Laura Martin
Head of marketing and strategy
Scope
Laura Martin joined disability charity Scope as marketing lead in May 2022 after three years at the Teenage Cancer Trust, ascending a year later to interim head of marketing and strategy.
Rising through the ranks thanks to her “creative and strategic thinking”, she is described as having a real “passion, knowledge and determination for marketing” by her nominator.
Martin helped deliver Scope’s brand refresh – unveiled in September – designed to reflect the diversity, vibrancy and pride of the UK’s 16 million disabled people.
Compared to when she started, Martin says she has seen a shift in media buying as new channels have emerged, and notes the rising popularity of channels where ROI is easy to measure. “This change has led to a reduction in brand marketing spend. It then takes decades to rebuild the damage of short-term budget savings,” Martin argues.
“The potential of AI is huge and could eliminate large swathes of administration, but it could lead to a bland homogeneity across marketing categories that leads to audience apathy and poor brand recall.”
She is interested in the “creative challenge” brands face as they explore new social platforms. This requires less of a ‘copy and paste’ approach to campaign creative, she suggests, and a push towards reactive, channel-specific and audience-focused content.
“Both of these changes mean linear campaign planning is becoming more a thing of the past and that framework approaches allow for much more agile application of campaigns to maximise budgets and relevance,” says Martin.
Employing a diverse talent pool is one of the key opportunities she urges her peers to embrace. The industry’s persistent gap in over-50s talent, for example, fails to appreciate the spending power, cultural background and worldview of this generation, she adds.
When it comes to the challenges facing marketers, Martin acknowledges internal silos and clunky processes can make brands slow to react to cultural moments.
Over the next decade, she expects to see an accelerated shift towards use of AI for major creative projects. She recognises squeezed budgets could lead to AI replacing copywriters and other creatives, while more marketers could well be using ChatGPT to write marketing plans.
“The potential of AI is huge and could eliminate large swathes of administration, but it could lead to a bland homogeneity across marketing categories that leads to audience apathy and poor brand recall,” Martin warns.
Given the industry is in constant flux, her advice for early talent is to ensure they stay curious, learn from those above – and below – and never assume they have the right answer.
“Find a job where you feel you can bring your full self to work,” Martin adds. “Anyone can learn the theory, but your life experience, personality and creativity is what turns good to great. Immerse yourself in the real world and not just that of your marketing peers, and you will find some golden threads for future campaigns.”
