Interview with Charlotte Holmes, client services director at Citizen Communication

When was Citizen first established and how did you become involved with the agency?

Citizen was set up in 1987 by three lecturers from Kidderminster College who decided to practice what they preached by setting up their own video agency. Soon after the business was formed, they landed their first big client, Dixons, and worked on the leading electronics brand's training videos, scripts, filming, editing, etc. The agency continued to grow over time, and its clients called for a wider range of services to be made available, including graphic design for training materials and digital for online portals. This is how Citizen became the full-service agency that it is today.

I joined Citizen in 2003, as at the time I was searching for a graphic design apprenticeship. I scoured the Yellow Pages and called up all the agencies I could find to see if they had any vacancies, and luckily Citizen got back to me. Sadly, the Government stopped offering graphic design apprenticeships shortly after this, so instead I went to study part-time for a degree at the University of Worcester, which Citizen sponsored me for.

How has the digital marketing sector changed since you started with Citizen and how has the agency evolved in this time?

Back when I first started out, we were using just one email address for our entire creative studio - which was made up of five people - and it was my responsibility as the studio apprentice to check the emails every few hours. Any time we needed to send something to print, I would use the Integrated Services Digital Network [ISDN], which would often fail a few hours into sending, so I would regularly have to drive a CD with the artwork on over to the printer.

In my early days at Citizen, I was involved in work on a project called ‘Web n' Walk' for T-Mobile - a new concept that would enable users to surf the internet via their phones and place bids on eBay. While it seemed like a novel idea at the time, we really weren't sure whether it would actually take off or not, though we now know, of course, that it did. Needless to say, it was very exciting to be a part of something at the very beginning that has since become so massive.

It was roughly at this time that Citizen's directors decided the business needed to establish a digital division, and they hired developers and started building websites and offering email marketing to clients. Digital has been a steady area of growth for the agency ever since this point, and has largely been driven by customer demand.

The past year has really seen digital marketing come to the forefront for many businesses, and it has been our largest growth area over the last 12 months, both in terms of our corporate clients and local small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]. The coronavirus crisis has made many companies change from face-to-face sales to online and, in response, we have expanded our digital team with two new members starting in April. Furthermore, we have become a HubSpot partner, meaning we can help our clients grow their businesses online in an increasingly competitive space.

What are your main responsibilities as client services director?

As client services director, I work with our amazing team of marketing account managers to deliver high-quality and consistent results for all of our clients. As well as helping our existing clients to grow and succeed, I take responsibility for business development and regularly pitch the agency for new work. I have to ensure that I keep my fingers on the pulse at all times when it comes to our clients' trends and that I fully understand the challenges that they are facing and how we can assist them. I also provide support in the team's upskilling and development - which is particularly important given that marketing is constantly changing - and work closely alongside the creative and commercial director to lead the business through planning and prioritising goals on a quarterly basis. 

What services does Citizen provide and which types of clients does the agency service?

Citizen has come a long way since its beginnings, and now offers a wide range of services, including design, digital, print, events, video, marketing and strategy. We have two different types of clients: larger, corporate clients - BT, EE, Europcar, Collect+ and Paypoint, etc. - and local SMEs. Having this mix allows us to stay creative and means we can impart our learning from our larger corporates to our SMEs too. Gaining different skill sets and keeping abreast of all the latest marketing trends ensures we are constantly discovering new things and improving on our services.

How has the Citizen client base changed and grown over time?

We have always retained a core of London-based corporate clients who have been the main part of our work, as well as a small number of SMEs. Over the last couple of years, we have placed a greater focus on building our local presence, though this has occurred at a much faster pace over the course of the last six months, which have seen us win a tender with Worcestershire Business Central and work with more local SMEs because of this.

The coronavirus crisis has unquestionably been devastating for many businesses across the UK. How has it impacted Citizen?

Some of our clients were affected by coronavirus, which inevitably had an impact on Citizen, too. The pandemic made us consider the direction of the business. We have always wanted to do more work with local SMEs, particularly in the way of marketing strategy - and therefore have used the time to upskill our team through consultancy with the Chartered Institute of Marketing [CIM]. We made an effort to become a better strategic partner to our corporate clients, and to offer marketing support locally.

We identified new opportunities to grow the business and were capable of reaching more people than ever before by holding interactive events on Zoom. We tendered for work that would get us in front of local businesses and put a big focus on growing our digital team.

We have used the experience of the pandemic to invest in the future of Citizen. This will not only allow us to recover well from the crisis, but will also put us in a strong position to support businesses with their most significant marketing challenges in the long term. The partnership with HubSpot is just one of the ways that have made investment - both for the agency and for our clients.

Have you seen a greater shift towards digital marketing as a result of the pandemic?

The move towards digital marketing has been very rapid across all of our clients, and digital has established itself as the number one place for sales and marketing for many businesses. We've also observed firms either adding digital marketing to existing roles within the company, or hiring a digital marketing apprentice. We've been able to offer a support programme to those businesses that have employed apprentices, and have pledged a commitment to help them apply what they have learned for the specific requirements of the firm they work for.

What are your plans for growth over the next 12 months and beyond? How do you aim to achieve them?

We have two clear plans in place. The first involves growth within our corporate client base, which will likely be a combination of creative campaigns and support with digital execution. The second is growth within our local business clients via a soon to be announced project, which will offer light-touch marketing support, with additional support available through our marketing packages or apprenticeship support.

We also view HubSpot as a means of making our own digital marketing work harder for us and potentially for our clients through the partner programme. Our goal is continue growing the team to support us through the expansion of our digital marketing effort - possible in the area of content development .

