SECTORS
Our Experience
Find out more about our wide-ranging sector experience.
Our Experience
Business to Business (B2B)
If your business sells to other businesses, then we are well placed to support you. Both Catherine and John have spent their careers in B2B sales and marketing nationally and internationally, in various organisations selling products and services across many different sectors.
John is engaged and connected in the tech and data science sectors and has supported well-established organisations such as legal services firm Thorntons, the high-growth commercial insurance distribution company Broker Insights and viewer measurement business TVSquared.
Catherine has supported Chromacity, who develop high-performance ultrafast lasers, and contract research and manufacturing organisation CXR Biosciences. She has also helped venue access control and membership systems business Scotcomms TeamCard, managed IT provider Shackleton and over 75 B2B Business Gateway clients. Recently, she was involved in the Water’s Edge launch – a completely re-imagined approach to leased office space in Dundee’s Maritime Quarter.
Our Experience
Business to Consumer (B2C)
Selling directly to consumers often means you need to continuously generate new customers, even when there is a well-thought-out retention plan. To achieve growth, you must be visible in the right place at the right time.
Catherine’s experience includes her work with a long-standing client of ten years, Beam Orthodontics, as well as with service apartments innovators, Urban Quarters, and the iconic St Andrews gelateria Janettas. She has also supported two high-end homes sector brands: flooring experts Strathearn Stone and Timber, as it reviewed its online presence and reached out to wider audiences, and handcrafted windows specialists TJ Ross, as it launched its first Edinburgh city centre studio and overhauled its brand. She has also delivered over 75 expert-help days on behalf of Business Gateway to B2C clients.
John currently supports the family butcher Scott Brothers with its ecommerce service and the legal services firm Thorntons across a range of its direct-to-consumer offerings.
Our Experience
Charities & Non-Profit
We’ve worked with several charities and have helped visitor attractions raise awareness of their offering and draw in more paying customers. With medical research charities, we have helped them position themselves to attract more supporters, and we have worked in the business ecosystem. To make us an affordable option to this sector, we will gift our charity and non-profit clients extra time at no cost to provide them with an extra helping hand with their important work.
Catherine has a broad range of charity and non-profit experience, including visitor and tourist gems such as HMS Unicorn, St. Andrews Botanic Gardens and Wardlaw Museum – the St. Andrews University museum. She has also supported medical research charities Worldwide Cancer Research, ME Research UK, Caledonia Housing Association and education charitable project Inspire Aspire.
John has worked with Social Good Connect, who offered a unique digital search and match solution to enable employees to find volunteering opportunities and charities to access a new audience of skilled volunteers. He has also worked with Entrepreneurial Scotland, an independent charity that exists to equip Scotland’s leaders and talent with the entrepreneurial skills, mindset and connections to create impact.
Our Experience
Culture & Travel
With the arrival of V&A Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, there has been an upsurge in energy from the culture sector. We are fully committed to supporting businesses in Taycountry and the surrounding area looking to capitalise on this increasingly tourism-focused part of the world.
Catherine has helped start-ups in the sector such as Urban Quarters, as well as long-established gems like St Andrews Botanic Garden, HMS Unicorn and the Wardlaw Museum, formerly known as MUSA (the Museum of St Andrews University), during a period of closure ahead of an extension and reopening in 2021.
John was previously on the board of Marketing Edinburgh, the destination marketing organisation promoting Edinburgh to the world.
Our Experience
Ecommerce & Retail
It’s an exciting field to be in, especially with our nation of shoppers spending more online. In this fast-paced field, we always keep our knowledge up to date as it’s an area of continuing demand, whether from traditional retailers, bricks and clicks or pure-play ecommerce retailers.
Ecommerce – Over several years, John worked with Scott Brothers family butchers to steadily build their online sales throughout the UK. The service is also for local customers, offering them local delivery and click & collect services. Particularly popular during the pandemic, Scott Brothers experienced a boom in online orders, increasing demand tenfold. Catherine has supported the Duvet Store and start-up etailer Author with its unique British designed interiors offering.
Bricks and mortar – Catherine has supported the iconic Scottish ice cream brand Jannettas, during a period of transformation, two high-end homes sector brands, flooring experts Strathearn Stone and Timber, as it reviewed its online presence and reached out to wider audiences, and handcrafted windows specialists TJ Ross as it launched its first Edinburgh city centre studio and overhauled its brand. These businesses had in-depth plans and benefitted from introductions to our trusted partners to help with delivery, such as visual merchandisers and experienced ecommerce web developers and performance digital marketers.
Our Experience
Business & Tech Ecosystem
In Scotland, we are blessed with an established business and tech ecosystem to support ambitious companies. We have been helping ecosystem organisations help their clients grow their businesses. With an array of experience and connections in this field, the relationships built through each client engagement have proven invaluable in helping future clients.
