Dan Talks Digital Marketing

“Studying Creative Writing as part of my undergraduate degree has proved extremely valuable moving into the marketing and PR industry. The experience of critiquing other people’s prose and poetry, and having them do the same to mine on a weekly basis in seminars, means that I can now go into brainstorms for PR campaigns and be assertive delivering feedback, and happy accepting or challenging it. 

My current role is Head of Media & Online Relations at Search Laboratory, one of the UK’s biggest independent digital marketing agencies. I’m responsible for managing a department of specialists who promote our clients’ innovative content marketing and PR campaigns by building lasting relationships with key journalists, bloggers and industry influencers, and pitching them engaging stories. 

When I first joined the company, it was in an entry-level graduate role that involved a lot of article writing for blogs and magazines, about everything from tinnitus to the future of academy football in the UK, which was a really good fit after graduating in English Literature and Creative Writing. As we moved forward as a company though, I became more interested in promoting the bigger, creative PR campaigns, and the relationship building, results-driven nature of the department I now head up. 

In my five years at Search Laboratory, I’ve also given talks to hundreds of people at industry events like Figaro Digital and Youth Marketing Strategy, spoken as a guest lecturer at Leeds University, gained a Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management, and presented several webinars for the government’s Department for International Trade.”