An ambitious digital brand strategy and design agency has brought in a well-known North East creative industry figure to bolster its senior team as it puts its corporate and service development plans into action.Newcastle-based JUMP has appointed Dan Appleby as its new managing director after 14 years working in senior client-servicing roles with award-winning creative agencies in Newcastle and London.
As part of the strategic strengthening of its executive team, JUMP’s co-founder and technical director Robert Brown is moving into a new chief executive position, while fellow co-founder Lucy Batley retains her role as creative director.
Set up in 2007, JUMP offers the full range of design and digital commerce services to a growing roster of regional and national clients, from the National Trust, Kilfrost and technical outdoor clothing manufacturer Montane through to Newcastle’s Business Improvement District company NE1, Northumberland development company Arch and The People’s Theatre.
The agency’s workforce has grown by a third over the last year to reach its present total of 16, and it is now actively looking to bring in specialist staff for a number of further roles, including graphic designers, PHP developers, and strategic digital marketers, with the aim of having at least a 20-strong team by the end of 2015.
Earlier this year, JUMP secured a £150,000 investment from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund that is managed by NEL Fund Managers to provide the working capital required to enhance the services it provides and the people and systems required to deliver them.
Lucy Batley says: “It was not a easy task to find the right person to join a tightly knitted management, but as soon as we met Dan, we both knew he was the right person for the job, and we are very confident that appointing him to this key role will be the cornerstone to our future success.”
Robert Brown adds: “Dan has a great track record of helping both clients and agencies to succeed. Part of his role will be to work with both our team and our clients to produce work that delivers tangible creative and commercial results, and we are absolutely thrilled to have him on board.”
Dan Appleby says: “The thing that impressed me most was Rob and Lucy’s passion for the work that the team at JUMP produce. Having seen some of the projects for which the team has been responsible, I know there is a huge amount of talent here and that we’re highly capable of producing great design and technical solutions for our clients.
“My experiences of working closely with clients to develop and implement effective marketing strategies and campaigns complement the skills of the JUMP team extremely well, and I’ll be looking to help grow the business by bringing in new and ambitious clients who want to add value to their businesses through the use of creativity and technology.”