Experience

What I have done, and what I was responsible for.

Each entry below sets out the context and my own contribution, starting with my most recent project work. Campaigns are team efforts, so I have tried to be precise about which parts were mine.

How I work in practice

Shaping audience, positioning and campaign strategy
Planning and coordinating integrated campaigns
Improving briefing and approval processes
Aligning internal stakeholders, agencies and specialists
Improving measurement, reporting and visibility
Clearer ownership and workflow for better delivery

Each entry below notes which of these it involved.

Recent project work

Selected independent projects

Role: Project-based engagements
Sector: Growing businesses, anonymised

How I worked

Shaping audience, positioning and campaign strategy
Clearer ownership and workflow for better delivery
Improving briefing and approval processes
Improving measurement, reporting and visibility

Recent project-based work with growing businesses, combining marketing strategy, operating models and practical reporting automation.

Context

I work independently and directly with each organisation's own team. Each engagement had a defined scope, and the two below show different sides of the work.

Clients are anonymised to respect confidentiality.

Project A

Direct-to-consumer wellness brand

Marketing operations & reporting automation

A growing consumer brand working with external agencies, where marketing reporting relied on recurring manual work.

What I did

Reviewed the brand's marketing activity, workflows and agency handoffs, alongside its CRM and reporting needs
Helped align campaign and reporting requirements, so the team and its partners worked to the same measures
Contributed strategic input on segmentation and positioning as a separate workstream from the operational review
Designed and implemented an n8n marketing reporting workflow to reduce the manual collection, collation and compilation of recurring reports

Outcome

More consistent reporting, with an estimated saving of approximately 15–20 hours per month of manual reporting work.

Project B

Automotive technology start-up

Marketing operating model & planning

An early-stage business setting up how its marketing would be planned, owned and delivered. My role was advisory and focused on marketing; I was not involved in developing or launching the product itself.

What I did

Collaborated with the CEO, CTO, Head of Creative, developers and partners to map marketing responsibilities
Designed routes for campaign intake, briefing, approvals and agency handoffs
Devised CRM and email marketing planning, with a KPI and reporting cadence
Developed a three-year marketing roadmap

Deliverables

A mapped marketing operating model, intake and approval routes, a CRM and email marketing plan, a reporting cadence and a three-year roadmap.

More detail on selected projects is available on request

Oct 2024 – Jul 2025

Action For Humanity

Role: Campaign Manager (Contract)
Sector: International humanitarian charity

How I worked

Shaping audience, positioning and campaign strategy
Planning and coordinating integrated campaigns
Aligning internal stakeholders, agencies and specialists
Improving briefing and approval processes

Led strategy and cross-channel delivery for Ramadan and emergency fundraising appeals. For approximately the last four months, I acted as Marketing Manager, supporting wider marketing direction and delivery.

Context

Action For Humanity runs large, time-sensitive fundraising campaigns, with Ramadan as the most significant period of the year alongside emergency crisis-response appeals. Campaigns involve marketing, fundraising, programmes, leadership, international offices and several external agencies.

My contribution

Led campaign strategy, audience and creative concept development, and cross-channel delivery for Ramadan and emergency crisis-response appeals
Worked alongside the Head of Marketing, coordinating an eight-person multidisciplinary marketing team and around 30 organisational stakeholders
Acted as Marketing Manager for approximately the last four months of the contract, supporting wider marketing direction and delivery
Coordinated campaign activity across digital, email and CRM, TV appeals, prominent charity-led out-of-home displays and experiential activations, working with the teams and partners responsible for each
Liaised with international offices and with PPC, CRM and web agencies
Ran campaign planning, briefing, prioritisation and approvals in Asana

Outcome

During the four-week Ramadan 2025 fundraising window, I oversaw a paid-media budget of around £260,000 alongside the Head of Marketing. More than £1 million in donations was attributed to paid media over that period.

This was a wider team effort, involving the marketing team, colleagues across the charity and our agency partners. The figure refers to donations attributed to paid media, not all income.

Sep 2023 – Oct 2024

Global Rahmah Foundation

Role: Marketing Manager
Sector: Charity

How I worked

Shaping audience, positioning and campaign strategy
Aligning internal stakeholders, agencies and specialists
Improving briefing and approval processes
Clearer ownership and workflow for better delivery

Built and led the in-house marketing team, strengthened strategic direction and led a new website redevelopment with an external web agency.

Context

The foundation needed its own marketing capability and a clearer, more consistent presence, while continuing to work with specialist agencies.

My contribution

Hired and line-managed the in-house marketing team
Strengthened the foundation's marketing direction, developing audience and campaign strategy and fundraising creative
Led the new website redevelopment with an external web agency, covering site positioning, content, donor journeys, briefing, agency planning and stakeholder coordination
Led a brand refresh
Coordinated paid media, social and website agencies
Introduced Trello workflows so requests arrived with the information the team needed

Outcome

The foundation moved from relying on external support to having its own marketing team, a refreshed brand and clear routes for requests, briefing and agency work.

I led the website project from the client side. The build itself was delivered by the web agency.

Jul 2021 – Sep 2023

Meat by THB

Role: Founder & Marketing Director
Sector: Consumer ecommerce, direct to consumer

How I worked

Shaping audience, positioning and campaign strategy
Planning and coordinating integrated campaigns
Improving measurement, reporting and visibility

My own brand, and where I put marketing theory into practice: from spotting an opportunity to segmentation, positioning, propositions and channel choices.

Context

As founder, I was responsible for understanding who the brand was for and how to reach them with a limited budget. Every marketing decision had a direct commercial consequence, so product, pricing, distribution and promotion had to work together.

My contribution

Opportunity and research

Identified a market opportunity and built a differentiated direct-to-consumer ecommerce business around it
Carried out consumer research to understand buying habits and motivations

Segmentation and positioning

Segmented the market and positioned the brand for distinct customer groups
Developed bundles and value propositions for families, students and fitness-focused shoppers
Set the brand and messaging strategy so each group heard something relevant

Channels and creative

Shaped channel strategy and campaign creative
Ran activity across paid, social, email, influencers, out-of-home and experiential activations at food festivals

Learning and iteration

Used ecommerce shopping data and customer feedback to refine propositions, messaging and offers
Kept product, pricing, distribution and promotion decisions joined up, so each one supported the others

Outcome

The customer base grew approximately fourfold from the first year to the second.

This growth reflects the business as a whole and is not attributed to any single campaign.

Education

Qualifications

MSc International Marketing
BA (Hons) Business Management

Get in touch

Would this experience be useful to your team?

Send me a short note with some context. I am happy to have an initial conversation and see whether I can help.

Email Saif LinkedIn