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Profile: 'Gale force 12' finds trade winds are still blowing in her direction
IN the fast-paced world of digital marketing, the question everyone wants an answer to is "what is the next Twitter?"
It's the question that Gail Dudleston, head of Leeds digital marketing agency twentysix, says she gets asked the most.
"Social networking's absolutely massive and people keep asking, 'What's the next Twitter?' It's a difficult question to answer," she says.
"There are a few ideas out there but it's very difficult. There will always be something new but whatever form it takes, social networking is here to stay."
One of the most significant changes in recent months is the age of people using social networking sites, with the concept growing more popular among older generations.
According to Ofcom's latest Communications Market report, 35 per cent of 35 to 54-year-olds now have a social networking site profile.
The rising number of internet users over the age of 70 has also prompted digital marketing agencies to target the older age group. Ms Dudleston says: "There is a demand there but how you manage websites and emails for older people is very different to how you would for a younger audience.
"Younger people tend to want to hit buttons and have visual and audio functions, whereas older people tend to read
more text."
I've come to met Ms Dudleston, the bubbly Yorkshire-born CEO of twentysix, at the company's offices on Sovereign Street in Leeds city centre. The lift opens directly into the firm's open-plan office, which has no reception, but she immediately comes bounding over to introduce herself after seeing me make my way up to the offices on the CCTV cameras.
Ms Dudleston, 45, describes herself as a "typical Leo". She grew up in Cleckheaton, where at school she was nicknamed Gale Force 12.
"I walked fast, talked fast, I
was a bit hyper, I couldn't sit still and I did everything at 100 miles an hour. I haven't changed,"
she says.
She graduated from Salford University with an economics degree and planned to do a Masters in pure maths at Nottingham University but missed out on the first class honours she needed to secure her place.
Instead, she applied for a job as a trainee chartered accountant in Bradford but two weeks before she was due to start she went to Amsterdam for the weekend and came back three years later after travelling around Europe.
She returned home penniless at the age of 25 and got a job at McDonald's in Dewsbury, earning 2.10 an hour.
After working her way up to trainee manager in the Leeds branch, she moved into marketing, working for various agencies before she was headhunted by the chief executive of direct marketing agency CMW in 2005 to take over its northern office in Leeds.
Originally named CMW North, the company, which is part of the Media Square group of agencies, later merged with digital agency twentysix in London and was rebranded twentysix.
She said: "When I started, we had about 12 people and were a mixture of advertising and digital before we became purely digital.
"I had never run an agency before so I had to learn quickly, not only how to do the finances and the business strategy, but sort the toilets out, the dishwasher, everything. It was a massive learning curve but I loved it."
She added: "My direct marketing skills were perfectly suited to digital as digital marketing is like direct marketing on steroids: faster, quicker and cheaper."
Despite her lack of managerial experience, Ms Dudleston has grown the agency to 90 people in total, including 44 in Leeds. In the last year alone, the Leeds office has almost doubled in growth from 24 staff. There are also 40 employees at twentysix London, the group's search and social media division.
She said: "I learnt early on to surround myself with really good people. Good people don't need to be managed, they manage themselves. It's attitude that's most important. Skills can be taught but if you don't have the right attitude then you have lost before you start. I want people who are running up the hill in front of me not people I have to chase and drag."
The company works with 18 brands across more than 20 countries. Clients include Proctor & Gamble, Royal Navy, Shell, Epson, Gatwick Airport and the BBC, as well as Yorkshire clients Irwin Mitchell and Provident Financial.
Last year, twentysix achieved an estimated turnover in excess of 6m across its operations, derived primarily from fee-based creative and production services across web design, online advertising, viral marketing and customer relationship marketing activities.
Fortunately, digital marketing appears to be holding its own in the recession and twentysix is finding opportunities in the economic downturn.
Ms Dudleston said: "It's interesting because when there isn't a recession and times are buoyant, all the clients flock to London and when there's a recession they all draw back up North, because prices are slightly different but there is a massive talent pool up here."
She added: "Digital marketing is being taken more seriously so we are seeing increasing new business tenders which is good for us.
"So far we've had no signs of downturn, not really. Some big clients have cut spending a little bit but it's all relative to the proportion that they spend."
Future plans for the company are to keep growing but Ms Dudleston does not want to create a huge agency.
"We want to keep growing but we're not bothered about being the biggest, we want to be the best," she said. "It's about reputation, it's about creating somewhere your clients are proud to have as your agency and people are proud to work there."
Away from the office, Ms Dudleston has a daughter, Georgia, and an eclectic mix of pets, including two ferrets, called Eric and Coco, a python called Vivienne, and a horse called Megan.
Her partner of six years, Ian, works in London and abroad but comes home at weekends.
She said: "I get the best of both worlds. We are not under each other's feet, always happy to see each other and we don't have any debates over domestics. Family issues don't get in the way and we spend quality time together... and I don't have any washing."
Gail Dudleston
Title: Chief executive of twentysix, in Leeds.
Date of Birth: August 9, 1964.
Education: Whitcliffe Mount Comprehensive School, Cleckheaton; Economics degree from Salford University.
First job: Waitressing at a restaurant when I was 13, earning 50p an hour.
Favourite song: Bedtime Stories by Madonna is probably my favourite album.
Car driven: Land Rover Defender.
Favourite film: I like adventure films like Die Hard and the Bourne trilogy.
Favourite holiday destination: I love travelling and I've just been to Oman which was beautiful.
Last book read: Pygmy, by Chuck Palahniuk.
What I am most proud of: My daughter Georgia: she is funny, bright, independent, sensible, witty, loving – everything any mother could want.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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