Training Speaker Faculty

All of our Professional Short Courses are delivered by leading practitioners in direct and digital marketing who use the most applied and practical training methods. Come and experience for yourselves our reputation for providing pin-sharp and up-to-the-minute courses within a friendly environment by trusted and approachable tutors.

Meet our Speaker Faculty members

You’ll find a selection of our Speaker Faculty members below:

Matt Banks is a Senior Consultant at PwC within Digital Intelligence. Prior to PwC, Matt was Client Director at Logan Tod for five years, running digital optimisation and intelligence projects with clients including British Gas, BBC Worldwide, EMAP, ASOS, John Lewis Partnership, Swiftcover and RBS Insurance. Before joining Logan Tod, Matt headed up a Digital Insight Team at Lloyds Banking Group.

Karen Benveniste is co-MD of Vanilla Films, a production company that develops, produces and delivers video marketing and films for corporate clients. Before Vanilla was founded, Karen had a 16 year career in television, working across news, children’s and factual programming, mainly at the BBC. She series produced television brands such as Watchdog, Crimewatch and the Chelsea Flower Show. Karen now draws upon her film making and journalistic experience for her Vanilla work with clients who include Butlins, Warner Leisure Hotels, Legoland, Coats plc, Logica plc and The Chartered Management Institute.

Danny Bermant founded Brainstorm Digital in 2000 and over the past 12 years has focused on ways in which the internet can be used to convert website visitors into customers. His goal is to develop online strategies to help clients attract new business, and he does this through social media, SEO, pay-per-click marketing, business blogging, online PR and other methods of digital marketing.

Danny's social media training is more than just practical, it uses real life case studies to illustrate ways in which your campaign can be used to engage with customers. His training includes social media strategy, and how to write a social media plan that sets out realistic, attainable goals. Danny's experience includes website design, e-commerce development, website usability testing, content management systems, search engine optimisation, email marketing campaigns and iPhone app development.

Mike Berry Dip DM, F IDM is an independent consultant and trainer, who draws on his extensive experience of online and offline marketing to work with a range of clients in B2B, B2C, Public and Charity sectors. He is also Partner at Aprais, a global agency/client relationship management consultancy and Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Hult International Business School. Mike is the author of 'The New Integrated Direct Marketing’, published by Gower, and writes a popular blog on marketing and technology. He is both passionate and knowledgeable about digital marketing and his classical marketing training and integrated background makes him ideally qualified to train marketers in digital skills. Mike is also Course Tutor for the IDM's Complete Digital Marketing training course/Diploma in Digital Marketing.

Becky Bocchetti is a digital marketing and content strategy consultant, journalist and web editor. She specialises in training marketing, commercial and editorial teams on a variety of topics including writing for digital, search engine optimisation, commercial digital content, digital advertising, blogging, community, cross-media content and social media.

Her track record with the award-winning weddingguideuk.com and the joint multimedia venture Vizzavi preceded a move to broadcast, as an interactive producer for BBC Radio 2, before joining London Zoo, where she launched their first e-commerce site, gaining recognition with an Enjoy England Award for Excellence, and also winning the Tourism Website of the Year. Throughout her career, Becky has simultaneously worked as a digital specialist helping individuals and teams get the most out of their digital resources and requirements whilst working as a journalist writing for leading magazines, newspapers and broadcasters. She now uses her unique experience consulting with a range of media owners, marketers and websites.

Dr David Bottomley is a freelance analytical consultant and has extensive experience of using advanced statistical methods within a direct marketing context. Dave has been running his own analytics company since 1999 and has extensive experience of building statistical models within a direct marketing context. His speciality is utilising statistical methodologies to help clients develop a greater understanding of their customers' behaviours and motivations and to refine their direct marketing targeting and communications programmes. His recent clients include UIA, UPS, Acquity, British Heart Foundation & HSL. A psychologist by training, David obtained his PhD in Applied Psychology in 1992 and – prior to setting up his consultancy – held a number of academic and governmental posts.

Mark Brill is CEO of Formation, which has been established for 16 years. Initially working in online marketing and web development, the company has focused on mobile for the last 6 years. Formation specialize in delivering mobile marketing campaigns, working for a range of clients including brands, agencies and government.

Mark is also Chair of the Direct Marketing Association Mobile Council, which aims to both promote the medium and develop best practices within the sector.

