Our Staff

'Planner, tea drinker..... accidental mediabod'

I've worked for big global ad agencies for the best part of two decades. I started as a dogsbody in the planning department at Leo Burnett, but I moved into media at a time when they got better lunches.

Since then I've worked for two other big agency networks (Carat and Starcom MediaVest Group). I've been a Planner/Buyer, Comms Planning Director, Board Director and part-time Head of Recruitment.

I've worked on lots of different clients and sectors from financial to FMCG, from cars to governments; Abbey, Amex, Mercedes, Tetley Tea, Haagen-Dazs, Debenhams, Department for Transport to name but a few... and I've won a few awards – which is nice.

After 15 years of living in the big London smoke my partner Doug and I moved to Suffolk to try a different lifestyle and so he could pursuit a new career as a stage Mindreader.

Whilst I have been commuting to London 3 days a week for the last few years, I've been looking for a role which will be very different to the work I've done before and which will mean I have less of a relationship with Greater Anglia Trains.

Happily MMK provides the answer to both those desires! So I've swapped a view of the Telecom Tower for Norwich Guildhall … so far its pretty good.

Philosophy graduate from Nanterre University, Paris, Sabelline moved to England in 2006 in order to get some experience in marketing.

After a placement in the PR department of Norwich agency The Works, she worked in project management and marketing for international companies Integro Languages and Serco.

Keen to use her client side experience in an agency environment, she joined the strategy team at MMK Media in May 2010, where she specialises in both paid and natural search, and particularly enjoys conducting industry research and SEO analysis.

With a strong track record of working to deadlines and an overzealous sense of organisation, Sabelline is also managing various web projects.

In her spare time, Sabelline likes reading a good book, going for long walks, sipping red wine and experimenting with cooking.

And before you ask, no, she doesn't eat snails or frog legs on a daily basis!

The first digital thing I got my hands on was the Binatone games machine, swiftly followed by the Atari 2600. I grew up a gamer, which lead to the internet. University days were spent downloading demos of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D on to network computers. And now I do all I can to maintain my geek level of gaming knowledge.

I worked at Virgin Money for just over 11 years, mostly in marketing, and almost solely within digital. We ran some amazing campaigns during my time there, and ended up winning a lot of awards for the work. It was during my time at Virgin that I also become IDM qualified in direct and digital marketing. From there I went on to run the multi-channel team at Advent Training. They'd grown well, but had no marketing team at all. I set it up and ran it, using my theoretical knowledge in ATL marketing to actually run offline campaigns.

In February 2010, I set up MMK as an agency that loved digital, hated mediocrity, and wanted to be known as the best place to work. I also have a personal passion to prove that talent, industry, hard work, and excellence can all come from an agency based in Norwich.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be a doctor. I found Biology completely fascinating, and incredible. The fact that we are built so intricately and yet work so perfectly still amazes me. However, my academic streak ended by the time I was 18, for various reasons - but mainly because, whilst I found it interesting, I couldn't see myself doing it as a job.

Luckily, in my spare time during school, I got ensnared in the world of computers. I imagine it's because they're similar to people - intricately and delicately put together, but capable of amazing and powerful things. When the family got an internet connection, I quickly ran up massive phone bills by dialling into the web via our 52K modem.

I built my first website when I was 14, and I've been building them ever since. I've watched the Internet grow up, as I've grown up with it.

Joining up at Virgin when i was 17 I continued to pick up new skills and learn new techniques, quickly getting involved in exciting and innovating projects - including the launches of many websites and campaigns, and putting together social and search strategies. I gained a great understanding of online processes and technology, and how usability and testing are a key part of development.

Having worked with Chris for several years, I jumped at the chance to take on this position at MMK. I strive to be the best at what I do, which is what MMK's all about - being brilliant at what you do. It's hard work but I completely love every second of it.

And yes, I say that even though it's currently 2am, as I launch our new website. It's worth it.

I built my first website at the age of 9 after being introduced to HTML by a friend in the industry. After eagerly spending night after night working towards my aim of creating a fully functioning site, I soon realised that website development was the career path I wanted to pursue. I began to explore other ways to improve my site and very quickly became proficient in the use of CSS.

As I progressed onto building websites for friends and family members, my career began to take shape. Gradually, as word of mouth spread, I found myself creating websites for charities and small local businesses. During this time, I significantly improved my skills in web development and user interface whilst receiving the added bonus of gaining experience and forming my background in the commercial sector.

This background enabled me to progress into full-time employment at EMCOR UK where I developed systems for their British Sugar contract. During my time at EMCOR UK I was able to develop my customer service and communication skills, which has helped me to deliver more precisely the features and designs which my clients envision on their websites.

Since building my first website I have progressed onto learning new and exciting technologies such as JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5 and CSS3. I am continuing to learn more and more every day, allowing me to incorporate more challenging and dynamic features in the websites which I develop.

I've always really loved typography, graphic design and illustration and so a natural progression from studying fine art and music at college, lead me to study the latter at degree level, taking a BA Honors in Music Composition at Dartington College of Arts (Falmouth University, Cornwall).

