Coworking with Michelle Urwin

Each Tuesday, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Michelle Urwin is senior director of strategic marketing at Skai, a digital advertising platform.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? I’ve been fortunate to have worked on some amazing projects during my career—from big out-of-home campaigns (who doesn’t love seeing their ads plastered all over the city?!) to company rebrands and even the launch of a first-of-its-kind innovation center (complete with a Formula One experience). During my agency days, I was taught that B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring, and it’s something I still live by today.

My all-time favorite project though was K in the Park—Skai’s annual UK customer and prospect conference. I wanted to tear up the rulebook on what a corporate conference should be and get creative. The festival-style event not only generated significant new business for Skai, but also won an award for best live event experience, too (a very proud moment!).

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile? I am a huge non-league football fan (soccer for those in the US!) and have supported my local team, Southport FC, from a very young age. It was actually there that my love for marketing began. One summer, aged 12, my parents sent me off to spend a week with the commercial director (supposedly for “work experience” but looking back, they probably just wanted me out of their hair!). After being exposed to the sponsorships, advertising, and community work, I knew that marketing was something I wanted to do for real.

Although I ended up in technology marketing rather than sports, my dad now runs the media team at Southport FC as a volunteer, so you will regularly find me helping him out and taking over the social feeds on a match day!

What marketing trend are you least optimistic about? I have watched in fascination at the rise of influencer marketing over the last couple of years. Out of seemingly nowhere, our Instagram and TikTok feeds are full of people promoting yet another skin-care or home-cleaning product. Now, I’ll readily admit that I am the first person to buy anything that Mrs. Hinch puts her name to, but I do wonder how sustainable the growth of this industry will be in its current form. The no. 1 reason it has worked so well is down to trust. But with so many influencers clearly in it for the money nowadays and having their authenticity increasingly questioned, brands have to be really smart about identifying the right people to align themselves with and how to invest their budgets most effectively.

What’s one marketing-related podcast, social account, or series you’d recommend? The psychology of marketing fascinates me, so Rory Sutherland, the king of behavioral science, is my must-follow. Meeting him at our first K in the Park event was a definite fangirl moment!