Digital Experience

Digital media, online publishing and e-commerce excite me. With the proliferation of new channels to market and the onslaught of smart phone technology, it is essential, in my view, that 'new media' must be embraced and used if a company is to achieve its true potential. 

I was an early adopter of the web. I realised as far back as 1994 what the internet could potentially do for a business; but like many people at that time, I had no idea how to monetise it. That was soon to change of course! My first foray online was to create a web site for Johansens, albeit very basic, using a third party specialist. 

The classified advertising content of Bargain Pages lent itself to an online format. But as a publisher with a successful offline newspaper, there was always a nagging fear of cannibalising the business. So instead I developed zoom2.co.uk - the first online searchable web site for businesses in the West Midlands. I incentivised the sales team to offer enhanced listings as part of advertising packages. It was a great success and my team and I went on to build and host basic web sites for local businesses. As part of my remit as Chair of FAPIA, I was mandated by the membership to develop an online solution to enable worldwide classified advertising content to be syndicated in one place. Despite huge challenges of bringing together nearly 200 international free-ads papers, there was a highly successful outcome. 

Whilst working on behalf of the NFU at Associa, I engaged an external internet consultant and NFU Countryside online was conceived. Within a matter of months the site was attracting 50k visitors a month and generating income from subscriptions, advertisers and the sale of merchandise and event tickets. 

I engaged the same agency in my next role to develop an online strategy for World of Property and Emigrate. One of the key challenges was the ability to upload multiple properties from worldwide agents to the World of Property site. I oversaw the development and implementation of an xml feed solution, which was very successful and transformed the business model overnight as we grew the content of overseas properties for sale to in excess of 100k. Advertsing revenues followed by way of banners and skys, but also with property agents paying per lead generated too. The Emigrate web site became the leading UK resource for emigration information and at peak times of the year attracted 80k unique visitors a month. 

I became chief architect for a series of web sites to promote and support the various events that JP Events & Exhibitions were involved with, (at one time 15 sites), including content, e-commerce and ticket sales solutions, which were created and managed by my team.  

Creating and managing PPC campaigns via AdWords is something I am proficient in doing. I understand SEO and how it works. I am conversant with Facebook and Twitter with a realisation of the benefit social media can bring to any business. 

At IIMS I have been involved in serious digital product development from reworking the website to overseeing the development of three Apps.

During my period of seeking employment, I developed a range of web sites (apart from this one) for myself and several commercial organisations. I am familiar with publishing via Wordpress as a web publishing medium.

A couple of examples are:
Penzer Opticians
English Scenery
Auschwitz Trip