Sallie Bale - Communications, Marketing & Strategy, Consulting

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Work Background

LaneHead of Strategy

Jul. 2023Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom · HybridHelping brands grow profitably and sustainably by guiding them to understand what makes them distinctive, and create compelling narratives that resonate with audiences. I bring insights from across sectors to your brand, from financial services to food, from aviation to agriculture; in recent years I have created distinctive brand strategies for organisations such as Changeworks, Taylors Snacks, ESPC, the Royal Highland Show & RHASS, Harbro, National Police Chiefs Council, Silverburn Shopping Centre, and many more. Organisation - Developing business and marketing strategies - Delivering research and insight projects to input into business and marketing strategies Brand - Facilitating brand workshops - Developing distinctive brand positioning strategies - Crafting brand propositions - Championing brand distinctiveness and salience - Measuring brand effectiveness/awareness/salience - Developing Mission and Vision Communications - PR and comms background - Comms planning - Insights and audience development (quant & qual, persona development) - Instilling behavioural principles in comms and campaigns - Measuring campaign effectiveness Employer brand - Developing employer brand strategies and EVPs - Facilitating values workshops Skills - Delivering engaging and relevant presentations - Distilling complex information - Asking the difficult questions - Uncovering the problem behind the problem - Being a trusted advisor and strategic partner - Supporting, mentoring and championing team members

LaneEffectiveness Working Group Lead

Jan. 2023Leading a cross-section of the organisation to formalise, improve and communicate our approach to delivering effective work for our clients.

LaneStrategist

Dec. 2021 - Oct. 2023Scotland, United KingdomAs a Brand and Comms Strategist, I work with clients and colleagues to dig under the hood of their brand to highlight what makes them unique and motivating to their audience, and then communicate that effectively to build profitable and growing brands.

LaneSenior Leadership Team

Oct. 2021Edinburgh, Scotland, United KingdomSitting on both the Innovation Board and the Senior Leadership Team, our role is to look to the future of the company and ensure we're ready and able to overcome challenges and take advantage of opportunities, whilst upholding our company vision, mission and values.

LaneAccount Director

Feb. 2019 - Dec. 2021Edinburgh, United KingdomThe Lane Agency is an integrated creative agency based in Scotland. As an Account Director, I help brands connect with their audience and strengthen their position in the market. I love connecting marketing objectives to business objectives; uncovering meaningful audience insights; and developing creative, impactful and effective brands and campaigns for clients. Clients I've worked with include: CalMac, Coulters, Scott Group, The Donaldson Trust, Hey Girls, Ayr Equestrian, Graham's the Family Dairy, LendingCrowd, Nairn's Oatcakes, Totally Natural Solutions, FarrPoint, SnowPaw, Edinburgh Airport, Vidatec, CodeClan, Harbro.

Bloom ScotlandPresident

Jan. 2019Edinburgh, United KingdomWe ❤️ women supporting women. I created Bloom Scotland to help women in comms and marketing thrive. We're a network that helps each other to reach their potential, whatever that means to them. We're supportive, not salesy; collaborative, not competitive, a network, not networking. We champion, challenge and cheer for each other. And we do all this whilst putting Scotland on the map as a place where game-changing marketing is happening, right now. Bloom Scotland is part of the Bloom UK network. As founder and president (and volunteer) of Bloom Scotland, I am proud to have: 💪 Identified the need for and launched the network in 2019 💪 Grew the network to 600 women in the industry within 3 years 💪 Delivered 15 events in 4 years, with up to 100 attendees, with a 4.5/5 attendee rating 💪 Single-handedly developed and delivered a co-mentoring programme during the pandemic

RAPPAccount Director

Nov. 2018 - Feb. 2019Edinburgh, United KingdomAccounts: ScottishPower, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1, Quint Financial Services Working on as many as 20 projects at any one time, from strategic concept to delivery and reporting, we worked closely with clients to produce high quality outputs, at pace. Our clients appreciated our open and honest communication, allowing us to get to the heart of the objective of the communication quickly, and deliver effective campaigns. My responsibilities were: - Client relations: building trusted relationships with multiple client stakeholders, managing expectations, interrogating briefs, selling in creative work and scheduling meetings - Finance: day to day campaign finances, creating cost estimates, updating state of works, raising POs and requesting payments, monthly profit reporting and reconciliation - Project management: overseeing the creative team, creating and updating time plans, planning project pipelines and workflow I'm always on the lookout for making process improvements and efficiencies, and during my three months with RAPP, I overhauled the new business process, introduced a streamlined process for receiving Fast Track work from the London office and introduced new automated cost estimate systems using Excel formulas.

The&PartnershipAccount Manager

Jan. 2018 - Nov. 2018Edinburgh, United KingdomAn inspiring role in a new breed of agency, The Royal Bank of Scotland and The&Partnership have change the way agencies and clients interact by creating a hybrid agency. My role included: - Delivering end-to-end marketing campaigns - Specialising in business to business communications - Creating partnerships and deeply collaborative relationships between people and entities with the same end goal, but different strategies - Building relationships with external agencies and internal clients - Understanding complex business structures, to navigate the best way to get the job done - Managing projects: timings, communication, resources, budgets, deadlines - Ensuring customer and client delight - Working across RBS, NatWest, Ulster Bank, Coutts and Lombard It was such good experience to be immersed within the client environment, understanding their pressures, working patterns, frustrations, challenges and objectives. My biggest criticism of the agency model is not having a close enough link to the client, although I understand the need for specialist skills and a certain amount of distance to be able to make the calls and creative decisions that agencies do every day. My proudest piece of work was the sponsorship of the PROCESSIONS, a piece of living artwork across 4 cities celebrating 100 years since the first women gained the vote. The sponsorship covered NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank. Our campaign line was Our Procession Has No Finish Line, to celebrate the great work of the women who have gone before us, and a rallying cry for the people around us still fighting for gender equality. And we won two Drum Advertising Awards!

