Interview: Daniel Hoggan, mediaworks

Daniel Hoggan is Head of Search at mediaworks online marketing, a performance-led digital marketing agency based in the North East of England.

Daniel oversees the online marketing strategies and progression for mediaworks’ wide range of national and international brands such as Viking Direct, Jessops and ScS (Sofa Carpet Specialist), as well as helping to shape the technical direction of the online marketing departments.

With the digital revolution having such an impact on business and industry, we asked Daniel for his thoughts on how things have changed during his career and how he feels about marketing in general...

Tell us a bit more about yourself

While I was born in Jersey, I moved to the North East at a young age and have stayed in the region ever since. I have spent the last few years living and working in Gateshead where our head office is based, and a large proportion of my time has been spent travelling across the UK and Europe to work closely with our clients.

How did you get into your chosen creative field?

I think I have had an aptitude for creativity since a young age, and continued this throughout my education until university. I’ve always enjoyed blending my creative strengths with ‘planned-thinking’ and ultimately pursued the route of general business marketing with a focus on the role and development from a digital perspective.

Whilst at university, I worked alongside family businesses that had a need to grow their local online presence. As a result I ended up being drawn into the field of online marketing, and thankfully got a role within mediaworks after finishing my course.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

The highlight so far has been the consistent but sustainable growth of the company since I joined less than five years ago. To put this into perspective – when I started, I was one of only four members of staff, and there are now currently over 50 people working in several well established departments.

How has the digital revolution impacted on your own career?

I think that mediaworks are very much at the coalface of the ‘digital revolution’. Given the dynamic nature of digital marketing, and the effect that these changing elements has upon the work we look to achieve, myself and the team are always looking to understand how we can undertake new and emerging techniques to help drive growth for all of our clients.

If you could go back and do it all again, what would you do differently?

I wouldn’t say there was anything in particular that we would go back and do differently. There are always some areas of the company where we have needed to quickly change and adapt as we have experienced a steep growth curve. Workloads have become quite heavy at times, but this helped drive the team forward and means our Managing Director, Brett and the senior management could ensure that we were able to deliver the quality of service that has always been the cornerstone of our mission statement, and has thankfully led us to where we are today.

So what's currently happening at Mediaworks?

With huge growth in our multilingual team including the recent recruitment of further French, German, Dutch and Mandarin speakers, we are looking at some ambitious but achievable plans on the international stage.

As mediaworks successfully run a number of international campaigns across a range of languages and countries for both small/medium enterprises and large brands such as Travelex, we are concentrating on pushing our experience in this area and making it a key part of our business for the future.

Anything in the pipeline for 2013? What can we expect from you?

2013 will certainly be another exciting year for the company. With our focus on global opportunities and a push on internal recruitment and expansion, we have set achievable targets for the next 12 months which will make it one of our most important years to date.

We have recently moved into our new custom-built workspace in Gateshead and operate a London satellite office with other potential locations in the pipeline. As we are looking to push our physical presence into other important areas of the UK, it is clear that we are keen on firmly establishing ourselves as the leading brand in our industry.

Finally, what words of wisdom would you share to aspiring marketers?

Nowadays, marketers are very much more inward focused, trying to cut back on unreturning channels by looking at their current and future budget spends meaning that digital – especially SEO – is one of the few marketing fields encountering an upward trend in the industry. Having a clear and actionable understanding of digital positioning is an area I would really push future aspiring marketers towards. Knowing the importance and effect of the digital era in growth of all areas of the business, including offline sales is an area that many experienced marketers haven’t quite grasped yet.

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