an engaging narrative, built in InDesign to set the stage for creative.
• Leading client presentations and confidently presenting work, fielding questions and being receptive to feedback.
• Facilitation of workshops, navigating curveballs, and shepherding contributors towards solutions.
Mentoring
• Mentoring a Junior to support development, identify training, and advocate on their behalf with leadership.
Achievements
• I owned and delivered the strategic refresh for the UK heritage beer brand, Bass. The owner and client, ABI, had underinvested in the brand but recognised a loyal (and very vocal) following with an opportunity for a return of traditional. Extremely sensitive to change, I infiltrated a closed Facebook group of superfans to observe conversations and gain a deep understanding of what they loved so much about the brand. The sensitive strategic evolution translated into a creative brief for a crafted visual identity which has since been launched on-trade to much excitement and love from the superfans!
• Tackled the day-to-day development and running of a Global Commercial and Shopper strategy project for Fanta as my FIRST project as a strategist. Baptism of fire. LOVED it. This project expanded in scope, beyond planned customer plans into a bespoke platform for McDonald’s. I planned and facilitated a two-day workshop for the project which brought together 30+ attendees from Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and other agency partners to ideate on a big idea and tactical activations.
• Supported in the white space opportunity mapping for a chilled juice brand innovating in ambient ARTD.
• Supported in the restructuring of a complex and sizeable portfolio of biscuits and crackers for Jacob’s as part of a pitch which we would go on to win.
• Developed an internal training session and guide on writing compelling briefs for content creators.
• Delivered industry think-pieces on AI and heritage brands
Epoch DesignAccount Director
Jan. 2019 - Oct. 2023United Kingdom, BristolI joined epoch as an Account Manager, progressing within the Coca-Cola team to Senior Account Manager, and eventually acting Account Director (in all ways but name due to restrictions within the account’s structure).
Responsibilities
Account development
• Owned development of the account plan for LATAM, identifying threats and opportunities, and prioritising key brands or clients that could help us achieve objectives.
• Acted as the initial point of contact for our most senior LATAM clients, using insights garnered from conversations to identify opportunities and proactively suggest solutions.
• Led introductory meetings, presenting Epoch’s credentials and planning which of the business’ offerings were most relevant to the contact.
• Leveraged existing contacts for recommendations and introductions, as well as warm signals on LinkedIn to build contacts and relationships into briefs.
• Managed an investment travel budget to ensure multiple face-to-face opportunities with key clients across Central and South America each year.
• Honest, open and measured in managing resolutions of conflicts and able to recognise when to escalate internally for support.
• Stayed aware of industry developments and trends to adjust account strategy where required and leverage new opportunities.
• Championed a training and development approach which prioritised exposure and observation as a ‘start slow to move faster later’ approach. This firsthand experience allowed me to quickly hand-off projects across the team, supporting wider development whilst preserving some of my capacity for the account strategy.
Commercial responsibility
• Exceeded personal financial targets YOY whilst providing workstreams to support other members of the team in achieving theirs.
• Held responsibility for achieving the LATAM team revenue target, maintaining margins, and operating profits.
• Led weekly Finance team catch ups to ensure accruals were kept minimal, forecast accurate, and hard costs attributed with POs. These sessions also provided opportunity to assess individual team members’ capacity and seek support, whilst spotting financial trends which may need a course of action to address.
Team development
• Line management of an Account Manager, including mid- and end-of-year reviews, objective setting, internal advocacy, and wellbeing support.
• Leading and inspiring those outside of the core team, including creative teams and those in other agencies working on the same account.
• Mentorship of several AMs / SAMs across accounts, including an intern up through the business to SAM level.
Project leadership & management
• Acting as the project lead on major streams of work whilst delegating across the team to aid development.
• High level diplomacy and negotiations, from procurement and fees, to advocating for the right team at the right time, or leading ways of working conversations in the event of conflicts. My work in this way has been described by colleagues as being a protector–of the work and the team.
