Spotlight On...Laura Gill, Head of Marketing and Business Intelligence at Isle of Man Department for Enterprise
This week, we speak to Laura Gill, Head of Marketing and Business Intelligence at Isle of Man Department for Enterprise, about the surprising backgrounds and paths into marketing, the importance of community and how local support for enterprise has pivoted during the pandemic.
How did you get into marketing?
My path into marketing was not very linear, as I originally started out in acting! I started to enjoy the production, promotion and marketing elements of shows that I was involved in much more than being on stage myself, so I moved into my first full time marketing role in 2011, and have since qualified with CIM which has been so beneficial to my career. I’m currently a Member of CIM and am really keen to work towards chartered status. I love that marketing spans so many sectors and is endlessly interesting as there is always something new to learn – I now couldn’t imagine myself working in any other profession!
What is your role and how long have you been in post
I work for the Department for Enterprise in the Isle of Man, and my ‘normal’ role is Marketing Manager for Locate Isle of Man – a division of Government that seeks to bring new talent and investment to the Island. I’m currently covering a maternity role for 14 months as Head of Marketing & Business Intelligence – this role is a bit broader and oversees all of the marketing and comms from our Department. We support our business sectors to promote all aspects of living, working and doing business in the Isle of Man, so there are both B2B and B2C aspects to our work. It’s certainly been an unusual year to take on such a wide ranging role, but it is an incredible privilege to promote and drive development for the place that you live.
Describe you organisation and its core products/services and markets?
Our organisation essentially drives economic development for the Isle of Man. It is a very diverse organisation and is more commercially minded than you’d necessarily expect in the public sector. We have teams that support our primary business sectors in the Isle of Man – Finance, Digital, Business and Tourism – as well two world-leading aircraft and ship registries, a funding and support service which provides investment for all manner of businesses, and Locate Isle of Man.
What does your brand stand for in the minds of your customers?
On a local level, we position our brand around partnership and community. We represent business and entrepreneurship in the Isle of Man, and provide support and advice for anyone considering starting, growing or relocating their business.
On an international level, the Isle of Man’s reputation as an early adopter of new business sectors means our brand represents an international business sector where you can move quickly and efficiently to build your business.
Influencing brand perception for an entire jurisdiction is certainly not straightforward as there are a huge number of considerations that influence our augmented brand, not all of which we can control, so we are constantly monitoring and seeking feedback about how we are perceived and developing ideas about how we can work with our partners and stakeholders to hone our collective brand.
How has the pandemic impacted your brand/marketing strategy/comms?
The pandemic has been completely transformational to our marketing strategy and how we communicate with our customers. In the immediate lockdown, our business focus pivoted from an international emphasis, to a more domestic one in order to provide new support schemes and financial assistance to businesses navigating the pandemic from the Island, so from a comms perspective, we needed to get information out as quickly and widely as possible, without the planning timeframes we’d usually work to.
A big chunk of our annual outreach is ordinarily done through events and networking opportunities around the world, and that has obviously changed drastically. Our marketing team have had to skill up on our webinar and digital conference abilities quickly – where we’d have run two or three digital events previously, we’re sometimes running that many in a week. From a marketing point of view, it’s actually been a positive thing to step back and consider how our customers really want to hear from us, and whether our previous strategy was really best optimised for them.
What has been the biggest challenge you / your business/organisation has faced this year?
Without a doubt, coronavirus has challenged the Department – how it operates, what our customers needs are, and who/ how we are marketing ourselves. As we’re part of Government, we were all pulled into crisis comms and helping with public information dissemination. Getting the balance between this reactive work, with progressing ongoing projects and ‘business as usual’ is a fine line. It has also had an ongoing impact on our tourism sector, so navigating the ins and outs of marketing ourselves as a destination with so many unknowns around travel and border restrictions has been a big challenge.
