To be fair, I never claimed to be conventional

Being brave and unconventional has sometimes got me into trouble in my career! Not everyone is open to different, or willing to take a chance and try something completely outside the perceived view of "normal". Getting people to expand themselves beyond their comfort zone is one of the biggest challenges as a marketing professional.

I am however very fortunate in my role as Head of Marketing at Core Technology Systems that I have the level of freedom to be creative, think differently and not just break the mould, but completely throw away the rule book and dare to be different with my marketing efforts. I have the support of a very open-minded leadership team who embrace my crazy campaigns and support my unconventional tactics (well, most of them, I confess I lost one or two with the planned pyjama parties!)

But one of the best moments for me this year was getting to launch the Sleep Well with Core campaign; which features sheep as our brand ambassadors! Yes, sheep! With names, and personalities... Working in the technology space, I was so unimpressed with stock photography and blue tints across everything; there was a perceived view the IT meant rigid, fake looking "office workers" that, lets be honest, dont actually look like anyone who exists in the real world.

This campaign needed to be different. Working with the most amazing team at Rooster Punk (Paul Cash, Jenna Chambers, Kate Flather) we took a massive leap outside the IT comfort zone, and dared to deliver a brave new campaign experience. Our research was very real - delving into the sleep patterns of IT professionals and finding what's keeping them up at night. The questions went deep and breadth of responses and the findings were eye opening. The challenge was in conveying these results and our take on the solutions in a way that was both impactful, stood out and got noticed.

Convincing the SMT that it’s good not to be normal, to get creative, to go all in and believe in me and the my passion for this brave new concept was so refreshing - not just in the marketing profession, but the technology space.

And the end results? So far so good! Meet the stars of the campaign for yourself - I introduce you to Core's woolly brand ambassadors - Ramsey, Sheila and Finbaa