Two new appointments at Kidderminster marketing agency Citizen amid team growth and development plans

Kidderminster-based marketing agency, Citizen, has recently welcomed aboard two new staff members as part of the expansion and development of its existing team.

Samantha Preece and Emily Hyde are the latest additions at the firm, with both having started in November and taking up positions as Marketing Director and Senior Account Executive respectively.

A resident of Bromsgrove, Samantha has worked in marketing for more than 25 years, during which time she has held a number of senior leadership roles within several high-profile consumer organisations, including HSBC, Halfords, Vax and Gtech.

An experience marketing strategist and planner, Samantha is CIM and CMI qualified, and has previously delivered marketing, management and leadership programmes, with a strong commercial focus. She left the corporate world three years ago and founded Millbrook Marketing, where she has been using her experience to support local businesses.

She became familiar with Citizen during lockdown, meeting Graeme Thurman, the agency’s Commercial Director, at a regional business networking group.

“The more I heard about the work Citizen had done, the more impressed I was,” Samantha explains.

“When an opportunity to join the team presented itself, I jumped at the chance.”

“The agency has a fantastic culture and is very welcoming, but above all I was really impressed by the level of talent here, and I could see that there was a massive amount of potential for growth.”

Emily, from Kidderminster, has eight years’ experience working in marketing, and has worked for a range of different companies, in sectors such as online retail and e-commerce.

Having studied for a degree in business management with the Open University she has worked across many areas of marketing. Directly before joining Citizen, Emily was employed as a Marketing Manager by a company specialising in supplying personal protective equipment [PPE] to large blue-chip clients.

“It’s been a goal of mine to work agency-side for a number of years now”, Emily said, “so I already knew a little about the business through research, and had a good sense for the kind of agency it was.

“I saw the job opening online and thought that it was the right time to apply for the opportunity to progress my career in the direction I wanted. I got on well with Graeme and Sam, who interviewed me, and they were so welcoming that I knew that it was the right place for me.”

Samantha will initially be picking up work on Citizen’s tender with Worcestershire Business Central, through which the agency is supporting local businesses’ marketing strategies, as well as developing Citizen’s own marketing strategy. Emily will be tasked with providing marketing advice to some of the firm’s larger corporate clients and acting as a liaison to them.

Further to Samantha and Emily’s appointments, Sam Britton, who has been with Citizen since 2018, has recently been promoted from Senior Account Manager to Client Services Director, marking the personal development of the agency’s existing team.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Samantha and Emily to the Citizen family, and with potential opportunities for further growth in the near future, this is a really exciting time for the agency,” he said.

“In my new role as Client Services Director, I am very much looking forward to working alongside Samantha within the senior management team, as well as supporting Emily in delivering a first-class service to all our clients.”

Further information on Citizen is available at https://citcom.co.uk/.