If you’re looking for a new challenge in digital our jobs board lists hundreds of open positions, and you can benchmark your own digital knowledge using our Digital Skills Index.

Please describe your job: What do you do?

I’m Head of Product Marketing at Proxama, a mobile proximity marketing firm.

I’m responsible for all aspects of marketing – from product positioning and propositions, to PR and digital.

My role also includes leading our Client Services team and working directly with brands to ensure the business case for using proximity as part of their marketing strategy is satisfied, resulting in the best possible consumer experience.

louise thompson proxama

Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?

Inconveniently right under one of our air-conditioning units! Or rather conveniently for the two days of summer!

On a serious note, I report directly to our CEO – John Kennedy. At Proxama we operate within a flat structure and have a really close-knit team.

We work in an extremely fast-paced environment, so effective communication is of paramount importance. 

What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?

For me, innovation is key when working with mobile. You have to be prepared to be on the forefront and not be afraid to take risks.

It’s imperative to be quick thinking with the ability to make snap decisions, especially in the digital world where trends come into fashion as quickly as they fall out of it.

Proxama is an agile company and having cross-functional teams is imperative.

It is therefore necessary for me to be adaptable and flexible as any typical day can involve working across several departments.

And lastly, excellent communication skills – a marketer’s bread and butter! If I can’t ensure people understand our products then I’m not doing the job properly. 

What do you love about your job? What sucks?

I love that my role is an eclectic mix of working directly with clients as well as marketing and elements of product design – it certainly ensures that no two days are the same.

I’m lucky that my team sits in the heart of the business and get to be involved across the board.

As a company, we really are working at the cutting edge of technology and are lucky to be working with sector leaders to deliver a lot of ‘firsts’ within mobile.

To be surrounded by a team of intelligent, passionate people makes the job one that I love.  

Tell us about a typical working day… 

There’s only one typical element to my day and that is it must start with coffee.

Short of that, you could find me working with our programme team reviewing our roadmap or with the marketing team briefing in the latest piece of PR.

On another day I could be running a brand workshop for proximity use cases, positioning our products or even programming beacons! 

What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success? 

From a client perspective my ultimate goal every day is ensuring that we as a team help brands deliver engaging experiences which deliver real results that meet campaign objectives. 

Whether that’s an increase to their app active user base or new customers resulting from a successful in-app proximity triggered advertising campaign.

A recent example of such an achievement was our work with Mapway and its Bus London app – seeing click through rates of 44% and 10-15% on served interstitial ads compared to typical market standards of 1-2%.

From a marketing perspective, it’s everything you would expect from website activity to PR performance.

Mapway’s Bus Times London app

proximity campaign

What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?

There are all the usual platforms I and everyone else couldn’t live without, but most importantly I couldn’t do my job without my team – any leader’s essential tool to ensure we hit our goals consistently.

Oh and it goes without saying… my mobile phone, the lifeline of our business and essential for testing our products.

How did you get started in the digital industry, and where might you go from here?

I come from an ad agency and marketing background and although I had exposure to online, mobile, UX and consumer journeys, Proxama has been my first fully mobile focused role.

It has been and continues to be a learning experience.

In my time here I’ve seen a huge evolution of product from NFC to ibeacon and now onto Physical Web and Google Nearby and I’m sure the next evolution is just around the corner.

Short of winning the lottery, Proxama is where I want to be right now and I can’t wait to see where we go next. 

Which brands do you think are doing digital well?

From a Proxama perspective, we get to work with many brands who are fronting exciting and engaging work.

I really admire the work of one of our clients, Skyscanner, a company that is really embracing the immersive experience of out-of-home and mobile, utilising our proximity network to push physical web experiences – the company’s innovative attitude is to be admired.

And at the time of writing this I can’t not mention Pokémon Go. Something that seems to be taking our office by storm.

In all seriousness, the game’s use of location-based augmented reality has been viral from day one, an incredible way of aligning the physical world with virtual content as a shared, social experience.