Agency Group Head Simon discusses his start in the ad world, the biggest misconception around what advertisers actually need, and his passions outside the office

How did you get started in the ad world?

After I left university, I realized I didn’t want to live in Plymouth, which is where my family was. I had a girlfriend from London, so I decided to move there as quickly as possible – and there were lots of advertising jobs available.

I applied for one and got it, and quickly realized it wasn’t that difficult once you get over yourself and remember you’re just talking in public. Initially, I thought I was only going to do it for 18 months before figuring out what I really wanted to do, but 25 years later, I’m still doing the same thing!

My first job was at The Independent, where I stayed for four years and actually met my wife. From there, I was headhunted by The Mirror, worked at a recruitment consultancy, and eventually spent several years at both Northern & Shell and Reach.

What drew you to the technology side of the industry?

For about 14 years, I was successfully selling products that I didn’t necessarily believe in or feel particularly proud of. I was happily selling stuff, but there wasn’t a real sense of pride there.

When I looked at SmartFrame, I saw that the product was genuinely brilliant, and I fully believe in the proposition. All three sides of the business model make complete sense to me. I clearly understand where we fit in, what our unique selling point is, and how we can offer real, tangible value to brands and publishers. It is incredibly refreshing to represent a tangible product that I can honestly stand behind.

What does your role at SmartFrame look like day-to-day?

I’m only about seven weeks in, so a large part of my day currently involves outreach, learning the technology, and meeting people.

I don’t really have a set routine where I do specific tasks on specific days. My diary is entirely flexible to accommodate whoever I am trying to get hold of. If someone tells me they are only free for a quick coffee on a Tuesday at 4:00 PM, or on a Monday, I make sure I am there.

I also make a point to spend a few days a week in town simply seeing people and evangelizing the product. You can’t rely purely on digital output – you really need that human interaction.

What’s the biggest misconception you encounter about what advertisers actually need?

There is a constant challenge in the industry trying to balance the needs of content providers, publishers, and advertising agencies. We all understand that the internet needs advertising in order to remain free, but users are increasingly frustrated by websites that are just flooded with ads.

Consumers are so used to being bombarded that they almost just want to find the “x” as quickly as possible to close the ad and read the content. Because of this ad blindness, the industry has to realize that simply placing an ad isn’t enough anymore. Driving genuine, measurable attention is the metric everyone is increasingly obsessed with.

What advice would you give someone looking to get into advertising?

Put down your mobile phone and learn to be present in the room. The only way you achieve lasting success in this job is by getting people to want to talk to you, which means picking up on commonalities and finding little hooks that you can reference the next time you see them.

You have to learn how to have a genuine back-and-forth dialogue and pick up on human cues, not just buying signals. Ultimately, everyone knows you want to sell them something, but they also want to be seen as fully developed people with outside interests. If you take the time to genuinely see and listen to them, they are far more likely to give you their time going forward.

What’s changed most in the industry over the course of your career?

On the publisher side, sales units have shrunk massively, meaning fewer people are doing much more. Where you used to just sell newspapers, you now have to sell podcasts, apps, programmatic digital imagery, and direct buys. Because everyone is spinning so many different plates, people have had to become generalists rather than specialists.

On the agency side, there has been a massive headlong rush toward automation. People are increasingly happy to hide behind a keyboard and handle their interactions digitally. It is much tougher now to pull people out of their busy schedules for a natural human interaction – like grabbing a couple of pints at the pub to talk through a thorny issue – which makes relationship-building a bit of a lost art.

Is there a project or partnership you’re particularly proud of?

I am incredibly proud of my involvement with Generation Valuable, a pilot scheme connected to the Valuable 500. It’s an initiative where 75 companies around the world committed to elevating their disabled workforce into key decision-making roles.

When I was at Reach, I was selected to participate, and my CEO mentored me for a year. We did a lot of great work, including getting all the Reach titles to increase their disability coverage, developing tagging and content trees that opened up new audiences, as well as helping build an accessibility board to assist in redesigning our digital platforms. For a long time, I felt I was just selling boxes with ads, so doing socially conscious work that actually tried to make the world a slightly better place is definitely my proudest career achievement.

How do you see the future of publishing, especially with AI reshaping how content is made and distributed?

The industry is always chasing the next buzzword. In 2025, every media agency was obsessed with “contextual relevance,” and now it seems the obsession has shifted entirely to “attention”. Eventually, there will be something else that takes its place.

When it comes to AI specifically, using it as a blanket coverage term instantly turns people off. We saw this when massive agencies put AI at the center of their story without explaining what it actually meant for individual departments. To get real buy-in, you can’t just throw the word around; you have to demonstrate specific, practical benefits and show how it maturely applies to the business structure.

How do you switch off when you’re not working?

I’ve been married for almost 18 years and have a 14-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son, so family life naturally keeps me very busy. But to truly switch off, I am obsessed with two things: literature and the NFL.

I always have a book in my hand, even if it’s just to read a few pages while waiting at the doctor’s office. I admit I’m a bit of a snob about what I read. I stick mostly to classics, award-winners, and historical novels, with my all-time favorite being One Hundred Years of Solitude.

I’m also deeply passionate about American football. Even after 18 years as a fan, I’m still learning new things every Sunday, which challenges my brain in a way that watching standard football no longer does.

Marketing Communications Director Matt recently celebrated six years at SmartFrame. We find out how he got into his role, what he considers essential to effective communication, and a little more about life at SmartFrame.

