Marketing Manager, Kieran Press recently celebrated 4 years at Signify Digital. As the company’s first employee, he has been with us through thick and thin, the good times and the bad. He’s worked on over 50 accounts, helped shape our identity as a company, and made Co-founder Nathan Palmer over 10,000 cups of tea.
To mark this special occasion, we thought it would be interesting to hear from the man himself on his experiences at Signify and how he feels the marketing sector has changed over the last 4 years.
To help conduct the interview, we decided to call in the big guns, and enlisted the help of acclaimed interviewer, and Signify’s Content Marketing Manager, Archie Fiddes.
Archie: Hello Kieran, happy 4 years at Signify!
Kieran: Thanks Archie, it’s a pleasure to be speaking with you today.
Archie: Give us an introduction to yourself and your role at Signify.
Kieran: Hi, I’m Kieran and I’m the Marketing Manager at Signify Digital. I worked with Nathan and Beth in a previous role when they left to start Signify. I kept in touch, and then a year later they asked me to be their first employee. At first I provided support on every account across all our service offerings. Now I have accounts of my own, leading on the strategy and work delivery for each. I also manage the Signify team and play an active role in agency operations. But, most importantly, I am the office table tennis champion.
Archie: What have you enjoyed most about the role?
Kieran: It’s the countless situations I have experienced. In my time at Signify I’ve dealt with one-man bands, start-ups, small businesses, SMEs, global organisations, companies in America, companies in Asia, PR firms, web developers, hospital consultants… the list goes on. No day at Signify is ever the same, so it’s safe to say that I’ve certainly never been bored! It has also been great to be part of a business in its early stages, helping shape it and define its ethos.
Archie: What has been the most challenging part of your role to date?
Kieran: It’s probably the best skill I have picked up at Signify, but balancing my workload to ensure every client feels like I am an extension of their team each month. I often liken it to “spinning plates” where I need to keep every client “spinning” so they keep achieving their goals. This certainly became a bit trickier when I started managing people who joined the team and had to help them keep their own plates spinning. But, to date, I like to think I have kept every plate intact!
Archie: How has SEO/PPC developed in the 4 years you have been at Signify?
Kieran: Hmm in terms of PPC, I’d say automation. Google, Microsoft etc are increasingly pushing advertisers towards automated bidding strategies where they have less control over where and when their ads show. From my experience (you didn’t hear this from me), the traffic these campaigns generate is of a much poorer quality than those that use manual bidding strategies. But, it’s something we are going to have to get used to over the next few years.
SEO… Obviously the increasing influence of AI has been a noticeable change. However, in general, I’d say over the last few years the main shift is in the information search engines are looking for on a website. Back when I joined Signify it was mainly about having LOTS of content on a page. Now it’s about having content that’s likely to answer the questions a user may be asking. Core Web Vitals was also another big thing that came in in 2021 where web speed suddenly started contributing to organic rankings.
Archie: What advice would you give for someone starting out in the marketing sector?
Kieran: Try anything and everything. I think a lot of people go into marketing thinking they want to work on just one channel in a particular sector. I personally think you should try your hand at every channel to truly know what area of marketing is best for you. In my time at Signify I have probably learned most working with clients that wouldn’t be deemed the most ‘glamorous’. But these are the accounts where I have had to properly strategise and think about how each channel can be utilised to help the client reach their goals.
Archie: A quick word on the team at Signify and what it’s like to work in the office day to day?
Kieran: It’s great, every member of our team is lovely! At least once a day we have a moment where everyone is belly laughing. We do a lot of activities socially, do a yearly trip, and play an adequate amount of table tennis each day (okay maybe a bit more than needed on a Friday). It’s just nice being part of a team where you feel like your voice is heard and you can have a significant impact on the future of the company. Working in the Business Design Centre is also really cool. Not only do you feel like you are part of a community, there’s a new show on every week so you get to experience new people all the time.
Archie: Would you care to comment on the rumours you are the reason the kitchen has been in a poor state of late?
Kieran: No comment.
Archie: Thank you for your time today Kieran
Kieran: No problem Archie.
