Member interview with Thomas Cheeseman

Tell us a bit about ICAS and what you guys have been working on recently

ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland), are a global professional body for Chartered Accountants. We have over 22,000 Members and 3,700 CA Students and are headquartered in Edinburgh. I lead a small and brilliant Digital Marketing team and we focus on managing our communications to Members and CA Students through our website, email, and social media, amongst a variety of other channels. Over the past few months our key focuses have been on increasing personalisation through our communications, implementing email trigger activity, and growing our presence on new and existing digital channels. All of our work is underpinned by our persona segmentation work that the business has developed over the last year.

Why did you join the Marketing Society?

I initially joined whilst in a previous role as part of a group membership but I was relatively early in my career at the time so didn’t make full use of everything available to me as part of the membership. It’s only since I’ve moved roles and needed guidance and learnings from other industries that I’ve taken the time to attend events and get more involved within the Society. It’s been really useful for the wider team at ICAS to now be involved in the Society which opens up a lot of opportunities and learnings for us.

What’s been the biggest benefit for you?

Firstly, getting to talk to, work with, and learn from some of the best marketing minds in Scotland has been a huge benefit. Recently I worked with a team of Marketing society members on the ‘Marketing on Tap’ campaign and got to develop a concept and marketing plan from scratch to launch in a matter of weeks. In that time, I was able to learn from industry leaders and work with them to deliver something beneficial to the hospitality industry. It’s always nice to work on a piece if work that is very different from your day job.

Do you have a favourite Marketing Society event?

The online events over the last year have been great, but I always love an excuse to get out and about and meet new people over a drink or two. So the Star Awards and St Andrews Day dinner are my two favourites. If I had to pick one, I’d go for the Star Awards from a purely selfish point of view as my previous team at Tesco Bank managed to pick up an award with Mediacom for our ‘Talk to the Heart’ campaign. The entertainment at the last couple of St Andrews day dinners has been brilliant, Abandoman was my favourite by a mile.

If you had to give one piece of advice to someone new to marketing as a career, what would it be?

Don’t pigeon hole yourself into one channel or role too early on, if you can. Give yourself the opportunity to understand other channels and campaigns across verticals you don’t work in and you’ll be able to transfer so many of those learnings into your role. Having that rounded knowledge will help you as you develop in your career.