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Full service marketing agency, BIG Partnership, has recruited Stewart Argo as an associate director based in its Edinburgh office.

Stewart joins BIG following six years as an associate director at Weber Shandwick, where he led a wide variety of corporate and public sector accounts, including award-winning campaigns in the health and transport sectors.

Prior to that, Stewart had fifteen years’ experience in-house at NHS Grampian, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the City of Edinburgh Council, having started his career as a journalist with BBC Radio Scotland.

Stewart will work closely with Stephanie Clark, the Edinburgh office director, to grow the capital’s operation but he will also be involved in clients and campaigns across all offices, particularly in corporate PR, public sector, stakeholder engagement and overall strategy.

BIG’s chief executive Allan Barr said: “Stewart’s a very significant signing for us. He’s someone we’ve been tracking for a long time and his enthusiasm for the business was obvious from our first discussions.

“He’s extremely well-respected by his peers across the industry and his experience and expertise are already paying dividends for clients. Working alongside Stephanie Clark, head of our Edinburgh office, and the rest of the wider team, he’ll play a key role in helping clients handle the current economic uncertainty.”

Stewart added: “BIG was a really attractive option for me because it’s large enough to offer the full suite of essential services, while also being sufficiently agile to respond flexibly in these uncertain times. I’m excited about bringing my skills and experience to the challenges faced by BIG’s current and prospective clients.”

BIG provides marketing, digital, public affairs, design and events to over 350 clients nationwide, from offices in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester.

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BIG Partnership has unveiled Allan Barr, our director of digital, design and marketing, as our new chief executive.

We have has also appointed associate directors Gayle Grant and Euan Blair as full board directors and promoted account director Charlene Sweeney to associate director.

Allan Barr joined BIG as an account director in 2007 after working in senior communications roles with ‘Big Four’ professional services companies KPMG and PWC.

He led a number of the agency’s major PR accounts and was appointed a board director in 2010. Over the last few years, Allan has spearheaded BIG’s successful diversification into digital, marketing and design, working closely with teams throughout the business, with direct responsibility for some of BIG’s key accounts.

BIG’s chairman, Malcolm McPherson said: “The creation of the chief executive role is a significant element in BIG’s plans for continued growth, driving forward a range of additional steps to strengthen our position as a forward-thinking, top-performing creative agency.

“In Allan, we’ve got a chief executive who cares passionately about BIG, our clients and our team. He has played a central role in the company’s success over the past decade and more and has an in-depth understanding and knowledge of all sides of the business – PR, digital, marketing and creative.

“He is the right person to lead us on the next stage of our evolution to become one of the UK’s leading integrated marketing and communications agencies.”

Allan Barr said: “I’ve now spent more than half of my career at BIG and am hugely excited to take on the role of CEO. Clearly it is a challenging time, but marketing and communications services have never been more important for organisations. The current climate means businesses are going to have to work harder than ever to recover from the economic shock suffered as a result of the coronavirus. The encouraging thing from my perspective is that we are already working with our clients to prepare for that recovery.”

Commenting on trends in the industry, Barr said: “At its heart, BIG has always been a creative agency and the talent within the business at the moment is stronger than it has ever been. We made the strategic decision to invest heavily in digital marketing and creative services over a decade ago and during that time BIG has evolved from being a PR-led business into a true full-service agency.

“Over the last few years, we have witnessed an increasing trend of clients looking to take advantage of a one-agency approach. There are huge efficiencies to be gained from a client perspective, and given the current climate, I anticipate that trend will accelerate. Our ability to offer a full suite of marketing, PR and creative services under one roof gives us a real advantage.”

BIG has also strengthened its board with the appointments of associate directors Euan Blair and Gayle Grant to become full board members. Charlene Sweeney becomes an associate director.

Gayle Grant is BIG’s head of energy, based in our Aberdeen office, and joined BIG in 2010 from a Manchester PR agency after beginning her career in journalism. She has been at the heart of BIG’s success in expanding its oil, gas and energy client base.

With over 16 years of digital marketing experience, Euan Blair joined BIG in 2015 and now leads our digital marketing team and creative studio. He originally headed BIG’s PPC and SEO offering before taking on responsibility for the wider digital marketing team.

Account director Charlene Sweeney, who heads some of BIG’s most prominent PR clients, is promoted to associate director. Charlene joined BIG in 2010 after a successful career in journalism with Scottish Television, the Sunday Herald and The Times.

Malcolm McPherson added: “Both Gayle and Euan have made significant contributions to the growth and development of BIG and we believe their knowledge and energy as full board members will be major assets for us over the coming years. Charlene Sweeney is also one of Scotland’s leading PR operators and her promotion recognises the central role she plays at BIG.”

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BIG Partnership’s Manchester team was celebrating on Friday night, taking the Gold Award for Best Use of Content at the CIPR North West PRide Awards 2019 for its #speakout campaign with client North West Cancer Research.