When was Citizen first established and how did you become involved with the agency?

Citizen was set up in 1987 by three lecturers from Kidderminster College who decided to practice what they preached by setting up their own video agency. Soon after the business was formed, they landed their first big client, Dixons, and worked on the leading electronics brand's training videos, scripts, filming, editing, etc. The agency continued to grow over time, and its clients called for a wider range of services to be made available, including graphic design for training materials and digital for online portals. This is how Citizen became the full-service agency that it is today.

I joined Citizen in 2003, as at the time I was searching for a graphic design apprenticeship. I scoured the Yellow Pages and called up all the agencies I could find to see if they had any vacancies, and luckily Citizen got back to me. Sadly, the Government stopped offering graphic design apprenticeships shortly after this, so instead I went to study part-time for a degree at the University of Worcester, which Citizen sponsored me for.

How has the digital marketing sector changed since you started with Citizen and how has the agency evolved in this time?

Back when I first started out, we were using just one email address for our entire creative studio - which was made up of five people - and it was my responsibility as the studio apprentice to check the emails every few hours. Any time we needed to send something to print, I would use the Integrated Services Digital Network [ISDN], which would often fail a few hours into sending, so I would regularly have to drive a CD with the artwork on over to the printer.

In my early days at Citizen, I was involved in work on a project called ‘Web n' Walk' for T-Mobile - a new concept that would enable users to surf the internet via their phones and place bids on eBay. While it seemed like a novel idea at the time, we really weren't sure whether it would actually take off or not, though we now know, of course, that it did. Needless to say, it was very exciting to be a part of something at the very beginning that has since become so massive.

It was roughly at this time that Citizen's directors decided the business needed to establish a digital division, and they hired developers and started building websites and offering email marketing to clients. Digital has been a steady area of growth for the agency ever since this point, and has largely been driven by customer demand.

The past year has really seen digital marketing come to the forefront for many businesses, and it has been our largest growth area over the last 12 months, both in terms of our corporate clients and local small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs]. The coronavirus crisis has made many companies change from face-to-face sales to online and, in response, we have expanded our digital team with two new members starting in April. Furthermore, we have become a HubSpot partner, meaning we can help our clients grow their businesses online in an increasingly competitive space.

What are your main responsibilities as client services director?

As client services director, I work with our amazing team of marketing account managers to deliver high-quality and consistent results for all of our clients. As well as helping our existing clients to grow and succeed, I take responsibility for business development and regularly pitch the agency for new work. I have to ensure that I keep my fingers on the pulse at all times when it comes to our clients'

trends and that I fully understand the challenges that they are facing and how we can assist them. I also provide support in the team's upskilling and development - which is particularly important given that marketing is constantly changing - and work closely alongside the creative and commercial director to lead the business through planning and prioritising goals on a quarterly basis. 

What services does Citizen provide and which types of clients does the agency service?

Citizen has come a long way since its beginnings, and now offers a wide range of services, including design, digital, print, events, video, marketing and strategy. We have two different types of clients: larger, corporate clients - BT, EE, Europcar, Collect+ and Paypoint, etc. - and local SMEs. Having this mix allows us to stay creative and means we can impart our learning from our larger corporates to our SMEs too. Gaining different skill sets and keeping abreast of all the latest marketing trends ensures we are constantly discovering new things and improving on our services.

How has the Citizen client base changed and grown over time?

We have always retained a core of London-based corporate clients who have been the main part of our work, as well as a small number of SMEs. Over the last couple of years, we have placed a greater focus on building our local presence, though this has occurred at a much faster pace over the course of the last six months, which have seen us win a tender with Worcestershire Business Central and work with more local SMEs because of this.

The coronavirus crisis has unquestionably been devastating for many businesses across the UK. How has it impacted Citizen?

Some of our clients were affected by coronavirus, which inevitably had an impact on Citizen, too. The pandemic made us consider the direction of the business. We have always wanted to do more work with local SMEs, particularly in the way of marketing strategy - and therefore have used the time to upskill our team through consultancy with the Chartered Institute of Marketing [CIM]. We made an effort to become a better strategic partner to our corporate clients, and to offer marketing support locally.

We identified new opportunities to grow the business and were capable of reaching more people than ever before by holding interactive events on Zoom. We tendered for work that would get us in front of local businesses and put a big focus on growing our digital team.

We have used the experience of the pandemic to invest in the future of Citizen. This will not only allow us to recover well from the crisis, but will also put us in a strong position to support businesses with their most significant marketing challenges in the long term. The partnership with HubSpot is just one of the ways that have made investment - both for the agency and for our clients.

Have you seen a greater shift towards digital marketing as a result of the pandemic?

The move towards digital marketing has been very rapid across all of our clients, and digital has established itself as the number one place for sales and marketing for many businesses. We've also observed firms either adding digital marketing to existing roles within the company, or hiring a digital marketing apprentice. We've been able to offer a support programme to those businesses that have employed apprentices, and have pledged a commitment to help them apply what they have learned for the specific requirements of the firm they work for.

What are your plans for growth over the next 12 months and beyond? How do you aim to achieve them?

We have two clear plans in place. The first involves growth within our corporate client base, which will likely be a combination of creative campaigns and support with digital execution. The second is growth within our local business clients via a soon to be announced project, which will offer light-touch marketing support, with additional support available through our marketing packages or apprenticeship support.

We also view HubSpot as a means of making our own digital marketing work harder for us and potentially for our clients through the partner programme. Our goal is continue growing the team to support us through the expansion of our digital marketing effort - possible in the area of content development.