Case Studies
Selected engagements, set out as challenge → approach → what was delivered → outcome.
Client names are withheld under confidentiality and described by sector and scale instead. If you would like more detail, get in touch — I am happy to talk through any of these as far as I am able.
01 Social video 02 Pharma search & listening 03 Running Japan
Nine years on one brand,
through four platform eras.
Social media and video marketing for a global grooming brand, alongside the ongoing research that decided what to make next. Delivered through a US agency.
Global grooming brand
US agency
Nine years, continuous
Social, video, research, reporting
Background & challenge
A global grooming brand needed social content that felt native rather than adapted — and it needed it every week, not in campaign bursts.
Nine years is a long time in social media. Over that period the centre of gravity moved from Facebook to Instagram, then to short-form vertical video. A brand that keeps making the same thing gets quietly left behind; the work was as much about noticing the shift early as about producing the asset.
Approach
Treat social as an ongoing intelligence loop rather than a series of campaigns. Research first, then produce — so that each round of video was informed by what the last round, and the wider category, had actually revealed.
Because the relationship ran for years rather than months, the useful knowledge accumulated in one place instead of resetting with each new brief.
What was delivered
- Social media management and content programming across the brand's channels
- Video marketing: concepting, production coordination and platform-specific edits
- Continuous research and information gathering on category, competitors and audience
- Trend monitoring, with recommendations on formats worth moving to
- Regular reporting back to the agency and brand teams
Outcome
Nine consecutive years on the account. In agency terms that is the clearest outcome there is: the work was renewed, year after year, through several changes of platform and several changes of fashion.
The content programme was rebuilt more than once over that period — from the formats that worked in the Facebook era through to short-form vertical video — without losing the brand's voice.
One brand, one point of contact
Content rebuilt each time
Research and production, not one or the other
Search and listening,
inside the regulations.
Five years of SEO and social listening across four global pharmaceutical companies, delivered through two UK agencies — from research through to recommendations and reporting.
Four global pharmaceutical companies
Two UK agencies
Five years
SEO, social listening, analysis, reporting
Background & challenge
Pharmaceutical marketing is one of the most tightly regulated environments there is. Every claim is reviewed. Wording that would be unremarkable in consumer marketing can be unusable here.
That changes what search work actually is. It is not about volume. It is about being findable for the questions people genuinely ask, in language that stays inside what you are permitted to say — which is a narrower and more interesting problem.
Approach
Read search data and social listening together. Search tells you what people type when they want an answer; listening tells you how they describe the same thing to each other. The gap between those two vocabularies is usually where the useful work is.
Everything was designed to survive medical and legal review, so recommendations arrived in a form the client could actually sign off rather than one that had to be rewritten.
What was delivered
- Keyword and search landscape research for each brand and territory
- On-page and content recommendations written within compliance constraints
- Social listening set-up, query design and ongoing monitoring
- Sentiment and emerging-issue tracking, with escalation where needed
- Prioritised action plans for agency and in-house teams
- Regular reporting to brand and agency stakeholders
Outcome
Five years across four global pharmaceutical companies, through two UK agencies. In a sector where suppliers are replaced quickly and approvals are slow, continuity of that length is itself the result.
The combined search-and-listening view became the standard reporting format for the accounts, giving brand teams one place to see both what was being searched for and what was being said.
Germany, UK and France-headquartered groups
Continuous, across accounts
Retained through both
Not advising on Japan.
Running it.
Japan Manager for a global furniture brand, appointed CEO of the Japan market — holding PR, marketing and press for two years, brand-side.
Global furniture brand
Brand-side (no agency)
Two years
Market leadership, PR, marketing, press
Background & challenge
A global furniture brand needed someone to run Japan, not consult on it. That is a different job. An adviser recommends; a market lead decides, signs, and answers for the result.
Design brands face a particular difficulty in Japan: the audience is unusually literate about materials, provenance and detail, and will notice immediately when a global message has simply been translated rather than considered.
Approach
Work from inside the brand rather than alongside it. That meant sitting in the decisions rather than sending recommendations into them, and being the single point of accountability between global headquarters and the Japanese market.
Bilingual by default: press materials, media relationships and internal reporting all handled directly, with nothing lost in a hand-off between translator, agency and brand.
What was delivered
- Leadership of the Japan market as appointed CEO for the territory
- PR strategy and day-to-day press relations with Japanese media
- Marketing planning and execution for the market
- Press launches, previews and media events
- Local partner, distributor and supplier management
- Reporting and coordination with global headquarters
Outcome
Two years leading the Japan market end to end, with full responsibility for PR, marketing and press rather than a slice of it.
It is the experience that most directly informs the advisory work now: having been the person accountable for a Japan launch changes what you tell someone who is about to attempt one.
Japan market, brand-side
Appointed from Japan Manager
PR, marketing and press
Advising on a market and being answerable for it are not the same skill. Having done the second makes the first far more useful.
Let's talk about Japan.
Whether you have a specific question or a vague sense you need to understand the market better — that's exactly where I start.