Experience

Bright Signals

• United Kingdom
• Advertising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Deputy Managing Director

  • Jan 2022 - Present

  An evidence-based creative agency for a digital world. A faster world. In the battle for attention brands are up against the explosion of channels, formats and choices, it’s harder than ever for clients to stay up-to-date and to know what will work. A brighter way. Our founders cut their teeth in high growth digital startups. Then we took that challenger mindset and designed Bright Signals from a blank slate. Different. Disruptive. An agency built for now, around four core pillars... Life experience required. The evidence is clear: creativity and originality are the antidotes to the low-attention age. Our response is to recruit for cognitive diversity and to foster an open culture of collaboration. This approach gives us more creative dots to join, which breeds more original ideas. No silos. No egos. Fail Small. Win big. We were one of the first agencies in the world to pioneer a more agile approach to marketing communication. We harness the instant feedback loop afforded by digital channels – real time ‘signals’ – that enable us to test, iterate and improve on risky fire-and-forget campaigns. Underpinning that is Bright Box, our approach to content customisation and rapid testing at scale. Less guessing. More progressing. Full funnel. We deploy sophisticated, connected integration across the full funnel. From broad-reach brand advertising, through to performance marketing, and on to conversion optimisation or other behavioural change. In between, we use machine learning to target and re-target. Matching messaging with audience intent. Right content, right person, right time. The obligatory awards bit. Since setting Bright Signals up we have won Scotland's most coveted digital marketing award more times than any other agency (5 golds, 4 silvers, in 6 years). As well as various other UK and international awards for advertising, integrated marketing, and social media.



Three Part Story

• United Kingdom
• Advertising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Managing Director

  • Nov 2016 - Apr 2022

  Hello. We're Three Part Story® We're a creative digital agency that builds brands through storytelling. Content without a story is just content. We're here to make your stories matter. Let's tell a brilliant story. Hello. We're Three Part Story® We're a creative digital agency that builds brands through storytelling. Content without a story is just content. We're here to make your stories matter. Let's tell a brilliant story.



Digital Bite

• Technology, Information and Internet

• Owner & Director of Digital Bite

  • Apr 2016 - Nov 2016

  Digital Bite was a privately held company owned by David Buchan. I am a Creative Director, UX specialist, Digital and Brand consultant with over 15 years experience of winning, planning, directing and creating award winning creative work for household brands. If you would like to evolve your digital strategy, your brand, generate creative content and ideas or if you have any mobile, web, UX, or branding projects - let's talk. Digital Bite was a privately held company owned by David Buchan. I am a Creative Director, UX specialist, Digital and Brand consultant with over 15 years experience of winning, planning, directing and creating award winning creative work for household brands. If you would like to evolve your digital strategy, your brand, generate creative content and ideas or if you have any mobile, web, UX, or branding projects - let's talk.



Frame

• United Kingdom
• Advertising Services
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Co-founder, Co-owner, and Creative Director of Frame Digital

  • Mar 2008 - Jan 2016

  My responsibilities as a board member include growing the agency, supporting new business and developing digital opportunities within the group and pitching those opportunities. I am also part of the management team and run a studio comprised of creatives, designers, technical and digital marketing specialists. My core responsibility is to ensure the visual and user experience aspects of our work (across multiple devices, platforms and digital channels) is to the highest standard, delighting our clients and their users. My role also requires that I sign-off creative work and ensure we have the skills and resources available to do great, and often, award winning work. Across projects and campaigns my role spans strategy, idea generation, direction, planning and production. I work closely with clients and stakeholders to define objectives and plan solutions for digital campaigns and products. This includes running focus groups, workshops and card sorting exercises to determine business objectives and user needs and extends to producing sitemaps, wireframes and mapping user journeys. In the context of creative direction and visual design I work very closely with Senior Digital Designers and other specialists, offering a combination of technical, creative and UX direction on a wide range of responsive web projects, motion graphics and film, online ads, social media campaigns and integrated marketing campaigns. I also remain hands on in both visual design and animation when necessary.



BD Network

• United Kingdom
• Advertising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Group Information Architect

  • Jun 2004 - Feb 2008

  The founding member of the digital department in our Glasgow office. I grew the department to a team of 12 digital experts, working across an exciting and diverse range of digital projects and integrated campaigns for clients including Arla foods, Coca-Cola, Orange, Nintendo, Peugeot and VisitScotland. The founding member of the digital department in our Glasgow office. I grew the department to a team of 12 digital experts, working across an exciting and diverse range of digital projects and integrated campaigns for clients including Arla foods, Coca-Cola, Orange, Nintendo, Peugeot and VisitScotland.



Blue Peach Design Consultants

• Glasgow, United Kingdom

• Senior Web Designer

  • Mar 2003 - Jun 2004

  Blue Peach was a design agency with a 15 year pedigree. In search of a more design and creative orientated challenge, an existing colleague and I joined as a two parts of a three man team to help sustain and support the digital requirements of the agency in the aftermath of its digital department parting ways and setting up as a standalone agency. Being part of an agency that wasn't digital first, and working in a small production team brought a unique set of challenges and an experience that evolved my knowledge and understanding of the changing shape of agencies with a digital capability. I continued to gain experience in design and project management, working on a number of projects for brands such as Morrison Bowmore. I was also able to evolve my technical skills, developing a bespoke Content Management System based on the ASP.NET platform.



Marcat (now Vamosa)

• Glasgow, United Kingdom

• Web Designer

  • Feb 2001 - Mar 2003

  Hired as Web Designer, I was responsible for the visual design of all client websites. The role included planning, UX and client facing responsibilities as well as front end build using HTML, CSS and Flash. I became interested and experienced in the technical side of web development and began building content managed websites and online applications using classic ASP. By the time I left Marcat I had gained a huge amount of commercial experience in planning, building and designing websites and bespoke content management solutions, as well as gaining experience in the Obtree, enterprise level CMS.



s1

• United Kingdom
• Internet Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Junior Interactive Designer

  • Jun 1999 - Jan 2001

  After only a week of a six week summer job between my degree and honours year I was offered the full time position of Junior Interactive Designer at s1, who at the time, were a part of the Scottish Media Group (SMG). The role included a mix of digital design and development and I gained a huge amount of hands on experience in Website design, Flash animation, HTML, CSS and JavaScript as well as a fundamental grounding in the life-cycle of digital products and projects. I worked on a variety of digital projects and content for The Herald, The Evening Times, Scottish Television, Scotsport, s1jobs and s1homes. This was remarkable experience for a young graduate at the time and I remain grateful for the experience I gained from a very talented team of people.