Earlier this year we worked with the charity – a long-standing client of BIG’s – to develop a campaign which would raise awareness of head and neck cancer among men aged 50 and above living in the North West of England.

NWCR funds research into cancers which have a disproportionate impact in the North West and North Wales. This region has head and neck cancer rates that are three times the rest of the UK. Our main goal was simple: encourage men – who can be reluctant to go to the doctor – to get symptoms checked, since early diagnosis can save lives.

The key message of our campaign was to encourage men not to stay silent but to #speakout if they noticed any symptoms. We developed a fully integrated communications strategy, including media relations, organic social content, social advertising and influencer outreach around this theme.

Working with local celebrity ambassadors, BIG produced a powerful video, which we promoted across social media and press. Ambassadors included sports stars such as Graeme Sharpe, Warrington Wolves and John Parrot, comedian Dave Spikey and soap star Dean Sullivan.

BBC Radio Presenter Mark Radcliffe became a key ambassador for our campaign, sharing his own personal head and neck cancer story.

As well as securing national and regional news coverage and delivering a social media advertising campaign which reach 50,000 plus men, we’re very proud to say that at least one life was saved.

Our client received a letter from the wife of a man who saw the campaign and went along to his doctor after ignoring his symptoms for some time. Unfortunately, he received a cancer diagnosis – but after early treatment the signs are positive for a full recovery.

Cara Newton, Marketing Manager, North West Cancer Research said: “The reception from the public for the #speakout campaign has been overwhelmingly positive. We have never really had any celebrity endorsements for the charity and BIG developed a vehicle which allowed us to approach and engage with regional celebrities, whose involvement supercharged the campaign.”

Sarah Lawless, director of BIG Manchester, added: “NWCR does incredibly important work across the region and backed our idea for the campaign from day one. It’s not often you get to say you’re involved in genuinely life-saving work, so we’re very proud of this campaign.”

For more information on NWCR, visit www.nwcr.org. You can also see the video we produced here.

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The BIG team won a trio of gold awards at this year’s CIPR Pride awards in Scotland.

Our Aurora campaign for Aberdeen Football Club, which resulted in a positive planning application for the new stadium, was praised by the judges in the arts, sports or culture category. They mentioned our “strategic focus with tactics tailored to resonate with every important audience with demonstrable understanding.”

The judges also highlighted the SMART objective-setting married with precise evaluation. The Aurora campaign was recently recognised with a Northern Star Business award.

Our work promoting the Westfield Health British Transplant Games to raise awareness of the need for more people to join the NHS Organ Donation Register achieved the top accolade in the not-for-profit campaign. The judges complimented the “well thought-out campaign with clear objectives and excellent measurement. “

In the property, construction or infrastructure category, our work with Park Quadrant Residences, a luxury new residential development in Glasgow’s West End, took the gold. BIG was tasked with delivering buyer enquiries and executed a PR and digital strategy.

The judges commented: “Everything about this campaign by BIG Partnership demonstrated good practice, from the clear, SMART and challenging objectives through to the thorough and honest measurement and evaluation. There was good use of paid-for digital tools that integrated well with other online and public relations activity to create a significant number of qualified enquiries, leading to sales targets being exceeded. A solid campaign that shows how PR is evolving to embed digital-first strategies to such good effect.”

Zoe Ogilvie, director at BIG Partnership said: “We are immensely proud and privileged to have worked on these diverse campaigns for a trio of supportive clients. We are driven by achieving results and all of these campaigns demonstrate the tangible impacts we can make by taking a strategic and creative approach to a brief.”

We love delivering award-winning work for our clients. If you would like to be part of a future successful campaign, get in touch by clicking here.

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BIG Partnership is proud to welcome Steven Hill to the new role of creative director, bringing heavyweight experience with some of the country’s most high-profile brands.

Steven has developed marketing strategies for leading brands including Kraft Heinz, Highland Spring, Tennent’s, the Famous Grouse and Royal Bank of Scotland. He has also led hard-hitting public sector creative campaigns for the NHS and Scottish Government.

He joins us at a time of significant growth after we reported a record increase in turnover of £1.4 million to £8.8 million which resulted in a £250,000 bonus pot shared by our 107 staff.

Steven will work across the agency’s offices in Glasgow, Manchester, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dunfermline and Dundee to strengthen brand identities and devise marketing strategies that deliver measurable impacts. BIG supports over 300 brands across the B2B and consumer sectors.

Allan Barr, director and head of digital and marketing at BIG said: “Steven’s appointment adds a powerhouse of creative weight to our branding strategies and creative campaigns. His ideas and experience are sought after in the UK and beyond. Working closely with our design and digital teams, clients will benefit from Steven’s well-considered creative strategies, brought to life in the most imaginative ways to trigger the desired response.”

Steven Hill said: “It’s one thing to create great things, but without a cohesive strategy a client’s products or services can easily be lost. BIG is ambitious, works with interesting and diverse clients and there’s a real buzz here about finding new ways to deliver results. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into creating campaigns that deliver a punch for this exciting mix of brands.”

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