Q&A with Jenny Terris, Senior Account Director at Guy and Co

Jenny is a Senior Account Director at Guy & Co and has over 14 years’ experience working across B2B & B2C markets including strategic marketing, customer segmentation, development and execution of through the line marketing plans. In her current role she primarily oversees Royal London, as well as a variety of SME brands.

Prior to Guy & Co Jenny held Direct Marketing roles at Navigator, Tangible and RAPP UK. Jenny has worked on brands such as; Black Horse Finance, HBOS, Life Long Learning, Intelligent Finance, Standard Life, Hewlett Packard, SAP, The Co-operative Group, Historic Scotland, UNA-UK, SAMH and CYB.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your role as Senior Account Director for Guy & Co?

I would say trying to continually stay up to date with new trends, technology and creating new ways to communicate and engage with consumers on tighter budgets and timescales.

How do you think the quality of the UK Marketing Industry compares globally?

The quality of marketing in the UK is excellent in my opinion. It’s easy to get caught up with the size of the UK versus other countries across the globe, but we have produced some great work. I am especially lucky to get to work on a brand like Royal London. They have a simple tone of voice and quirky visual world that sets them apart, but more importantly they are a mutual so share their profits with their members. This is really refreshing as they are a truly trusted financial brand, that really does put their customers at the heart of the business.

If you could look back at your career and remake one of your biggest decisions, what would it be?

Probably transitioning into a job, I had no experience in. I originally moved to Edinburgh to pursue a very different career. But ended up getting a role in the finance department of East of Scotland water, which then went on to become, Scottish Water and today is widely known as Business Stream. I had several different roles over the years, but I was getting a bit bored and the business was in a constant transition, so I decided to do something completely different. I got a job as an office administrator in Navigator, it was there that I started to learn about marketing and I loved it, so I took on more work and transitioned into an account exec role and have never looked back. You’ve got more than 14 years’ experience in B2B and B2C.

What’s been the steepest learning curve you’ve experienced from your time in the industry so far? 

You can’t please everyone! In my early career I remember a client I worked with asked me to change the colour and makeup of a campaign as he showed the creative to his 17-year-old son and he didn’t like it. His son wouldn’t of have understood the strategy, insight and rationale, and he wasn’t the target audience. However, we were still pressed to make changes based on this one comment. The point is creative can be subjective and opinions will always be made. Nowadays however I rarely encounter this problem.

How does Guy & Co think outside the box for their clients?

At Guy & Co we fuse creative & research together in an agile fashion allowing us to go through rapid cycles of consumer learning. This validates creativity and helps de-risk braver ideas for greater commercial impact. Allowing the insight to drive the creative rather than opinion. Guy & Co has some pretty big clients.

How does your role fit with their needs?

My role is to ultimately to be an extension of my clients’ team, and to get under the skin of their business, so I can provide strategic and creative solutions that meets their objectives. This is something that I have embraced with all my clients from SME’s like Scottish Fine Soaps all the way through to clients like Essential Edinburgh, and blue chips like Royal London. For me, it’s about forming great partnerships that are built on trust and collaboration.

Jenny will be sharing valuable insight into what makes a Gold Star Winning entry at Inspiring Presentations on January 24 at The University of Edinburgh Business School. If you're thinking of entering the Star Awards, make sure you register to attend here.