Adam Bunn, Head of SEO, Greenlight
Adam is SEO Director at Greenlight where he is responsible for the strategic direction of the firm’s SEO consultancy and link building products and services. Adam also oversees Greenlight’s internal SEO training programme, provides training for the likes of the IDM and is a regular speaker at industry events such as Search Engine Strategies.

Since joining Greenlight in 2006, Adam has trained, strategised and provided consultancy for numerous clients including Vodafone UK, American Express, Monarch, CFS and Santander. In tandem, he has built a team of world class SEO Consultants and SEO Analysts, first in his capacity as Senior SEO Consultant, then as Head of SEO and now as SEO Director.

Jane Caveis one of the most respected strategy and planning consultants in the direct marketing industry. She has a prolific track record of success in the B2C and B2B sectors. Jane has worked both agency and client side on everything from fundraising for political parties and charities to developing and managing fully integrated campaigns for companies such as Volvo, HSBC and the FT. She has developed segmentation strategies, built relational databases and designed acquisition and relationship communications programmes. Jane is a founding partner in Jam, a direct and digital strategy solutions consultancy.

Dr Dave Chaffey Hon F IDM is CEO and co-founder of Smart Insights, and is also the author or five best-selling business books. Dave’s passion is educating marketers about latest and best practices in digital marketing, so empowering businesses to improve their online performance through getting the most value from their web analytics and market insight. He has been recognized by the Department of Trade and Industry as one of the leading individuals who have provided input and influence on the development and growth of E-commerce and the Internet in the UK over the last 10 years.

He is proud to be an Honorary Fellow of the IDM and has also been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have shaped the future of Marketing.

Martin Chillcott F IDM is responsible for the development of successful marketing strategies and customer communications across a range of businesses, driven by a common sense approach and ability to identify powerful customer insights and opportunity for profit. He is acknowledged as an expert in customer retention. He has over 20 years’ client-side marketing experience, including director level roles in UK, Europe and Canada/USA with American Express, Thomas Cook, M&G and Air Miles. He has led major customer strategy projects in Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. Nine years ago he set up his own consultancy ‘Hotchilly’, successfully working as an independent consultant/planner either working directly with clients or retained to work with clients of leading communications agencies such as BEC, Together and Radar.

Paul Chuter F IDM is one of the UK’s leading sales communications practitioners. Since 1991, Paul has provided communications advice and copywriting to leading international business enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, government agencies, professional bodies and academic institutions.

Clients past and present include Ericsson, Hitachi Data Systems, the IDM, Institute of Directors (IoD), Institute of Fundraising (IoF), Juniper Networks, Logicalis, Rocket Fuel Inc., Security Industry Authority (SIA), TradeDoubler, University of Leicester, University of Loughborough and Warner Bros.

Paul also advises UK and international advertising agencies on new pitch and client campaign strategy, and is a regular contributor to industry journals and blogs. He is a highly experienced speaker who delivers training that is extremely practical, applied and proven to be effective in the “real world”.

Huw Davis Dip DM, Hon F IDM is a superb training course tutor and a leading authority in the field of data analytics and customer insight. Huw worked with BUPA and Abbey National before founding and developing Data by Design, the specialist database design and analysis consultancy which was purchased by Experian in 1998. In 2000 he joined EHS Brann as Managing Director of Data and Consultancy, part of Euro RSCG Worldwide. He was later promoted to Global Director for Data and Discovery for the Euro RSCG Group and has, over the last two years, worked on a range of global brands.

In February 2007 he launched the Huw Davis Partnership, an independent data consultancy and analytic company, which combines experts in research insight, data strategy and modelling with his fully owned statistical team based in Singapore. Huw is a regular speaker for the IDM and in 2004 was bestowed the title of “IDM Educator of the Year” as recognition of his continuous work for many years as a trainer within the marketing industry.

Huw runs a highly practical and commercially focused course that is designed specifically to enable marketing managers, practitioners and executives to turn data into insight, insight into action, and action into profit.

Peter Dickenson is the founder and managing director of Understand Digital a marketing analytics company. Peter's background spans over 10 years in the digital space including over 8 years as managing director at one of the leading affiliate networks AffiliateFuture. During his time at the network he was responsible for the management and development of affiliate and merchant relations, incentives for affiliates, creative ideas for merchant campaigns and advising clients on website functionality to improve the effectiveness of their affiliate marketing programmes. Peter's clients included Virgin Atlantic, Thomas Cook, Lovefilm, John Lewis and EUI, formerly The Admiral Group.