How did you get into marketing communications?

My background is in journalism, specifically the technical side of photography. I worked as a journalist for 13 years, starting as a sub-editor at a consumer photography magazine before progressing to Technical Editor and then Editor.

I had always been drawn to the creative side of photography, but over time the technical side became more interesting to me. I realized that understanding the fundamentals on a deeper level would be valuable, so I decided to study for a degree in photographic science.

Having already worked in the industry for a while, by the time I got to university, I was also able to secure a steady stream of freelance work, which I fit around my degree. After university, and in between a period of traveling, I combined what I was already doing with a more marketing-focused role at a photographic retailer. It was an easy fit, as the lines between the two weren’t particularly defined and I often found myself doing both. So my journey to where I am now makes a lot of sense.

What does your role look like?

I initially joined as a copywriter, before moving into a Head of Copy role, and finally into my current role, which I’ve held for the past two years.

We’re a small marketing team, which allows everyone to have a hand in various things at the same time. That keeps things interesting, but it also helps everyone to develop in ways that might ordinarily not be possible.

Aside from the production of much of our communications and collateral, a key part of my role is to ensure that everything adheres to our brand guidelines and tone. This covers everything from technical guides and  blog articles to press releases, newsletters, and job descriptions. 

In addition to the above, the marketing  team prepares many pieces of sales collateral, and these all need to be maintained. SmartFrame is constantly changing – much like the broader imaging, publishing and advertising landscapes – so keeping everything accurate and current is critical.

Having a photography background has also come in handy. I’m often found capturing headshots and documenting the various events we attend, and capturing other images we use for marketing. I’ve also recently started to create video case studies (below).

Good communication is clear communication. The best writing is simple. This doesn’t mean it can’t be thought-provoking or challenging. You want to keep the audience engaged and informed, perhaps throw in a little humor here and there when appropriate, but never lose track of the purpose of the communication itself.

Being ruthless with editing is also vital. I forget where I first read this advice – it’s a point that has been made by many writers – but it has always served me well. The best writers say a lot with few words.

From years of breaking down complex technical concepts, I’ve learned to constantly ask: how much knowledge can I assume of the reader? Which information is key? How should I structure and pace this article so that it lands effectively?

Occasionally you come across an author whose style or delivery just lands in a way other writing doesn’t. Whenever I notice this, I think about what specifically has made the impact.

But I’d say the most important thing as a communicator is to place yourself in the position of the audience. It’s easy to write from the perspective of what you feel needs to be said, but I find it more important to write from the perspective of what needs to be understood. 

What inspires you?

Great writing, regardless of subject. Like many people, I don’t read as much as I could or would like to. But being time-poor means you can graze on lots of shorter articles, essays, and blog posts, which tends to open you up to great writers you might otherwise overlook.

I also find it interesting to see how language has evolved by reading older books on style. A production editor I once worked with introduced me to The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, a classic American style guide first published in 1918. It’s amusing to see how forcefully certain rules that we’re fairly relaxed about today were once emphasized. Language evolves, of course, but it’s intriguing to see which rules have persisted and which have long been forgotten.

What advice would you give to someone else looking to get into marketing communications?

I suspect most people get into marketing communications as an extension of being a copywriter or more general marketer, so some kind of interest will usually be there already.

But a good place to start is to ask yourself why you want to get into marketing communications – that can help steer you toward the right role or company.

Some people see it as an outlet for their creativity, whether that’s through storytelling, wit, humor, or something else. Others may be drawn to the challenge of simplifying complex ideas.

Some people may be passionate about social media and thrive on seeing a marketing campaign or a piece of promoted content perform well. Personally, as my background is in technical writing, a company like SmartFrame feels like a very natural fit.

If you can identify what it is that draws you in, you’ll better understand where you’re most likely to thrive because you’ll naturally be more motivated to do a good job. Perhaps it sounds obvious, but I feel that finding something you genuinely enjoy is the key to a happy career.

How have you found working at SmartFrame?

It’s been a great journey so far! A lot happens in six years. We’ve moved offices a handful of times, navigated the pandemic, brought some exciting clients on board, and seen a huge transformation in the business in terms of its focus. Being here through it all makes me appreciate just how far we’ve come, and how much stronger we are today.

That said, while the company feels like a very different business to what it used to be, the core of it has remained the same. I put this down to the four co-founders still being with the company. They have ensured the cultural thread has remained while we’ve built out the team. Having a background at larger publishers, where turnover is high and brands are sold and acquired over the years, you appreciate the stability that a company like SmartFrame has.

How do you switch off when you’re not working?

Travel has always been a big passion of mine. I was lucky enough to do quite a bit of it when I was a journalist, and I’ve filled in a few gaps over the years through holidays. A few years before joining SmartFrame, I took a round-the-world trip that lasted just over three months, heading east through Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US before making it back to London. I also managed to see a bit more of Japan earlier in the year, which I only got to see very briefly in a work capacity before.

Travel is also when I tend to pick up my camera the most, photography being another passion. Outside of that, I trained briefly as a chef after leaving school and have collected hundreds of cookbooks. Not entirely unrelated, a trip around Margaret River in my early twenties sparked an interest in wine, which led to a WSET qualification, something I’d love to build on in the future.

Music is the other big one. Living in London makes it easy to go to gigs, and I try to get to at least a couple of festivals each year. That said, I also try to get out of the city whenever I can as there’s still so much of the countryside I haven’t seen.