Sophie Carey
Battersea,London
Summary
A personable, resilient, and culturally driven senior comms professional with over seventeen years of media, entertainment, and consumer PR experience working at internationally recognized PR agencies including Ogilvy, Freuds, Hill & Knowlton, and Taylor Herring. I have a proven track record of leading award-winning, insight-driven campaigns across EMEA, delivering strong results and fostering positive brand sentiment. Experienced in collaborating with cross-functional teams, including advertising, marketing, and content, to develop impactful PR strategies while managing stakeholder relationships. Passionate about film and television, I consume a wide variety of entertainment content, which fuels my professional work.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Client Partner
Ogilvy
02.2023 - Current
- Client partner overseeing the European division for TX Maxx and Homesense and the TUI business
- Responsibilities/Skills
- Setting the comms strategy for TJX across Europe for press office and brand campaign moments
- Preparing statements for local issues for TK Maxx
- Inspire and lead a team of 14 PR, Influence and social specialists
- Act as a brand guardian to safeguard the reputation of TJX
- Management of substantial EU comms budget
Director
Hill & Knowlton
09.2020 - 09.2022
- Director in the Consumer Division heading up Reckitt (Durex, Dettol, Airwick) Westfield (Global and UK) and Soap & Glory as well as sitting on the senior leadership team.
- Responsibilities/Skills
- Devising campaign budgets, corresponding scopes of work and forecasting the fee across the campaign window, matching team resource to the allotted monthly revenue
- Drafting campaign strategy and activation, ensuring campaigns are commercially viable and mentoring and overseeing a team from SAD - AE
- Responding to client briefs with an insight-driven approach which informs the creative framework for each campaign.
- Generation of additional profit streams for H&K (e.g., £100k for Airwick Ambassador) by identifying clear PR activation opportunities for the portfolio
- Senior client counsel during campaign activations
- Achievements
- Delivering the Christmas campaign for Westfield along with the global Lady Gaga activation
- Delivered the 2022 plan for Durex including x3 large scale campaigns
- Oversaw award winning campaign for Boots brand Soap and Glory
Associate Director
Golin
05.2019 - 08.2020
- Key figure in the consumer senior leadership team managing overall consumer resource. Co-lead the Mondelez account working across Cadbury, Oreo and Philadelphia managing budgets over £100k and providing core senior client counsel
- Team lead for all aspects of campaign management from concept development and launch to post campaign evaluation, point person for crisis management
- Achievements
- Cemented positive brand sentiment for Cadbury via Age UK 'donate your words' campaign delivering 86 % change in sentiment.
- Oversaw the 2019 Cadbury Creme Egg campaign and recipe book launch achieving a segment on This Morning watched by an audience of 3.3million
Associate Director
freuds
08.2015 - 05.2019
- Senior client counsel, developing and leading consumer publicity campaigns for UK and European lifestyle brands including evian, Sainsbury’s VisitDubai.com, and Diageo
- Led the re-launch of Sainsburys vegan beauty range
- Preparing pitch documents, crisis statements, messaging documents, spokesperson statements and press releases
- Achievements
- Lead the re-launch of the Sainsbury’s beauty range, engaging nine influencers to post about the range and garnering coverage from industry leaders
- Devised and directed the creation of a piece of 360 video content for VisitDubai featuring Mo Farah. Ran accompanying media interviews and sell in for press
- Managed the Baileys Women’s Prize for fiction event and oversaw all event production, catering and logistics for the evening which was attended by over 500 people
Freelance Publicity Manager
Channel Five
05.2015 - 08.2015
- Publicity Manager for Big Brother
- Responsibilities/Skills
- The reactive/proactive Channel 5 press contact for all media
- Working with the executive producers and Channel 5 commissioning editor to deliver the narrative around the show format and obtain key assets to issue to press
- Drafting daily press releases and collating supporting imagery to detail the content of the show and issuing to all media
- Achievements
- Securing regular coverage in the news and TV pages of target media, The Sun, Daily Star, The Daily Mirror, Mail Online and weekly women’s magazines
Account Director
Premier PR
01.2014 - 04.2015
- Twentieth Century Fox Theatrical & Home Entertainment, IMAX and assisting the Creative Director with new business pitches
- Responsibilities/Skills
- Senior client counsel for Twentieth Century Fox and IMAX
- Leading creative strategy across retained clients, writing pitch proposals and presentations for new business opportunities
- Achievements
- Managed logistics of multiple event screenings attended by media and talent including Rocky, The Book Thief and The Vikings
- Securing x4 national press outlets to attend a press trip to LA for Sons of Anarchy S7 DVD launch following a comprehensive TX campaign leaving minimal opportunity.
Senior Account Manager
freuds
06.2011 - 01.2014
- Movember, Vodafone, Maltesers, MINI
- Achievements
- Running Maltesers sponsorship of Comic Relief 2013 by delivering an integrated campaign harnessing the brand ambassadors The Saturdays to deliver a 7:1 ROI
- Talent and media management at high profile events such as Bafta, Les Miserable premiere, Skyfall Premiere, Twilight Breaking Dawn Premiere, Batman: Dark Knight Rises premiere, Inbetweeners premier
Senior Account Executive – Account Manager
Taylor Herring
05.2010 - 06.2011
- The Inbetweeners, Primeval, Dynamo, and Warner’s Theatrical and Home Entertainment
- Achievements
- Managing the launch of Dynamo’s TV show and placing interviews in The Sun, The Times and The Daily Mail to raise his profile ahead of TX
- Supporting the TX of The Inbetweeners, by securing coverage including front cover for FHM, a front cover for The Guardian Guide, The Sunday Times Culture, and The Sun Bizarre Takeover
Education
BA - Journalism, Film and Broadcasting
Cardiff University
01.2004
A levels - Psychology, Theatre Studies, English
The Corsham School
01.1999
Skills
- Managing EU PR and influence strategies for TK Maxx
- Led successful TUI pitch
- Project management for global album launch
- Led the 2019 Soap & Glory Land campaign which has won Sabre & PR Moment awards as well as being nominated for a Cannes lion and a PR Week award
- Press manager for Big Brother generating daily coverage in national, showbiz and broadcast press, overseeing all communications during the series including drafting and delivering statements
- Managed the press campaign for the launch of The Inbetweeners S3, generating front covers on FHM and Guardian Guide
- Managing the Mondelez business at Golin heading up a team of seven, directing large-scale UK activations for a variety of Cadbury products such as the award winning Donate your Words campaign The Guardian
- Seconded from freuds to Danone Paris to work alongside the evian team as the core global lead, heading up the development and roll out of evian’s sustainability commitments and the launch of the Virgil Abloh SOMA bottle at fashion week in Paris High Snobiety
Certification
Level 3 certificate in Counselling Studies
Timeline
Client Partner
Ogilvy
02.2023 - Current
Director
Hill & Knowlton
09.2020 - 09.2022
Associate Director
Golin
05.2019 - 08.2020
Associate Director
freuds
08.2015 - 05.2019
Freelance Publicity Manager
Channel Five
05.2015 - 08.2015
Account Director
Premier PR
01.2014 - 04.2015
Senior Account Manager
freuds
06.2011 - 01.2014
Senior Account Executive – Account Manager
Taylor Herring
05.2010 - 06.2011
A levels - Psychology, Theatre Studies, English
The Corsham School
BA - Journalism, Film and Broadcasting
Cardiff University