Peter's analytics product www.impacttag.com allows businesses to understand their marketing campaigns and how they glue together, managing customer buying paths and attribution modelling. The product is pertinent to affiliate marketing, where people are paid to be the last click and this must be managed correctly.

Joe Edwards M IDM began his career long before the words Digital and Social became the buzz words they are now. In 2001 (just after the dot com bubble burst) he founded a Web and Digital Agency and after successes with Universal and Orange he decided it was time to move into the realms of marketing. Over the years Joe has worked both client side and agency, working with Startups to Large Enterprise organisations in both B2B and B2C environments.

He has worked with such organisations as Adobe, Citi Bank, RBS, HP, Symantec, TfL, Studio Canal & eOne Entertainment across Digital, Social and Mobile marketing disciplines. He is also part of The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing (IDM) Advisory Council.

Joe now works at Brand Engage www.brandengage.co.uk as Head of Social which is part of the Brandwidth Group, a digital marketing agency in Windsor & London.

Adam Lewis is Social Media Strategist and Board Director at immediate future, a leading social media agency in the UK, where he provides strategic consultancy to clients on the integration of social media into their business. This includes training and mentoring, creating measurement frameworks, online reputation management, building online communities and producing websites and digital content.

Adam has provided strategic communications counsel to some of the world's biggest brands including Sony, Epson, Shell, Bacardi Ltd, Sony Ericsson, Vestas Wind Systems, Indesit, Staples and Coca-Cola. He has won multiple industry awards including PRCA, European Excellence and Hollis.

Richard Lewis is a qualified mathematician and Associate Fellow of the Operational Research Society. He has 10 years experience across both hands on and managerial roles in analytics. He has worked in most of the key vertical sectors, predominantly in marketing. In 2008, Richard joined Model Citizens - a newly formed and fast growing independent marketing analysis consultancy aimed at helping organisations maximise the value of their data.

Richard specialises in rejuvenating marketing processes and has led on many projects that have introduced and refined targeting optimisation, revenue management and lifetime value modelling to some of the UK’s leading brands including British Airways, Orange, BSkyB, LloydsTSB, Admiral Insurance, Skype, Carphone Warehouse, Timeout Magazine, John Lewis, Waitrose and Homebase.

Andrew Lloyd Gordon is an experienced digital marketing trainer and consultant. With 12 years Web Marketing experience, he has worked on numerous online projects both large and small. With a broad exposure to both the public and private sectors, he has a special interest in Online PR. Andrew has successfully used the Web to boost the online PR rating of the organisations he works with. This leads, in turn, to dramatic increases in brand awareness and visitor traffic. As Director of UK250.co.uk and jobs.ac.uk, he exploited online PR techniques to increase media coverage including tools such as blogs, RSS feeds, video, DIGG Wikipedia and other Web 2.0 sites.

Andrew has written for a number of publications both on and offline including; The Edge magazine, Business Voice, MyBusiness.co.uk, The Guardian Jobs site, Recruiter Magazine, Further Education Today, Recruitment Consultant, Gradscope Stafford Sentinel The HRDirector.com, Your People Manager website. With a wealth of real-world experience and knowledge to share, Andrew is a passionate and enthusiastic trainer. Feedback from his training courses proves that he gives 110% when he trains. Andrew always receives an enthusiastic response from delegates.

Jenny Moseley M IDM is a Director of Opt-4. Jenny was European Circulation Director for National Geographic Society for many years and continues to work regularly in both the offline and online publishing and product marketing sectors. Jenny is an expert on all aspects of data, data protection and database and affiliate marketing. Jenny was previously Chairman of the DMA and Vice Chairman of FEDMA.

Group exercises and relevant examples will assist the learning process and ensure optimum understanding of the key issues.

Marc Nohr Hon F IDM co-founded Kitcatt Nohr, four times winner of Agency of the Year, in 2001. The agency merged with Digitas, the world's biggest digital agency in 2011 to become Kitcatt Nohr Digitas. The agency has clients including Waitrose, John Lewis, Toyota, Lexus, NS&I, P & G, Gucci and Samsung.

His career path was an unconventional one - having held posts in most agency departments, including creative, where he ran an industry leading creative department at Burnett Direct Marketing. Marc was named an Honorary Life Fellow of the IDM and is a past board member of the DMA. He has also served on many national and industry awards panels including several as Chairman. He is a regular contributor to broadsheets and industry magazines and books and was one of the regular columnists on the Financial Times' Creative Business section. He has spoken at marketing conferences and training seminars around the world, and has been hired to train executives at brands including Sky, Orange and Aviva on areas including creative management and innovation.

