Welcome to the Student Marketing Society resource page.
We are delighted to support you setting up your own Student Marketing Societies.
Here you can check who your industry mentors are, access the speaker register and download event concepts and branding.
If you have any further questions, contact [email protected]
Marketing Society Mentors
- Glasgow University – Alison Gibb (GU)/ Jeni Spinks (EBS)/ Alexander Atha (Edrington)
- Glasgow Caledonian University – Elaine Ritch (GCU) /Rod Gillies (Whyte & Mackay)
- Stirling University – George Maglaras (SU) / Pam Scobie (Wire)
- Edinburgh Napier University – Nathalia Tjandra(ENU)/David Roberts (Multiply)
- Edinburgh University – David Marshall/Mary Ho (EU)/Chris Marsh (Carat)
- Queen Margaret University – Kristen Marshall/Mike Pretious (QMU) /Gregor Urquhart ( Scottish Government)
- Dundee University – Keith Dinnie (DU)/ Alexei Mateyev (IBM)
- Abertay University – TBC/ Alexi Mateyev (IBM)
Speaker Register
A reminder please to be courteous when approaching speakers, allowing them as much notice as possible for speaker slots and ensuring you nominate one person (not the whole team!) to contact them.
Gregor Urquhart
Head of Smarter, Wealthier and Fairer Marketing, Scottish Government
Topics:
- General topic on working in marketing in the public and charity sector
- Behavioural economics
- Specific SG campaigns he’s worked on – Teacher recruitment, Year of Young People, Credit Unions
John Denholm
Executive Chairman, Denholm Associates.
Topics:
Personal branding, Maximising LinkedIn, CV Help, Interview tips, Insights from Employers
Rod Gillies
Head Of Marketing at The Borders Distillery
Rod has worked in drinks and bars marketing for 25 years – with much of his experience in the development of new beer, cider, and spirits brands. He loves a good proposition and pack design, and believes the most compelling work arises when sound consumer insight meets creativity. Away from real-world work, he has written three novels and is a semi-professional LEGO builder.
Topics:
- Creativity and innovation
- How businesses use market research and trends
- Drinks marketing
Jo Grant
Head of Resourcing, The Edrington Group
Jo moved into the recruitment industry in 2006 where she has spent the last 13 years recruiting across a variety of specialisms and industries before taking up her current position as Head of Resourcing at Edrington in 2016. Jo is responsible for delivering all resourcing requirements for the UK, REEMEAT and Europe businesses will also setting, and driving, international processes and strategic direction for the global team. Jo has a keen interest in Inclusion and is also interested in entrepreneurialism and has been an advisor and mentor to a number of small businesses through Entrepreneurial Spark.
Topics:
CV writing, tips and tricks etc
Elizabeth Rockley
Senior Marketing Manager | Marketing and Insight Unit, Scottish Government
Liz is currently a senior marketing manager at the Scottish Government working on behavioural change campaigns. She leads on the Scottish Government’s road safety campaigns which are typically targeted to young men and often use new and interesting digital marketing channels. Before this, she spent ten years working in marketing for RBS and Tesco Bank which required a commercial marketing approach to drive sales and understand customer segment profitability. Liz found her way into marketing via an English degree, a failed attempt to get into journalism, and a couple of communications roles. She then took a short term marketing job at RBS which gave her the experience she needed to get onto their graduate marketing scheme. She hold qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Institute of Digital and Direct Marketing.
Topics:
- Digital marketing
- Behavioural change marketing
- Audience-led marketing
- Working in the public sector versus private sector
- Routes into marketing careers
Sophie Good
Senior Marketing Manager, Marketing and Insight Unit, Scottish Government
Sophie is a senior marketing manager at the Scottish Government; working on the Smarter and Fairer team predominantly on teacher recruitment campaigns. Before that, she worked at Heriot-Watt University as Digital Marketing Manager. Sophie started her career in advertising agencies – working on brands such as Shell, IRN-BRU and Ford at London agencies such as Ogilvy and Mather and JWT before moving to Edinburgh and joining Story UK.
Topics:
- Sophie can give a personal insight on how she built her career – and in particular a personal insight on the pros and cons of an agency vs a client-side career.
- Student marketing strategies (based on experience of how US Univerisites approach marketing)
- Building a new website
- Building a social media strategy
- Storytelling in marketing (Sophie is a playwright so involves lots of story telling in her presentations)
Nicci Motiang
Deputy Head of Strategy and Insight, Scottish Government
Topics:
- Marketing and Advertising Strategy & Insight – Getting In and Getting On
Nicci will give a personal account of a career in strategy and insight – based on experience working in global media agencies in London, Vienna, and Melbourne. Looking at what’s involved in the day to day job, some opportunities and challenges and some practical guidance on how to get into the marketing industry and how to get on once you are in.
