My Journey with CSR

My journey with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) started nearly thirty years ago, when as a Direct Marketing Manager, I realised that telling people about the good things a business is doing in the community achieves far greater engagement than trying to “sell” to them. What I realised at that early stage is that the key to successful cause-related marketing is to ensure that the “cause” matches the values of the business, this allows the business to communicate what they stand for in a subtle way.

But one element of CSR that has become more important to me is the impact on the staff of the business. CSR has become not just an important marketing tool, but a business tool that enabled me to lead the business in having a positive impact on the community, ultimately helping our team enjoy their work more and ultimately making me feel good about my work. I am not unique, there is an increasing amount of evidence that getting staff involved in community work, volunteering, fundraising, or supporting a local initiative helps ensure they feel better about their work and are more productive.

As a business, we have always supported local charities and community projects and encouraged our team to get involved in their own chosen causes. As an individual, I love a good challenge and am always looking at ways that I can combine my passion for sport and challenging myself physically with supporting charities. From my first event as an 18-year-old arranging a charity rugby match to joining friends during COVID to raise funds for mental health charities, I have always sought ways to give back. There are always ways we can help and like everything in life, the more we put in, the more we get out.

It will be no surprise that one of our business values is “Challenging”. We have always set out to challenge our clients to increase the effectiveness of their marketing. We challenge ourselves to constantly learn and improve and we challenge ourselves to do more for others. The results of this approach have always enabled us and our clients to achieve our goals and objectives.

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