Startup PR AcademyFounder

Nov. 2015 - Dec. 2016UKThis was an awesome project! My mission was to get entrepreneurs gaining visibility + credibility for their business, through the power of PR. And the best person to tell the story of the startup, is the startup. The Startup PR Academy was an online platform, equipping entrepreneurs with everything they need to start weaving the principles of PR into the fabric of their business. Through my business, I'd had so many conversations with talented and passionate entrepreneurs, with great ideas, who loved my PR plans for them. But so often, the conversations would fall flat when it came to the subject of cost. So, instead of paying an agency hundreds, or even thousands, every month, I taught entrepreneurs how to build a consistent, targeted media presence to start growing their business.

Communica Public RelationsConsultant

Dec. 2013 - Dec. 2017London, United KingdomI started Communica PR in 2013, looking to provide PR support to pioneering companies, to position them as the expert in their field. Helping businesses to build bridges with the media, and craft narratives that made an impact. Consulting with B2B companies, I helped align their communications strategy with their business objectives, by using a mix of traditional media relations and newer digital techniques. As a consultant, providing PR support isn't just about getting their name in the papers (or even getting their narratives in the right papers). It's about getting the right people in the business onside to achieve long term results, well after I've exited the building. Clients included: Veuve Clicquot Women in Business Awards, Calm App, Kimberley Clarke Professionals, Seedrs, RoomReady, MoveBubble, Supreme Creations, VitalEnergi, Sobayha.com, Resilient Plc, McOnie Agency, Charlotte Sweeney Associates, MoneyDashboard, ManBitesDog. A selection of client coverage is below.

Converge+ UKCo-founder

Aug. 2012 - Aug. 2013London, United KingdomConverge+UK is an exciting and innovative project that is very close to my heart. It is a series of events to foster communication, collaboration and creation at the intersection of Design, Business & Technology.

Rostrum CommunicationsSenior Associate

Jun. 2012 - Sep. 2013Drury Lane, LondonAt Rostrum, I worked in the financial services team. My main areas of focus were mortgages, wealth management, retirement planning and commercial finance. This role encapsulated the traditional skills of an account manager (organisation, client relations, media relations, copywriting, project management), but also more strategic skills. Researching the business, the industry, and analysing the current position for both new and existing customers was a part of the role that I relished. Nothing beats the satisfaction of pulling off a successful pitch (apart from possibly landing the first coverage for them, or seeing an impact on their business results). It was a fun time to be in financial services communications, with the start of RDR, the launch of auto-enrolment, and the mortgage market readying for MMR. There were a lot of communications challenges to overcome, and helping to guide our clients through this turbulent time was extremely interesting. I worked on a number of interesting research projects, from Bestinvest's Spot the Dog report, helping investors ensure they don't have any consistently under performing funds in their portfolio, to Legal & General's Deadline to Breadline report, revealing just how unprepared most people are for the financial uncertainty of the future. Plus, Rostrum Research's own project, looking into whether we as consumers trust non-banks and building societies (such as supermarkets) to deal with our finances.

Professional Women's NetworkPR Manager

Oct. 2011 - Apr. 2015London, United KingdomPWN is something that really interests me for a number of reasons. Since my involvement in the Inclusion and Diversity at Cisco, I have been interested in the career development of women within large (and small) organisations across Europe. Something that I hope to learn more about! Proven use of public relations and social media to increase membership in London.

H+K Strategies UKJunior Account Executive

Aug. 2011 - Jun. 2012Soho, LondonI worked in the busy world of Financial and Professional Services on a range of B2B, B2C and Third Sector campaigns. Clients included HSBC Expat, Aviva, Intel Capital and Visa. I was part of the Digital Leads group, sharing knowledge and best practice from current and past campaigns across the agency and the industry. During this role I was involved with community management, events organisation, traditional and online media outreach, media monitoring and analysis, client and team reporting and content creation.

Resilient Networks plcPR Consultant

Jul. 2011 - Aug. 2011London, United KingdomAiding Resilient Networks through the process of selecting a PR agency through building the brief and selection criteria and reaching out to appropriate agencies.

CiscoCommunications Intern

Jun. 2010 - Apr. 2011Created internal website for Inclusion and Diversity to align it with the campaign. Blogging externally to promote discussion around Inclusion and Diversity with the aim of showcasing Cisco as a leader in the I&D space. Researching and writing articles for News Bytes communicating what teams across Europe are doing in I&D. Created an internal blog for Nick Earle to communicate with a wider audience within Cisco.

PitchWork Experience

Jul. 2008 - Aug. 2008Key Responsibilities: Liaising with journalists and publicists, campaign logistics, field new client inquiries, press cuttings, media monitoring, set-up sample sales for retail industry buyers. Skills Developed: Client relationships, Gorkana, press release writing, telephone confidence, translating client briefs, identifying key information. Accounts Worked On: Stamford Bridge Football Ground, Canterbury Clothing, Skandia Team GB Olympic sailing team, NBA.

Resilient Networks plcCustomer Services Representative

Jul. 2007 - Aug. 2007Key Responsibilities: First line support function, build relationships with BT and key financial services and public sector clients, project manager for customer events, knowledge of product/service portfolio to identify solutions for issue resolution. Key Skills Developed: Conflict resolution, remaining calm under pressure, online database and collaboration tools, such as Salesforce.com, problem solving and communication.