Alicia Montesano’s Post

Great campaigns don’t just happen - they result from brilliant concepts brought to life by exceptional talent. If you’re ready to transform your ideas into impactful campaigns, you need the right team. At OnlyMarketingJobs, we connect you with creative minds who can turn your vision into reality. Whether it’s a digital strategist, a content creator, or a branding expert, our platform is where you’ll find innovative thinkers who can drive your projects forward. Don’t let your ideas stay on the drawing board - advertise your roles on OnlyMarketingJobs and start building the team that will make your campaigns soar. #CreativeTalent #Hiring #MarketingJobs

Here’s a bit of a rant. Could everyone please stop listing "strategy" as a skill unless they're genuinely a strategist? It undermines our work and the entire industry. Strategy isn’t just a skill; it’s a career. You can’t be a strategist and juggle fifty other roles simultaneously. You can be a creative strategist or a creative planner, but that’s still within the strategic realm. Just because you’ve written a few strategy slides doesn’t make you a strategist. Strategy isn’t something you can template. I often see job applicants' CVs, and let’s take an example from a marketing manager with 2 years of experience. They typically state: “I have a strong background from XXX and XXX, and 2 years of experience. I bring expertise in strategy, client servicing, social media, content creation, and managing creative campaigns.” You’re an account executive learning to be an account manager. The only accurate claims there are client servicing and managing creative campaigns. You should add managing client relations, assisting in content creation, and deploying strategy. You’re not a strategist. #Advertising #Strategy

Strategy is not a career.. it's a fundamental human capability that we all utilize every day, whether we're planning a lunch or charting the course for our lives. Strategy is simply the art of setting goals and devising effective ways to achieve them. It's a critical skill that transcends any single profession or industry! So yes, strategy is CERTAINLY a skill, not a "career".

Interested in a career switch? Digital ad marketing could be your next big move! Imagine crafting ads that get people talking about a brand or product. With the right skills, you can land a job where you're in demand and making a real impact. Let's talk about how you can transition into this exciting field! #CareerSwitch #DigitalMarketingJobs

Hiring a Marketing Manager vs a Growth Agency The distinction between hiring a marketing agency versus a growth agency is crucial. Building a successful business requires a diverse range of specialised skills - from strategic planning and market analysis to creative content and technical execution. A growth agency encompasses a multidisciplinary team equipped to tackle these complexities, ensuring comprehensive support for sustained business expansion. Relying on a single person to fulfil all these roles would be akin to expecting a solo performer to orchestrate a symphony - it simply doesn’t cover the breadth and depth needed for optimal growth and success. #marketingagency #growthagency

Brands AND agencies are both struggling with the same problem right now. WHO DO I HIRE AS A CREATIVE STRATEGIST? "Should they have a media buying background?" "If they do, can they also write briefs, scripts, and manage creators?" "Should they have a creative background?" "If they do, can they truly understand performance data to stay on track?" It's a hard skillset to find which is why I see so many in my network searching, then hiring, then firing, then searching again. This is costing time and money. The good news is, I have a simple solution to this common problem. FRACTIONAL CREATIVE STRATEGY through Roadmap Why is this impactful? You get a comprehensive report on account health, creative trends, and asset needs. A full breakdown, within 7 days, that connects creative with performance. 👇 Check it out 👇 ✅ Creative Report Card ↗ Asset Type Grade ↗ Framework Grade ↗ Hooks Grade ↗ Iteration Grade ✅ Detailed Creative Asset Audit ↗ Custom variable tagging on the last 90 days of assets in your account ↗ Over 20 specific, action-oriented insights ✅ Asset Needs Report ↗ Clear briefs on what assets you should test next ✅ Ongoing Support As Needed THIS IS DELIVERED TO YOU WITHIN 7 DAYS. FOR $1,500 or LESS. Truly costs less than even the time spent interviewing. Let alone a full time or part time employee.

