As Brouha celebrates 20 years, each of the team are looking back on our personal experiences of how we joined the business and how our careers have progressed. As with any small business, everyone has their own story and it’s fun to think back to the beginning and of everything that has happened since.
My early days with Brouha were less than conventional. My background (and current sideline) is in agriculture and I was working as head of finance for a large country estate whilst doing self-employed bookkeeping on the side. I met Fiona Lund at a party and agreed to help with her accounts. This carried on through two maternity leaves, and at the end of the second in 2013, I joined the team properly to help manage the accounts and run the office. I have always enjoyed marketing and, over time, naturally became more involved in the day-to-day work of the agency. Brouha predominantly worked in fenestration then and I had no idea that a whole ecosystem of media (12 dedicated magazines at the time!) and marketing existed. It was fascinating!
Getting out and about
My first real “job” was to support Fiona at a GM Fundraising event where they were launching Border2Border - a cycle ride across America - and my task was to interview the riders about why they were taking part in the challenge at the Manchester velodrome. It was here that I also discovered there was also an extremely sociable side to the sector!
My second outing was a little less exhilarating but still daunting; I was to accompany Mike Turner, who was a director for Ian Williams Ltd at the time, to a meeting with Cardiff Council to talk about a joint resident communication project. A whole new world, especially when all the flyers we created had to be translated into Welsh
Social media
Back then social media was only just becoming a thing and customers were exploring this as another route to market. But in 2016, Microsoft brought LinkedIn, transforming it from a standalone job-seeking site into a business communications platform and social media came more into focus in our B2B world.
Then we had lockdown, and it really kicked off as the place to share news and updates and stay connected. While we had dabbled in it beforehand as a bolt-on to our existing programmes, it became an integral part of the marketing mix.
As slightly techy, I was interested. I also love stats and with digital marketing there are lots.
This is the story of my career so far. I’m interested and therefore I can – or as some might say, fake it till you make it! I would rather think of it as a can-do attitude. I am grateful to Fiona and the team for their belief that I could too.
A role of variety
From acting as a grip on a video set to holding George Clarke’s lunch at a photoshoot, to sitting through product “deep-dives” for new brands, to video and image editing, writing PRs, articles, blogs, white papers and social media posts, to organising events of all shapes and sizes – including ones with midgets - and getting trains on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK, it’s been a wild ride! But one where I have built skills, experience, knowledge and insight (and resilience) along the way.
As a boutique agency and a small business, being able to get stuck in and learn about the latest trends is what has seen us through the last 20 years – and the next. You must be agile and adaptable to deliver what your customers need, understand what works and what does not, what is right for each customer, and be with them every step of the way. In a nutshell, this is strategic communications, the very heart of what we do.
Building partnerships
I love nothing more than meeting a new customer and helping them develop their marketing strategy, turning their vision and their business goals into a programme that is going to deliver measurable results for their business. And with the skills of the team at Brouha, being able to work with them at every stage to deliver it – whether it’s a new brand or brochure, video, or written communications.
But equally, I love working with our longstanding customers – some of whom have been around for longer than I have. We have fantastic relationships with each of them, know their businesses well and are ready to adapt to the latest idea or challenge. They are true partners – and most of them are fun to go out for an evening with too….