Eve Harrison
Senior Marketing Manager | Marketing and Insight Unit, Scottish Government
Topics:
- working on a public sector campaign (credit unions) for the Scottish Government
- experience of working on some global hygiene brands (Bodyform/TENA).
Seonaid Heeps
Content & Social Media Manager | Marketing and Insight Unit
Seonaid is a social media manager within the Scotland marketing team at Scottish Government and she works on Brand Scotland / Scotland is Now, Scotland’s international brand campaign. She manages their social media strategy and delivery, and co-ordinate a team of content creators.
Topics:
- Social media strategy and content
- Brand Scotland social media
Nicola Thomson
Programme Manager – Brand Building Capability – The Macallan (The Edrington Group)
Nicola has spent 17 years working internationally in Europe, USA, Japan and Australia on leading brands such as Nike, adidas, Unilever and Mars petfood.
Topics:
- Experience of being a female working in diverse global markets
- Delivering brand capability programmes
- Experience of working at the world’s best client and agency businesses
- Sponsorship as a strategic brand asset
Heather McKinlay
fraoch marketing
Heather believes that all business strategy is marketing strategy – you start with the customer and work backwards. Heather’s career spans client, agency and consultancy roles across a variety of sectors. Heather is also founder and director of award-winning tour operator McKinlay Kidd, which markets, sells and operates tailor-made holidays throughout the UK and Ireland from its Glasgow base.
Topics
- Understanding customers
- Role of marketing in business
- Travel and tourism marketing
- Data and research
- Strategic planning
Jackie Anderson
Denholm Associates.
Head of Agency
Topics
-
CV Help
-
Interview tips
-
Insights from Employers
Mike Thorburn
Scottish Government
Mike is the lead content editor within the Scotland marketing team at Scottish Government and also works on Brand Scotland/Scotland is Now, Scotland’s international brand campaign. He manages the campaign’s website, www.scotland.org, overseeing a team of writers to create all the website content, from the static pages, to our constantly updated news and features section. As well as this, Mike also helped develop the tone and voice of the website and is the lead writer across the platform.
Topics
- Personal experience/ career from being a mature student
- Brand Scotland movement .
Event Formats
The Marketing Society in Scotland has developed some key event formats:
- Future Leaders
- Inspiring Minds
- Trendspotting
- Industry Insights
- Pioneering Spirit Awards
You may wish to use some of these event formats in your own Student Marketing Society event programmes.
You can pick speakers for these events from our speaker register or your industry mentor may have some contacts they can share.
- Future Leaders
A programme of events hosted by business leaders with personal insights on their careers for members aspiring to senior roles in our industry
Speaker brief:
To present an overview of their career to date and offer insights into key challenges that were faced, how these were over-come, key lessons learnt, best career advice etc etc
- Inspiring Minds
The Inspiring Minds programme is designed to inspire bolder marketing leadership addressing key topics and issues for marketers, connecting them to inspirational speakers and case studies.
Speaker brief:
To present a practical session on a given topic that will give attendees some ideas/ tips/ tricks and ideas to bring back to work or their studies.
At the Marketing Society Scotland, 2019 Inspiring Minds topics include:
- Marketing Leadership
- Brave Marketing
- Marketing Content
- Idea Economics
- Trendspotting
A programme of events developed for strategic marketers and planners
Discussion on new trends, tools & techniques
Speaker brief:
To present a session looking at the latest thinking and ideas in marketing.
At the Marketing Society Scotland, 2019 Trendspotting topics include:
- Credibility in a Digital Age
- Integration 2.0 – in an age of increasing fragmentation, how the marketing industry could work better together.
- Industry Insights
Hosted by leading member organisations
Invite attendees to an organisation to gain an insight into industry sectors, organisations and activities
Speaker brief/ format
Attendees visit an organisation – are given a tour (if appropriate), speaker from the organisation gives an insight into the industry and business, with an opportunity for networking at the end.
You may wish to consider client or agency side organisations for this event format.
- Pioneering Spirit Awards (PSA)
Throughout the year we invite senior members to judge some of the most inspiring award-winning campaigns from across the world
Speaker brief/ format:
These events do not have a guest speaker but do require an event chairperson.
Attendees are shown 6-8 video clips of campaigns from across the world.
The role of the chair person is to facilitate the discussion to reach an agreement of the top 3 campaigns
The Marketing Society Scotland has a well- researched list of award programmes from which the best global campaigns are chosen.
If your Student Marketing Society would like to host a PSA awards judging session, please contact [email protected] to obtain a list of the top campaigns.
