Welcoming Amelia Cheek, our new Marketing Lead

Hi Amelia! Welcome to the team!

Thank you! Happy to be here – wish me luck!

You are our new Marketing Lead – what exactly does that role involve?

In a nutshell, my mission is to raise the brand awareness of Soap (and the lovely team), to make some noise in the creative community and bring a fresh perspective to the company’s marketing strategy. In real terms that means taking over the various LinkedIn and Instagram pages, flexing some creative writing and content creation skills, and generally annoying the team with dress-up selfie opportunities to put on the gram. 

We’ve been working on some big plans for the rest of 2023, so expect to see the gang at more exhibitions, more company volunteer days and appeasing Rachael’s gin habit on the occasional Friday drinks!

What are you most looking forward to getting stuck into here at Soap?

The special thing about this new role, and what I’m most looking forward to, is the teams’ complete openness to new ideas and the faith that has been put in me to dream and deliver. Starting afresh is a great position to be in and there are so many opportunities to shout about all the brilliant work that Soap does!

I’ve always had a passion for creative writing, but I’m conscious that it’s no mean feat bringing someone new in and giving them total control of social posts. So, I’m very pleased that my writing style and personality is so far coming across well and tonally fits with what Soap is all about.

Tell me a little bit about your background – what brought you here?

To be honest, I’ve had quite an interesting professional background. I’d say it’s been a mix of luck, a willingness to take risks, and trusting my instincts. 

After doing a Creative Advertising degree in Leeds, I moved to London and worked as an Interior and Digital Designer. I also set up and ran a successful interiors Instagram page on the side. Fast forward a few years and fate brought me to Bristol where I joined a digital marketing/lead generation startup. There I went from making my first Facebook ad right through to having total control of the creative output of the company. I learnt how to build websites from scratch and create unique and exciting sub brands for our clients. By the time I left I was in more of a project management role, managing the whole delivery and creative advertising teams.

Which brings me to a rainy Tuesday afternoon at the end of January when the Soap vacancy caught my eye. I was immediately interested: the focus on creating long-lasting client relationships, the attention to environmental and social impact of their work (and the fact they were actively aiming to offset this) and the dedication to delivering truly creative work. I knew this was the next step for me.

Our team is full of little design quirks and niche areas of interest – what is your favourite design ‘thing’? 

Well, this speaks to all creative disciplines really, but my favourite thing is probably the psychology behind design. Designers are (mostly) visual people but I find it interesting to bring in some left brain thinking – discovering why things make you feel or behave a certain way. Things are never just a pretty picture or a particular colour – what’s the context behind it? What colour theory is involved? What emotions are being stirred?

As an Interior Designer that often meant art curation. Working with a specific artist or gallery, arranging the pieces with purpose to challenge ideas and flow. And that’s something I’ll bring to my current role, too. In many ways, I think marketing is also all about finding that sweet spot between balance and disruption.

What is your favourite thing about working at Soap (so far)?

How welcoming everyone has been, and the relaxed but ambitious atmosphere. You can tell the team cares about what they do and are keen to support each other. 

Also, the daily battle of BBC 6’s Music guess-the-year quiz. It gets very competitive! They’ve all got 7+ years on me in that game, so I’m not sure I’m going to catch up on the leaderboard any time soon!

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn to follow my journey or get in touch!