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Samuel Taylor
FREELANCE, BRAND STRATEGY and EXPERIENTIAL SPECIALIST
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Samuel Taylor

FREELANCE, BRAND STRATEGY and EXPERIENTIAL SPECIALIST
Enthusiastic, insightful and extremely creative professional with over 17 years of experience in marketing industries. Through experience I have cultivated a thorough understanding and a keen insight into brand strategy, partnerships the experiential nature of events. Fired by an unquenchable sense curiosity and a deep interest in people, I help brand's and organisations tell stories, form positive bonds with other organisation's, and create tangible, sensory-based touchpoints that will strike an emotional resonance with their target audiences. I am highly adept at producing a stand-alone project end to end, but I am truly at my best when involved in the strategy behind producing campaigns that are multilayered to support a fully integrated approach; bringing the concept to life through innovation, imagination and divergent thinking
Freelance
LEEDS METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
Lubenham, Market Harborough, UK

Professional Background

  • Current status
  • Profession
    Content Marketer
  • Fields
    Advertising
  • Work experience
    More than 15 years
  • Management
  • Skills
    Brand Strategy
    Experiential Marketing
    Event Planning & Management
    Content Marketing
    Business Development
    Social Media Marketing
    Creative Direction
    business strategy
    integrated marketing & communications management
    team building
    Partnerships Development
    Sponsorship Activation
    Negotiation skills
  • Languages
    English
    Native or Bilingual
    French
    Intermediate
  • Highest level of education
    Bachelor

Job search preferences

  • Desired job type
    Full-time
    Interested in working remotely
  • Desired positions
    FREELANCE, BRAND STRATEGY and EXPERIENTIAL SPECIALIST
  • Desired work locations
    London, UK
  • Freelance

Work Experience

BRAND STRATEGY AND EXPERIENTIAL SPECIALIST

Feb 2017 - Present
Nobl Insurance (Startup): Managed the brand’s social presence, started the partnership process and developed content strategy for the inception period prior to their launch Shinebright: Instrumental in winning new MoBros account and working with the client to develop their brand and develop their social and content strategy Bees & Honey: Managed their Brand refresh and web build to help develop the repositioning of their services Global Event Awards (Startup): Developed the initial stages of their brand strategy First: Managed the B2B launch for new brand Oath (a merge between Yahoo! and AOL)

SENIOR EVENTS/PARTNERSHIP MANAGER

Nov 2011 - Jun 2016
4 yrs 8 mos
I led the events team within an integrated Marketing agency. Predominantly I worked on the MasterCard Account and produced creative experiential events for their consumer-facing Priceless London campaign (by leveraging assets from a wide range of MasterCard partnerships). I managed high-end hospitality for company dignitaries and their guests and produced slick B2B conferences and meetings for the corporate teams. I am the lead member of a team whose efforts have seen MasterCard rise into the top 100 brand as defined by Interbrand for the first time in 2012 and remain there since. My team’s efforts also gained the brand the Gold Award for Best Integrated Events Campaign at the 2014 Event Awards. • Acted as the main point of call for the client, building up trust to secure a professional and stress-free working relationship. Managed all approvals, took briefs and reported the necessary information to ensure I met objectives. • Managed the existing partnerships that Big Group acquired on MasterCard’s behalf to service Priceless London and leveraged assets within the negotiated contracts to create unique and bespoke events and experiences, making sure to maintain active and professional relationships with the organisation’s corporate development teams. This included The Natural History Museum, The V&A, The Science Museum, Southbank Centre, The Merlin Group, The Society of London Theatres and various record labels and management teams when activating the Priceless Gigs in the programme’s Music category. • Managed and maintained excellent working relationships with preferred suppliers, carrying out due diligence when selecting new suppliers and steered chosen suppliers so that the creative concepts of the event were adhered to, thus ensuring a cohesive experience for attendees. • Oversaw all communications throughout the event timeline. Created engaging copy to describe each event, encouraging registered cardholders to enter the ballot to attend the event. Fed into communications team to ensure the event’s promotion through press, CRM and social media. Manage the fulfilment process to take every available action to alert winners and provide them with all the relevant information. Led creative team resulting in attractive and informative event marketing collateral that protected the Priceless London look and feel. • Scoped work, raised POs and managed tight budgets that required a considered approach to meet high expectations. • Onsite activation and live event management for an average of 80+ MasterCard events per year.

FESTIVAL MANAGER

Mar 2011 - Oct 2011
8 mos
Managed Oxjam, a charity music festival attended by over 3000 people with over 100 acts playing in 10 venues. With no capital or budget to start, I raised over £25,000 for Oxfam, the most in the event’s 11-year history (the national average was £3700). I sourced and managed a team of volunteers to deal with production, marketing, fundraising and community liaising. I have since been asked back by Oxfam to give keynote speeches to inspire and motivate subsequent Oxjam Regional Managers Hired and managed a core team of four volunteers, expanding to team of 10, and led over 75 volunteers on the day. Developed and maintained an assertive programme of fundraising events to raise awareness and cover incremental costs Worked closely with design agency to produce sub-brand that worked within strict guidelines provided by Oxjam as to not damage their brand but gave Leicester Oxjam its own identity. Communicated all activities through all available and affordable marketing channels paying particular attention to social media channels and the website, which proved to be vastly successful. Controlled our presence through local media channels generating a significant amount of positive coverage. Managed a very tight budget, balancing expenditure with forecasted income, keeping in mind the bottom line at all times, to gain the best ROI for the charity. Acquired services (printing, design, website, advertising) at no additional cost by forming creative partnerships or by negotiating services in exchange for realty on marketing collateral. Negotiated headline sponsorship from Walkers Crisps. Maintained close working relationship with council and emergency services, procured a road closure for iconic street to add value to the event at no extra cost to ourselves, managed the many licenses required, covered the cost of Public Liability Insurance up to £10M by successfully gaining a grant for social cohesion from the council, constructed event plan and all compulsory health and safety documentation.

VIP EXPERIENCES MANAGER

Nov 2008 - Feb 2010
1 yr 4 mos
Created, marketed and sold VIP packages and Meet and Greet experiences for Live Nation’s promoted concerts at Wembley Arena, the O2 Arena and company run festivals. Concerts: Madonna, Girls Aloud, Il Divo, Enrique Iglesias. Festivals: Global Gathering, Download, O2 in the Park.

BBH

Jun 2007 - Nov 2008
1 yr 6 mos
Supported the Baileys, Gordon’s Gin, Dunlop and Vodafone account teams to assist with the day to day organisational and logistic activities and to provide each client with a sound and reliable source for streamlining the team’s service.

LOGISTICS COORDINATOR (SPONSORSHIPS)

May 2005 - May 2006
1 yr 1 mo
Coordinated all the relevant information that need to be provided to and collated from the sponsors and exhibitors at a number of international (USA) conferences and managed all logistics for the key stakeholders.

Education

Bachelor of Arts (BA)
EVENTS MANAGEMENT
2001 - 2005
Other
1993 - 1998