At a very interesting scaleup event this week, I was talking in a group of founders and most of them agreed on one thing; they need #PR and #communications but didn't have the money to pay a full timer and most had had a less than positive experience with a freelancer. What became apparent is that their bad experience stemmed from not being clear about what they needed with regards to comms, not really understanding what it could achieve and therefore not having a clear goal and - most importantly - they thought they could just jump right in and 'be in the FT'. What could have been different for these companies? 🔹 Firstly, they need to get their foundations right; audience segmentation, channel mapping, messaging and a clear #strategic plan. A lot of people think their marketing people have done this job and it can just be rolled out across any discipline. But, if you're moving to longer term activity like PR, all that work needs auditing against your new objectives. Remember that you can't build a solid house without a base. 🔹 Once you have that in place, you'll need to plan out your tactical execution, integrating each element with your sales and marketing. There is a lot of overlap between the disciplines and a solid plan that incorporates every channel will ensure efficient across the team, as well as consistent and impactful communications. 🔹 The final step is measurable roll out, which needs to be a sustained effort. PR won't yield overnight results and you won't know what is changing if you aren't tracking against stringent KPIs. I always recommend a #brand awareness and sentiment exercise at the start of a contract, which can be used for regular [at least annual] benchmarking. That will be the best show of whether activity is moving the dial for you. A lot of the initial work can take up resources that growth organisations don't really have. But, it is worth doing. Hiring in senior, strategic consultancy to get the fundamentals in place and support your marketing team can be a strong alternative to hiring a CCO. The most important thing is to find someone who understands your brand and who you can be honest with. If you need some senior comms support or just have a question about how you could get started, do feel free to drop me a line!

Five weeks ago we announced that our agency, Catch, was no longer operating in its current form. We downed tools and what followed has probably been the strangest ‘holiday’ of my life. So here I am, new year, same me and I’m looking for work. After running an agency for eight years, I’m struggling to know what I actually ‘do’ - but if you’re an impact-led company (big or small) or a comms agency in need of some help, and you think any of the following sounds useful then hit me up… 🤝 Agency matchmaking (more on this soon) - if you’re a startup that’s wasted thousands of pounds finding the right comms or PR agency, I can help - auditing the problem, working to develop a (practical) brief and holding your hand through the hiring process to increase success for everyone. 🎯 Impact strategy & positioning - with 8 years working specifically for brands and organisations with a social purpose, I can help you find white space and devise an approach to comms that builds long term value. ✏ Messaging, copywriting and editing - I’m a writer at heart and this is my happy place - from mission statements to op eds, writing, cutting and moving around words. 🎨 Creative campaign ideation - does what it says on the tin, hopefully. Clever, human-centred campaign ideas that resonate in the real world and bring your mission to  life. 🗞 Media strategy - more bread and butter stuff - whether you need advice on an announcement or a more in depth approach to PR. And finally…agencies - if you want any support on how to build an inclusive culture, manage remote teams or need an extra pair of hands on biz dev and proposals, I can bring a fair whack of experience into the mix. I’ll leave it there…

In looking for a #communications or #marketing director, smaller companies sometimes try to hire a comms "superstar" who can do it all: digital marketing, content, writing, editing, social media, graphic design—you name it. ✨ Not to mention budgeting and management. I think this approach is wrongheaded for a number of reasons. 1. Eventually, a comms director who has to do all of those things (and more) will burn out. 💥 No one person can realistically produce every deliverable or meet every single deadline, especially if the organization wants to grow, which brings us to... 2. It's not scalable. 📉 Constantly pinch-hitting for every potential member of a functional comms team will keep the director from being able to do their biggest job: assessing, reevaluating, and charting the best path forward. 3. It limits the amount of talent you can bring in. ♻ If the comms director ever leaves, then the organization has to spend time and resources looking for another unicorn to take their place, rather than promoting internally from talent that the director has been able to identify and develop. Are comms and marketing chops important? Unequivocally, yes. But they shouldn't come at the expense of #leadership ability.

🚀 Exciting Opportunities Alert! 🚀 🔍 Strategy Director: Lead campaigns & team growth. 🎨 Strategy Manager: Transition to strategy & unleash creativity. 🔬 Creative Analysts: Drive insights for impactful campaigns. Reach out to Sam Tooke to discuss : Sam.tooke@ultimateasset.com #Strategy #Planning #Creative #MarketingStrategy #DigitalMarketing #MediaAgency #StrategyDirector #StrategyManager #CreativeAnalyst