December Talk with Graeme Leighfield and Lewis Moran

IT’S December and 2021 is drawing to a close. What have been your highlights in business this year? What milestones have come and gone? What’s your vision for 2022? Today we're talking to Graeme Leighfield, managing director at GEL Studios and Lewis Moran, digital marketing manager at GEL Studios which is an award-winning creative agency based in Swindon.

It’s December – is this a busy time for your business? Why? If not, how do you make the most of the time you have this month?
Lewis: We’ve never been busier. We’re getting more and more clients who trust us to deliver the best work possible and we’re so thankful for it. We always aim to try and slow things down in the run up to Christmas but whether that will actually happen is another question. 

Graeme: The whole team has worked extremely hard this year so we felt it was important to take some time away from the desks and spend time catching up and relaxing. That’s why we’ve hired out a big house for the whole team and their partners so they can spend the weekend together, have some fun and just switch off. 

While on the subject of Christmas, we’re going to be closed from 23 December until 3 January. For anything urgent, we’ll be monitoring the support inbox over the break so our clients can still contact us in the normal way.

Christmas is coming – what does Christmas mean for you? 
Lewis: I’m really excited for Christmas this year. After such a weird couple of years, this Christmas will be all about spending quality time with family and eating one too many pigs in blankets. 

It will be the first Christmas Day in a number of years that me and my wife have spent with my parents, sisters and their kids. 

What have been your business highlights in 2021?  
Graeme: 2021 has been a year of change for GEL. 

Change has happened in almost all areas of the business, and with me now taking a much more birds-eye view of the day-to-day operations, we’ve been able to identify areas that could be improved, implement the change and monitor the results. I'm pleased to say, the results are positive. Only by interrogating our quality checking and outward thinking processes have we been able to make meaningful change.

When the opportunity came to expand into the "unit next door" we jumped at it. Our aim is that Unit 7 will be a space for more conversations to happen, be it for meetings, branding workshops, or simply a space for our clients or friends of the business to just come for a change of scenery. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to find out more about using the space. 

We've also expanded our services. For too long, we've been witness to our clients having bad experiences with marketing agencies and as a result, we've now expanded into marketing, not out of requirement but because we know that we can do things differently, and better than our competitors. 

What have been your personal highlights in 2021? 
Lewis: Family is everything. After such a weird couple of years finally being able to see them again was a highlight. With my parents living in Norfolk and my sisters living in Essex and South London it’s been very difficult to all meet up as a family so finally being able to see each other was brilliant.

Having a honeymoon. I got married in February 2020 and was due to go on honeymoon the following week. The week of storm Ciara when all planes were grounded. We then moved our honeymoon to May 2020 which was postponed due to COVID and again to January 2021 which didn’t happen either. A year and a half later, in August 2021 my wife and I managed to spend a few days away in the UK. We’re now aiming to go away on an ‘official’ honeymoon in March 2022. 

I’ve never worked anywhere like GEL Studios so getting this role has been a highlight too. The team has been so welcoming and I like to think that I’ve settled in within the team and proven I’m more than capable. Marketing was a brand new service for GEL, so since joining I’ve been trusted to build and shape the offering from scratch. 

Is ‘giving back’ important to you, your business or organisation?
Graeme: Making a difference is at the forefront of what we do. It's what fundamentally drives us each and every day.

Last month we launched our 'win a website' competition where we gave local good causes the opportunity to win a bespoke website worth over £5,000. We received lots of great entries and we’re currently in the process of selecting our overall winner.  

We run GEL as a business that does "good" not to just "make a profit”. That’s why we’re also on a journey to become B-CORP certified in 2022. 

Finally we’re also looking forward to having members of The Platform Project come and work with us later this month. The not-for-profit youth development scheme helps people aged 16-24 develop their confidence and employability skills. We hope this will be the start of a very close relationship. 

If you are planning to recruit in 2022 – share a little of your hopes around the growth of your team. 

Lewis: Since launching our marketing offer in the summer, the uptake has exceeded expectations. We’re already working on some amazing projects delivering SEO, PPC and social media activities around the world with unrivalled results. 

So I'm currently recruiting for a digital marketing assistant. Their main role will be supporting me to research, implement and evaluate marketing strategies and campaigns.

While there does need to be an established level of skills for this role, for us, finding the right person who fits into the team is far more important.

And finally:
Graeme: A massive thank you goes out to the entire team for all the work they’ve done this year. Me thinking of things to do, and them actually getting it done are two very different things. 

And of course a huge thanks to our clients too. Without you, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We may be expanding but whether you’re an international brand or one-person start-up, you are all equally important to us. Remember, our door is always open so swing by, we make a great cuppa.
 

For more information visit  www.gelstudios.co.uk