While at university I chose a minor in Digital Arts which led me back into design via my rediscovery of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, which have now become the tools of my trade. In no time at all the web and graphic design portion of my degree had hijacked my musical aspirations and I soon found myself sidetracked on building websites to promote my music or designing sheet music cover art instead of actually writing music. Music fail. I had come to the realisation that it was design, in all it's forms, that was truly exciting me.

I came to MMK as a front end web designer but it was not long before I was working almost exclusively on design, branding and illustration; a position where I am very happy and am encouraged to be creative and try out new angles.

Outside of work I occasionally try my hand at beer brewing, bread baking and cutesy crafts like hama-beads. Remember them? Oh and I also jog until I vomit – at least three times a week.

I'm Suzy and I'm a marketing strategist at MMK Media (part-time).

I'm married to Zak where the saying 'opposites attract' could not be more true as he's an Ipswich supporting lawyer; and we have little Freddie who's 2 (just about) and it's with him where the rest of my split week is spent. Monday to Wednesday is taken up with swimming, coffees, park, mini-monkey gym, goals, books; I then breathe, dust off my brain and go to MMK Thursdays and Fridays. Both are challenging roles but both give me a lot back too.

I've had a varied career within Norwich marketing channels over the past 12 years and hence often get teased in the office for knowing 'the whole of Norwich'. I began my career in the press office at NCFC before deciding the crossover between being a fan and work was too much and so moved on in 2000 to digital agency Soup. Here I worked as an account manager across many high level brands (Virgin, Fujifilm, Start-rite, MEC global) to help deliver their inaugural websites.

From Soup I joined my client Start-rite and managed agency relationships and worked on brand marketing. I had a hand in the delivery of some beautiful ad campaigns, project managed a dedicated window in Harrods and attending global sales conferences in LA & Miami, which I admit sounds glamorous...(and to a degree it was!)

Staying clientside I left Start-rite for Virgin Money, for the opportunity to work on a truly global brand. It was here I met some great friends and worked with some inspirational marketeers (present bosses included) and although I worked on a ground breaking creative project and some fun press campaigns, decided the world of financial services was perhaps not best suited to me and my personality.

So I was back agency side in 2008 at local offline specialists Turton Middleton, before leaving to have Freddie in 2009 and joining back up with Chris and Tom at MMK in summer 2010.

Life at MMK is fast paced and challenging. I love the thought process that a new brief conjours up and the free thought that the digital world affords us. There is always always exciting new things to learn and hear about and as a self confessed staunch offline girl (I like being able to hold something I've created) with at first a slight fear of the digital world, I love the way that digital marketing is evolving and is adaptable and how much satisfaction can be gleaned from knowing exactly what activities have been successful.

Out of work and Freddie world, I love all sports, I play netball and tennis, run (biggest achievement London Marathon 2007). I'm a season ticket holder at NCFC, avid England cricket fan and love seeing my friends and oh of course wine.

"It's a busy happy life and one that I enjoy to the full" - Darrell Rivers, Last term at Mallory Towers.
(Honestly)

I’ve been passionate about art and design, electronic gadgets and problem solving for as long as I can remember. Becoming a web developer was simply the next logical step for me as it delivers all of these things in abundance. I love how quickly the web industry evolves, enforcing the need to continually learn and adapt to keep apace; there is rarely one single correct solution to any particular challenge and there are always new ways to improve. I fully embrace the immediacy of the internet too – being able to quickly realise a new idea in front of a potentially worldwide audience at a relatively low cost is an incredible thing.

Having graduated from De Montfort, Leicester in 2006 with first class honours in BSc Multimedia Computing I have amassed six years commercial experience producing dynamic websites and eCommerce solutions at the time of joining MMK. I specialise in writing bespoke PHP, MySQL and JavaScript, although I’m also a dab hand with XHTML/CSS and know more about the idiosyncrasies of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers than I care to admit.

Outside of work I love to play sport and attend live music events, and I enjoy travelling and eating out as much as possible. I run a food blog with my girlfriend and a cricket website for my hometown club. I tend to an ever expanding music collection and also have a penchant for horror films.

I started my professional web developement career at the age of 20 with the BBC, home to a raft of world class talent that undoubtedly makes it a leader in the industry for quality and innovation.

During my three years there I became acutely aware of the need to ensure that the usability and accessibility of any online proposition is something that should be ingrained into every step of the development and production process, as opposed to a mere compliance-driven afterthought. This has now become a passion of mine that seems to be consistently pushing back my ever receding hairline ...

After a few years of what proved to be an extremely excting transitional period for the BBC assisting in the lead of some major redesigns, I decided that it was a good time for me to pursue a freelance career.

Having then gone on to spend the best part of a year working on some brilliant but challenging projects, I found that I had a fresh interest in working for a company that was focussed on what the rest of the world was doing online, who would be able to offer projects that would challenge and excite me in the way that the BBC did.

I joined MMK in February 2011, happily just in time to help them celebrate their very first birthday!

Outside of work and when I find myself not 'tapping into the matrix' to fiddle under the bonnet of the internet, I enjoy putting my spare time to good use by getting involved with raising the profile of and championing my local Theatre.