Kath Pay is founder of Plan To Engage, an Email Marketing Consultancy, and is one of the pioneers of the email marketing industry in Australia. In the 12 plus years that she has worked in the email marketing industry, Kath has developed a reputation as an email marketing expert through her insights into the industry as a blogger on DMA Email Council’s blog, Econsultancy and SmartInsights. Kath is also the Chair of the UK DMA Email Marketing Council's Events and Communications Hub and frequently speaks at both National and International conferences.

Rik Pipe started his career as a copywriter, creating great (and some not so great) ads for cars, vans, diggers, tyres, anti-fur charities and a few other things; picking up creative awards from the UK, Europe and the US on the way. In the 90's Rik sold his creative agency to a digital agency and discovered the Internet.

Since then Rik has been involved in pretty much every aspect of software development and digital marketing of everything from posh footware to pork scratchings. He can't write a line of code, but he has a well-rounded understanding of pretty much every aspect of the way people interact with brands, employers, charities, governments and one another online. He is increasingly involved in helping organisations to effectively integrate online and offline activity.

Stephen Pratley is Managing Director of Shine Marketing, an ecommerce design, development and marketing consultancy. Stephen has affiliate marketing experience dating back to 1998, and has managed large scale programmes as both an affiliate and merchant in the retail and data generation sectors. Stephen advises retail clients on affiliate programme launches, management and website conversion issues, as well as operating a range of performance-based online media properties and email marketing programmes through the Shine Emedia subsidiary.

Aislinn Quigley has over 15 years’ experience of working in a training capacity for various leisure establishments including David Lloyd Leisure and Holmes Place Health Clubs, and most recently for her own company Core Health and Wellbeing. Her expertise includes negotiation skills, customer service and sales training.

Prior to becoming a Trainer, her career focussed around the recruitment and training of Sales and Marketing Managers, in addition to running the Sales and Marketing function at multiple sites. Her key strengths are in understanding how to build rapport and network with people at all levels.

Debbie Ramsay is a strategic marketing, communications and business development expert, with 30 years’ experience in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors. She has held planning director roles at Saatchis and EHS Brann, and senior marketing roles at BA, BT and British Gas. On the not-for-profit side she was UK Director for VSO and Marketing and Business Development Director for IBLF. She recently set up Nutshell Consulting.

Mike Rogers M IDM founded Optimize as a specialist search engine marketing (SEM) agency in 1999 which provides independent Internet marketing services, consultancy and training to clients in the UK and overseas. Services include search engine optimisation (SEO), Pay per Click (PPC) advertising, web analytics and a range of other paid SEM services such as Trusted Feeds. Clients include companies as diverse as the BBC, Kodak, Monster.co.uk, Nationwide, Parcelforce, the Royal Mail, Toshiba, Yell.com and many other small and medium sized businesses. Prior to Optimize he worked for over 15 years in technical and marketing roles.

Jeremy Scott M IDM is a Group Account Director at Lateral Group, Print Week’s Cross Media Company of the Year 2010. He is responsible for delivering integrated communications to a range of blue chip organisations and government departments. He was made a Freeman of the Guild of Stationers and Newspaper Makers in 2010. He started in the print industry in 1992, and it was in a role of Sales Director when he first ran print training courses.

Debra Sobel co-founded Vanilla with Karen in 2006. She was previously a Producer / Director on prime time BBC TV programmes – including Watchdog and Crimewatch – as well as a documentary maker for independent channels, and so understands the importance of strong storytelling to engage audiences. She is particularly interested in the content, context and timing of video marketing and its delivery, always looking to achieve the best ROI for video commissioned as part of B2B and B2C strategies and campaigns.

Rosemary Smith Hon F IDM is a Director of Opt-4. She has been involved in shaping and interpreting direct marketing regulation throughout her career with companies such as Mardev, Acxiom and RSA Direct. Rosemary is a former Chairman of the DMA.

Jan Steward has run presentation skill workshops for both agencies and clients for many years helping them as individuals as part of their self development and also as teams to help them win the business. Jan was Client Services Director for Stepping Stones Consultancy for 12 years and more recently has been a partner in a search consultancy – Ability Selection. Her years of experience in asking the right questions and in understanding the needs of organisations has given her valuable insights into creating powerful presentations.

