About Tom
Tom began his career in the financial services sector, working as an underwriter in the City of London. After 4 years, he decided that wearing a suit every day was not for him and that writing the monthly office quiz was not enough to satisfy his creative urges.
He decided a change of career was in order and completed a Masters in Advertising, Branding, and Communications. Since then he has been lucky enough to work in-house, in-agency, and as a freelancer within both strategy and copywriting positions. He has also started talking about himself in the third-person for some reason.
Tom started his new career working as a copywriter for Yellow Brick Capital and their subsidiaries, learning the ropes in-house by writing copy for their websites, blog posts, and direct marketing materials. From there he went on to work as a ‘verbal strategist’ at Studio Koto, where he wrote brand copy and tone of voice guidelines for brands such as Foodvisor, Motorway, and Scape Living.
At Koto he had his first foray into strategy, and as such was headhunted for a planning role at Drummond Central, in his hometown of Newcastle. During his time at Drummond he worked on a number of brand and behavioural change campaigns, most notably being part of the team that spearheaded the Beat Covid North East campaign.
His experience in planning gave him invaluable exposure to the advertising industry, gave him familiarity with writing creative briefs, and reinforced the importance of comms objectives and the steps that need to be taken to achieve those. He also achieved a number of qualifications, including the ThinkBox TV Masters certificate (with distinction), IPA Foundation exam, and APG Planning Fundamentals, before deciding to pursue freelance opportunities in copywriting in order to strengthen his creative experience, while still having a foot in strategy.
Tom’s imagination is his strongest muscle and he always has a side-project on the go or at the back of his mind. He is passionate about telling stories that are unique and memorable to the reader. He is a firm believer that, when it comes to brands, these stories must be grounded in emotion, insight, and strategy.