Graeme Atha: Marketing Society raises a glass to jolly good Fellows

Left to right - Pam Scobbie , Steven Pearson , Shona McCarthy , Mark Gorman , Chloe Robertson , Alan McGarrie , Pauline Aylesbury , John Botia , John Denholm St Andrews Dinner

The awards which take the form of a bottle of Famous Fellow, courtesy of The Famous Grouse, were made at our St Andrew’s Day Dinner at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh, and the following members were recognised.

Pauline Aylesbury, head of marketing & insight and deputy head of communications with the Scottish Government, has had a distinguished career in marketing in both client and agency side roles.

In 2015, Pauline established the Scottish Government’s strategy & insight team and led the development of a new, award-winning parental audience social marketing strategy.

Graeme Atha , Director of The Marketing Society

In 2017 she was promoted to head of marketing and insight (and deputy head of communications), bringing two teams together to create a single, high performing unit.

Alan McGarrie, group brand director at Tennent’s, has helped transform the Tennent’s marketing output with impressive results, including winning a number of Marketing Society Gold Star Awards.

Alan helped lead the team that created new brand experience The Tennent’s Story, which opened at Wellpark Brewery in Glasgow recently.

Steven Pearson, global marketing director at Whyte & Mackay, began his career with Allied Distillers and worked across a number of international roles before joining BD Network where he worked on clients such as Reebok and Bacardi. He then moved onto Scottish Courage Brands before joining the Coca-Cola Company.

Steven joined Whyte and Mackay in 2012 as planning director before being promoted to global marketing director and then on to the executive board.

Pam Scobbie, co-founder and creative director at WIRE, the firm with Lee Beattie in 2010, hoping to build a no rules, media-neutral agency, that valued good people as much as good work.

WIRE has grown to become one of Scotland’s most successful and highly regarded independent creative agencies. Pam was named the Marketing Society’s Inspirational Agency Leader this year.

Honorary Fellowships were also awarded to high profile figures in their own particular field who have demonstrated marketing success and have made a contribution to the Marketing Society.

These include Brigadier David Allfrey – producer and chief executive at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

David retired from the Army in 2011 to become producer and chief executive of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo following a varied and impressive 33-year military career. He has helped build the Tattoo into a globally-renowned brand as combination of music, ceremony theatre and dance which enthrals an audience of more than 220,000 each year with a worldwide TV audience of 100 million.

Shona McCarthy, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, joined the Fringe in 2016 and has helped develop it into the greatest open access arts festival in the world. She has dedicated her career to championing and developing arts and culture. As chief executive of the Culture Company, she led on Derry-Londonderry’s transformational year as UK City of Culture.

Mark Gorman, head of thinking at Think Hard and chair of Creative Edinburgh, has worked in marketing and advertising since 1985 with Halls, The Leith Agency and was co-founder of 1576.

Think Hard is a business and marketing consultancy and advises on all areas of marketing communications as well as business and brand development. He’s a vocal champion of the industry and has written three Grand Prix winning IPA Effectiveness Awards papers and several Marketing Society Gold Star papers.

A posthumous Fellowship was also awarded to Charlie Robertson, one of the great characters in our industry and a globally-renowned advertising planner who passed away earlier in the year.

Charlie took his first role in the planning department of Boase Massimi Pollitt before moving to Bartle Bogle Hegarty as head of planning with clients including Audi and Shell. In 1992, Charlie returned to Scotland to set up the planning department of the Leith Agency, before founding his own brand consultancy, Red Spider in 1994. More recently he co-founded a strategy and employer brand consultancy, Spirit Level.

Once described by Campaign magazine as “the world’s greatest ad planner” Charlie passed away in the way he may have wanted, though probably sooner than he would have liked, dining with ex-colleagues and friends in one of his favourite London restaurants when his heart stopped.

Charlie’s award was collected by his daughter Chloe Roberston and business partner John Botia.

All the awards were presented by John Denholm of Denholm Associates.

Graeme Atha, director of the Marketing Society.