John has worked with Entrepreneurial Scotland, an independent charity that exists to equip leaders and talent with the entrepreneurial skills, mindset and connections to create impact. He has also worked with The University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub, the Bayes Centre for data science and artificial intelligence, Heriot-Watt University’s commercialisation team and The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data and AI.
Many start-ups and high-growth businesses have chosen to base themselves at Water’s Edge, and we work with Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns’ 4J Studios. We also work with their portfolio company and award-winning high growth insuretech business Broker Insights. We have also supported Predict Mobile, a mobile comparison and matching platform based in Water’s Edge.
Catherine has provided support to Business Gateway clients in Tayside and Fife over the last eleven years and has supported over 200 of their clients between the two organisations.
Our Experience
Food & Drink
Scotland is known for its strength in the food and drink sector, and in our local area, the fresh dairy, meat, fish, seafood, fruit and vegetable offerings and more are world-class. Catherine and John are foodies and particularly passionate about Scotland’s natural food produce, and promoting it comes from the heart.
Over several years, John worked with Scott Brothers Butchers to develop their brand and steadily build their online sales throughout the UK. The service is also for local customers, offering them local delivery and a click & collect service. The online offering was particularly popular during the pandemic, when Scott Brothers experienced a boom in online orders, increasing demand tenfold.
Catherine has worked with many farmers, food and drink producers, restaurants, and cafes. Her clients have included the iconic ice cream brand Jannettas when they were overhauling their brand and proposition and went into a period of growth, winning multiple local and national awards.
Our Experience
Healthcare
Technology is innovating this sector, and we have been involved in healthcare providers looking at ways to harness tech to make receiving treatment easier for patients.
Catherine has been active in the private healthcare sector for over a decade. She worked with Beam Orthodontics from when it was just a handful of people to becoming a practice recognised as a multi-award winner, leader and innovator in Scotland with 30 staff. Other experience includes working with online doctor services, alternative therapists, podiatrists and osteopaths.
Our Experience
Life Sciences
Dundee and Edinburgh are locations with excellence in this area, and we welcome opportunities to support businesses in this field.
Catherine has supported CXR Biosciences in the period leading up to a successful exit to contract research and manufacturing organisation Concept Life Sciences. Heriot-Watt based Chromacity, who develop high-performance ultrafast lasers, had a full marketing plan created to help the early-stage business harness digital marketing. Both progressive businesses reaped benefits from the work, and our case studies shed more light on what was achieved.
Our Experience
Professional Services
Accelerating digital thinking and transformation is core to helping professional services organisations succeed in a changing world and digital age. Equally, being more sales-led and understanding online customer acquisition and retention is vital for modern professional services organisations looking to grow. We relish the challenge that supporting clients in professional services brings.
Catherine was previously an in-house marketing director at a professional services firm. She has also supported a financial services firm, a senior partner practice in the FTSE 100 St. James’s Place Wealth Management.
John has worked with legal services firm Thorntons across many different parts of the firm. In the time he has worked with them, they have trebled their turnover and significantly increased staff headcount while extending their geographic reach.
Our Experience
Start-ups & High Growth
alsoStart-ups make up a large percentage of our client base, particularly those with investment and that are well-placed to invest in marketing. Often, these businesses will use tech to innovate and do things differently from their competitors. We enjoy the opportunity to get involved in such an exciting time of a business journey.
John has supported several start-ups, including TVSquared, the data-led business measuring how people watch TV across all platforms and screens. He has also supported Predict Mobile, the first business to automate the buying of business mobile communications, and Broker Insights, the first independent, searchable platform connecting insurers and brokers. John also works with Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns’ 4J Studios, and has worked in the start-up tech ecosystem.
Catherine has helped businesses across various sectors during their start-up and early business stages. She has helped Author Interiors, a unique platform bringing British-designed interiors online, Predict Mobile – the only B2B mobile comparison and matching platform – and Urban Quarters, which has set the bar for serviced apartments in the area.
Our Experience
Tech & Data Science
Tech businesses usually need tech marketing solutions, and our experience in digital marketing has helped these businesses with their growth plans.
John has worked with award-winning start-up and scale-up businesses Broker Insights, Predict Mobile and TVSquared. The Broker Insights platform connects brokers and insurers, unlocking commercial insurance data and transforming relationships. Predict Mobile is automating the process of buying business mobile communications, and TVSquared is the largest global measurement and attribution platform for linear, CTV and addressable TV. All of these data-led platform businesses are heralded as game-changing in their sectors.
John has also supported the Scottish Funding Council-funded The Data Lab, Scotland’s Innovation Centre for data and artificial intelligience, the Bayes Centre, which is the University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub for data science and artificial intelligence, and Heriot-Watt University’s commercialisation department.
Catherine has supported outsourced IT providers Shackleton, Chromacity, who are seeking to disrupt the fibre laser market and access control providers, and Scotcomms Technology with their TeamCard solution.