Brian Thomas Hon F IDM, formerly Managing Director of Ogilvy & Mather Direct (now Ogilvy One) and Chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi Direct, is a highly experienced and enthusiastic interactive marketing consultant and trainer. During more than 30 years in marketing he has planned and controlled more than 700 marketing campaigns and held senior positions in companies such as ICI, GUS and Early Learning.

He brings Complete Direct Marketing delegates the benefit of his wealth of experience showing them scores of tips and techniques. He wrote The Royal Mail Guide to Direct Mail for Small Businesses and his book Direct Marketing in Practice is the standard textbook for students of the IDM Diploma. Brian was named IDM Educator of the Year in 1999 and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute in the same year.

Robert Thurner M IDMis an independent mobile consultant, trainer and speaker with 20 years’ digital and traditional marketing experience gained with agencies and international media owners. Rob helps solve clients’ business problems with innovative mobile solutions. Rob is the Founding Partner of Burner Mobile, the Mobile Consultancy and Training business. In 2011 he trained over 950 marketers in Europe and the US on a broad range of mobile topics.

Rob was Commercial Director at Incentivated, one of the world's most pioneering, award winning mobile specialists where he developed new business strategy, won business and grew the company’s profile among advertisers and agencies. His Rob’s client contacts include Amex, Betfair, British Airways, Carphone Warehouse, GSK, Jaguar, King of Shaves, M&S, O2, Reed Business Information, Royal Mail, STA Travel, Tesco and multiple agencies.

Alan Tomlinson is a Managing Partner at Datalytics, a company that specialises in customer management using data and insight. Alan has over 15 years’ experience as a marketing analyst having previously worked at Claritas and Wunderman before co-founding Datalytics in 2003. Alan has helped lead and deliver many insight projects using transactional and demographic data across a number of markets in both B2B and B2C, with a strong focus on subscription based marketing.

Felix Velarde F IDM is Managing Director of Underwired Amaze, a high-end digital strategy and creative agency. Underwired specialises in customer engagement, retention, eCRM and Social CRM, using email, e-commerce, social media, mobile and websites. Clients include Sony, Virgin, McCain Foods, The Economist, Laithwaites Wine, NSPCC, Heathrow Express, Simply Business and AAR.

Felix was the founder of one of the first digital agencies, HyperInteractive, in 1994. His second agency Head New Media became the digital arm of Lowe, then the world's fourth largest advertising network. Felix has also helped launch pioneering SEO, Interactive Television and eCRM agencies. Underwired is part of European digital company Amaze plc., ranked by YouGov as the UK’s fifth most respected digital agency.

John Wallace began his professional life as a lawyer before changing to advertising, becoming a copywriter for a major London-based international advertising agency. After working for the agency in the USA and Europe, John returned to his northern roots, becoming Creative Director of several Manchester advertising agencies before freelancing in Singapore and Malaysia. Now based in the North-West, John provides copywriting, marketing and training services to a diverse range of clients throughout the UK.

Steve Walpole M IDM, Former Executive Creative Director, Clark McKay and Walpole has worked in response marketing for 26 years, the last 19 as a Creative Director. Prior to joining CMW in 1996 he was a founding director/partner of both GGT Direct Advertising and Lowe Direct.

At GGT he was responsible for the RAC’s first web site and on-line advertising. The use of technology to help consumers interact with a brand has always been one of Steve’s passions. To this end he has also been one of the driving forces behind two UK launches that revolutionised the financial services industry – First Direct and Marbles.

Steve believes in total integration, where customers can interact with a brand at any point and that their expectations are always exceeded. Each media used should maximise its potential whether it’s purely brand building or customer account management.

He also believes that, however good a marketing or communications strategy is, creativity is still the most important part of a successful campaign. And to make sure that creative work is the best it can possibly be, we should continually look outside advertising for stimulation. Creativity breeds creativity. Steve’s clients include Porsche, Peugeot, Renault Retail, The Partnership Card from the John Lewis Partnership, Greenbee, Beneficial Finance, marbles, Flybe, Cadbury, Transport for London, Littlewoods and Axa.

Besides receiving numerous awards both here and abroad, Steve has won the overall DMA Gold twice.

Tim Williams is currently Planning Director at Underwired Amaze, but until recently he was Head of Customer Insight at Three, and before that head of CRM at B&Q. He has many years of client-side experience actually planning and implementing CRM and eCRM programmes.