Client » comparethemarket.com

"Just a quick note to say thank you for all your efforts on comparethemarket and for your professionalism as always.  Rest assured I will always consider yourself and Simon when we need additional support on campaigns this end."

Mark Vile, Associate Director - Marketing

Client » Open University

"We contacted Parallel Marketing initially to cover a short term gap in our Marketing Planning Team.

Simon Hinks supported the team for 6 months working closely with Faculties and Business Units to develop strategic marketing plans and implementing tactical marketing activities.  Simon's marketing knowledge and personable style helped win over some difficult audiences.

Given the success of Simon's initial support, we engaged him for a further 6 months.  Here he defined best practice for the Marketing Planning Teams and worked on a cross department team to implement a new segmentation and communications strategy.

David Meadows, Head of Marketing Management

Client » ibuyeco

"Thanks for all your hard work on ibuyeco and of course we know where to come if we need any further assistance.  We definitely would be no where near where we are now with our PR strategy without your efforts on this - much appreciated.  It is now up to the team to continue this."

Mark Vile, Senior Marketing Manager

Client » Hitachi Capital

"Simon Hinks has been employed by Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance on a fixed term contract basis.  The brief was to deliver some 'quick wins' for creating value from our consumer customer database and establishing a range of marketing techniques.

We have found Simon to be a professional, reliable and flexible individual both in terms of his approach to the brief and delivery of specific activities.  The areas that Simon covered during his time with us are as follows:

Advising on our customer welcome process by reducing the number of 'noise' calls into our contact centre and updating the suite of letters

Introducing marketing processes and templates to better equip the business to understand what we needed to do and how we should go about doing it

Defined the requirements for developing a single view of our customers through the integration of customer and account based databases

The contract has now finished mainly because the marketing team is fully resourced."

Mark Murphy, Divisional Managing Director

Client » Norwich & Peterborough Building Society

"Simon worked for Norwich and Peterborough Building Society for the period from November 2002 to January 2004.  Simon was initially hired on a contract basis to project manage a number of direct marketing campaigns and his role expanded as more was required from Marketing.

Simon's 'can do' attitude and friendly nature was much appreciated by those who worked with him and he achieved some good results whilst he was at Norwich and Peterborough.

A restructure in the organisation meant that Simon's position became redundant and he left us in January 2004.  I can recommend Simon as a solid and hardworking direct marketing practitioner who is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get on with hard work."

Mike Hounsell, Marketing & Sales Director

Client » Budget Van Insurance

"We had started the recruitment process of bringing 2 additional people into our Marketing Team.  However, there were a number of campaigns and activities that we could not put on hold whilst we recruited the right people.

It was at this stage that we contacted Parallel Marketing with a view to filling a short-term resource gap.  This enabled us to conduct a thorough recruitment process whilst keeping the business running.  Our requirements meant that we used both Sallie and Simon for very specific activities and which utilised their different skill sets.

Simon was briefed to help us identify how we could make our direct marketing more cost effective.  In addition he was asked to support one of our new business initiatives in development, as well as looking at how we could generate more income from our directory advertising.

He came with a fresh, objective and professional perspective which enabled him to hit the ground running from the first day.  The outcome has been the formulation of a series of initiatives which were well developed and succinctly handed over in readiness for the new team member.

Sallie was asked to support the delivery of a major Budget Van Insurance campaign with particular focus on the PR aspects.  She was able to bring a wider perspective of how PR can be used to support new campaigns and has worked closely with the agency to ensure activities remain on track.

She has great maturity and an ability to identify the important elements of a multi channel campaign, always seeking to maximise the overall benefits.  She has been on top of the day to day management of campaign activities, providing a real 'can do' attitude.

Both Sallie and Simon's time in Budget has now come to an end as a result of our success in recruiting 2 new full-time members.

I would not hesitate in recommending them for future marketing support."

Mark Vile, Senior Marketing Manager

Client » Cyber Ware

"I am writing to thank you for all the help and assistance that you have provided us with over the course of the last eighteen months.

As Managing Director of Cyber Ware Ltd, an IP and data communications company we hope to be celebrating our 10th and indeed many more successful years in business.

As you know, much of our internal resource has for the past year been taken up with the development of and deployment of our Wifi Hotspot solution and the associated billing and management platforms, that now allow us to manage these systems for our customers throughout the UK.

I would like to express my sincerest thanks to you, not only for the advice and expertise that you brought, your friendly and professional approach, but also for the diverse range of practical skills that you brought to bear on the project which ranged from helping us with the production of our contact letters and case studies, through to the production of our on site promotional material.

Once again my sincerest thanks."

Frank Oakes, Managing Director

Client » Welltech IT

"We have been working with Simon Hinks of Parallel Marketing for a while now, the refreshing ideas he has for the improvement of our business have really helped us grow more than we thought possible.

One area we wanted to achieve was to get our name out there, and a medium we wished to explore was local newspapers.  We had moved to our new offices in Orton Enterprise Centre and wanted to make the event official and invite all of our customers to say thank you to them for their support.

A local dignitary was required and Simon Hinks provided the perfect answer, Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive of Peterborough City Council.  Simon not only gained contact with her but also got a date booked in her diary to officially open our new office.

The help kept coming with Simon making sure the local paper was informed and a photographer there to witness the occasion.  Thanks to Simon the whole event was a fantastic success and it wasn't long before we got the headline in the paper we were looking for.  Since then business has been flourishing nicely and we're certainly on target to double our turnover this year.

Thank you Simon Hinks and Parallel Marketing."

Simon Foxwell, Managing Director

Client » Metcalfe Copeman & Pettefar

"Further to our conversation, I would confirm that I have had a very good response to the brochure.  As I indicated to you I have to get it printed and I have to go through our present marketing agents to take the matter further.

I would however take this opportunity of thanking you and Sallie for all your help and I will certainly recommend you in the future."

Andew Littlefield, Partner