• End-to-end scoping of major projects, including identifying an approach to a solution, planning, scoping, and negotiating costs for a huge Global Fanta Commercial and Shopper Strategy piece–the project I worked on as a strategist upon my transfer from CS.
• Full planning, delivery and financial management for projects spanning all pillars of the business: brand strategy, visual identity, packaging, and communications.
• Interrogating client briefs and crafting them into concise creative briefs, working with Strategy and Creative to support when the scope of work requires it.
• Delivering creative briefs to internal teams and finding ways to get people ‘hyped’ for the work.
• Working with the Creative Director to plan appropriately timed team crits and scrutinising the work at these against the brief, having the confidence to challenge the team when warranted.
Agency vision & responsibility
• Playing a key role as a senior member of the team in helping to shape internal processes and decision-making of the business, often requiring multi-lateral board level conversations to gain buy-in.
• Championing progression towards the agency vision and responsibility targets aligned with our achievement of B Corp status.
Achievements
• Proud to have supported team members in developing their careers within the business, including that of an intern whom I onboarded and trained, then mentored up the ranks in client services to a Senior.
• Exceeded personal financial targets YOY (132% above target across 5-years) whilst providing the wider team with workstreams to support them in achieving their own.
• Identified an opportunity to unlock a new business unit within the Coca-Cola system (LATAM), going on to grow it from £0-750k net per year in under two years and facilitating the need for support from a team of three account execs and managers (sometimes scaling up depending on capacity in the wider team).
• I was a key driver for excellence across teams and the broader business, securing, managing, and enabling the delivery of what has been described as Epoch’s “Greatest Hits” of case studies and upskilling the team’s brand and design capabilities. This all stemmed from…
• … An unnerving perseverance (stubbornness?!) when I looked at an internal approach to design which relied entirely on in-house capabilities and asked, “Why though?”. I started the craft initiative to raise awareness of and gain support for the use of specialist, external skillsets such as illustrators or typographers. With much diplomacy and effort, I convinced the Creative and Agency Leadership team to back my proposal, allowing me to take full responsibility for bringing it to life. From developing new processes, legal and financial frameworks, and guidelines for implementation, to planning and delivering the launch to the business with a multi-speaker digital event (thanks Covid), it was a chunky task which took many months to realise. The calendar of future talks eventually grew into an inspiration program which would take on a life of its own. The result was tangible revenue growth, significant team upskilling and adjustments in recruitment priorities in studio, and a re-orientation of the business around a new vision: to be a top 10 brand agency.
• I championed internal and external diversity and inclusion practices, leading and strategically ending a BLM initiative for a global CSD brand and participating in a D&I working group on the agency’s strategy.
• Led some of the agency’s biggest and most high-profile work, acting as the guinea pig for delivery of work at this scale, involving significant responsibility and internal collaboration. Notable projects include:
o The Global Fanta Halloween Packaging and Campaign activations for two years in a row.
o A fashion-focused platform for Diet Coke in the UK, launching, owning, and eventually sunsetting the two-year Kate Moss partnership, comprising four campaign waves and two multi-design, limited edition packaging takeovers.
o Leading the first brand identity project for the agency under the craft initiative, seeing us work with a illustrators and typographers to evolve the Ecuadorian CSD brand, Fioravanti, for the first time in decades–a feat previously unachievable ten-years prior due to the internal politics and cautiousness of the client team at the time.
o As part of my drive to develop the team, I balanced delivery and oversight of two high-profile projects for a renowned, Mexican heritage brand in the dairy space. Santa Clara are producers of milk which has grown beyond their core offering into an expansive portfolio of food and beverages. We attended a week-long market immersion, visiting the factory, interviewing staff, and of course, taste-testing countless ice creams, before commencing the strategic repositioning, portfolio architecture and visual identity for the brand. We would also deliver a centenary campaign to celebrate the brand’s 100th, all of which involved the creation of bespoke illustrated and typographic assets, alongside multi-agency and specialist collaboration.
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