On a personal level, it has probably been managing my team of 12 remotely. I’m naturally a more sociable creature and I really like communicating in person, so getting used to running one-to-ones and keeping the team motivated over MS Teams took a little getting used to, but we’ve got it down now!
What are the opportunities?
The Isle of Man was able to contain the community spread of the virus relatively quickly, and was able to stay restriction free for 6 months before another short three week lockdown this January. We’ve benefitted from the ability to close our borders, so it has brought an opportunity to build resilience; for the local economy to restart, businesses to get back into their workplaces, and for us to focus on driving international development again.
The big opportunity now is sharing our story, and what this means for businesses and individuals that might be considering relocating. We have an opportunity to use this resilience to help build a stronger international brand and awareness for the Island.
When working to nurture innovation and creativity with students and people new to marketing, how do you feel about internships or graduate placement schemes?
We’re always really keen to bring new talent into the Marketing Department. This year we took on a graduate intern over the summer months, and it is always massively refreshing to have a fresh eyes check on the way you’re doing things. The Department is a great place for anyone starting a career in the Isle of Man, or in other public sector settings, as it gives you really vast exposure – but we can learn as much from them as the other way round – particularly when it comes to new channels and trends.
What advice would you give graduates and early-stage career professionals looking to get into marketing in your sector?
My advice would be to try everything to begin with. Even if there is a specific area of marketing that you are naturally drawn to, I think it is valuable to get as broad an overview of the various disciplines as possible before honing in on one specialism. If you’re working in the social team, it’s really helpful to understand how that work fits with the overall PR, or content strategy, for instance. You can never have enough strings to your bow!
I would also advise learning about wider business – I’m a firm believer that Marketing should have a seat at the board table and be an integral part of any organisation, so having an understanding of how other functions, such as sales or product development, work is really helpful. You don’t have to do a full blown business degree, but just getting an overview from a bit of research or speaking to colleagues is great - taking an interest in all the other functions can help make some great contacts too.
Which technical skills are most important in your role?
I would say that people management is the most important skill in my current role – both supporting and developing the team, but also managing stakeholders – everyone from external agencies to our political members.
The most important technical skills would be campaign planning and pitching, resource and budget management, and an ability to consolidate information that is sometimes quite technical into an easily understandable format for various customers.
What importance is placed on marketing and particularly CIM in your workplace?
The majority of our team are CIM members, and there is a local study centre here on the Island, The Marketing Partnership, which is really valuable for the local Marketing community – two of our staff members are currently studying.
Having a dedicated Isle of Man CIM representative on the CIM North West board is really helpful too, as it ensures we have a voice within the region. It’s really important to be part of the wider community – especially when living and working on an Island – so you don’t feel like you’re just working in isolation. Through CIM, we’ve hosted events with representatives from Marketing Liverpool, for example, and there is so much we can learn from their experience that applies to our role in the Isle of Man.
How important in networking? How has networking changed? / Can you recommend any podcasts/books, share any tips?
Networking is massively important, and while in Marketing we’re all comfortable selling our products and services, selling ourselves is something we can often shy away from. I’m learning (slowly!) to be more comfortable with networking, especially on linkedin where you can join groups based around marketing, it’s easier than ever to strike up conversation with people.
I’ve also recently joined Clubhouse and - although I’m just starting out - I think the networking opportunities on that platform are massive. There are some great rooms based around marketing, entrepreneurship and business content and I think it has huge potential for meeting likeminded marketers and skilling up.
Can you recommend any podcasts/books, share any tips?
My favourite marketing book – although not technically marketing specific, is ‘Wild thinking’ by Nick Liddell and Richard Buchanan. It looks at some of the world’s leading brands and how unconventional thinking and innovation has shaped them. On a similar theme is ‘Rebel Ideas’.
I’m a big fan of Marketing Week as it gives you really diverse news and articles on a whole range of topics within marketing, and I often give their podcast a listen too.
This interview with Laura Gill was conducted by Rachel Emson, Vice Chair of Communications and Regional Board Member for the CIM.