Team
500+ years of food and drink retail sales, category, marketing & PR expertise.
Our award-winning team gives you access to 30 specialists with expertise across research, strategy & planning, category & sales management, account-based marketing, PR, content, digital and social marketing.
It’s our team that makes us the recognised experts in food and drink marketing.
500
Years food industry expertise
30 +
Specialists
1 st
Food agency to win the B2B Marketing Grand Prix Campaign award
75 %
Of our team has worked client or media side
A fully integrated service in a cost-effective way.
Our network of sector consultants – in grocery retail, pubs, healthcare, education, restaurants, hotels, workplace and delivery – brings your customers and their customers’ mindset into our thinking.
The William Murray Collective
Over the last two years, we’ve evolved our offer to meet your changing needs.
As well as our team of in-house PR and marketing specialists, we now have a full range of handpicked partners – designers, social and digital media experts as well as foodservice specialists. Everything you need to future proof your marketing and communications.
Together, we make up the William Murray Collective.
The William Murray Collective comprises of Huskii Studio — a creative design studio expert in branding, advertising and marketing across digital and print.
Hospitality Media — video and virtual events experts; social media strategy specialists Social for Good and B2B data and lead generation experts Incite.
Plus, a team of award-winning journalists and copywriters.
Having a host of experts on tap allows our in-house team to focus on our own areas of expertise: strategy and campaign creation; utilising our extensive network and implementing PR & marketing campaigns that deliver results.
Huskii studio works in close partnership with William Murray to develop everything from creative advertising concepts to insight reports. Enhancing every campaign they work on with visually impactful and effective design that really delivers.
Advertising concept development and design
Insight report and infographic design
Branding, discovery and development
UX focused website and app design
Digital advertising and social post design
Brand videos, motion graphics and animation
Combining Social for Good’s and William Murray’s expertise, we can develop powerful social media strategies that resonate with your target audience, content that gets cut through, and reporting that shows the business benefit of your social media.
Social media strategy
Coaching and consultancy
Social media management
Paid social strategy and social media advertising
Together we can bring your brand to life and tell your story through impactful imagery and video — from events to livestreams we have you covered.
Photography – food, people, interiors
Video production – storyboarding, scripting, voice over, subtitles and translation
Aerial video and photography
Motion Graphics – including, 2D, 3D and animation
Videocasts and podcasts
Live broadcasts
When we combine Incite’s data and B2B demand generation expertise with William Murray’s industry leading content, we can transform awareness and engagement into enquiries and qualified sales leads.
Online events – driving sign up & attendance then converting attendees to leads
Qualified leads – phone follow up to content sign up/converting initial interest into leads, within your CRM or separately
Data building – identifying the data you need
CRM – design and implementation, training and roll out
Combining Category Wins’ and William Murray’s expertise, we can develop powerful retail strategies that resonate with retailers, that help you win, defend and grow listings drive brand awareness and sales of your products with retail chains using our expertise in category management and shopper insights.
New Business
Category management
National account sales expertise
Market leading strategy and insight
Retailer contact strategy and listings presentations
Omnichannel retail marketing plans
Working with specialists allows us to remain competitive and offer the best of the best to amplify and enhance campaigns. Reacting quickly to new trends and offering bespoke solutions across design, social and digital media as well as virtual events, lead generation and impactful videos.
Leadership
Clear thinking.
Unrivalled knowledge.
Pragmatic approach.
For 30 years, Anita has been helping firms be even more successful by getting them to think and act differently to get great results. She’s worked with organisations across retail and hospitality including Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA), Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Pure South (New Zealand Lamb), Kraft Heinz, Kiddylicious, Unilever, Bidfood, Arla and BRITA.
Anita is one of the Top 150 Women in Food, Drink & Hospitality, an Inspiration Award for Women winner, a member of the Food Innovation Network, a judge for PR and food industry awards and facilitator for food industry events/webinars.
Her clear thinking, unrivalled knowledge of the food & drink industry, and pragmatic approach ensures each brand has a tailored, commercial solution that sets them on the path to success.
Foodservice strategy.
Creative thinking.
Commercial results.
Fiona is an ex-journalist with 18 years’ experience in food & drink. She kicked off her career as a regional journalist before joining William Reed and the world of food and drink publishing.
Over the last 15 years she’s created award-winning campaigns for some of the industry’s biggest names – both on the operator and brand side. She’s worked with Unilever Food Solutions, McVitie’s, Nestlé Professional and Kraft Heinz.
Fiona’s mix of strategic thinking and creativity help generate powerful PR campaigns that deliver commercial results for clients. She understands the complexity of the market and how to land messages with chefs, buyers and sector media. Her finger is always on the pulse when it comes to media, trends and insights which all bring an edge to campaigns.
She sits on the fundraising and marketing committees of Springboard, and the board of the Brighton & Hove Food partnership.
Sharp planning.
Robust information.
Transparent reporting.
Chris is a Chartered Accountant with 30 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and senior director.
He trained in Corporate Finance with PwC, progressing to roles such as CEO of AIM listed Ovum plc, Europe’s largest technology research business. Chris is the founder and CEO of Informed Funding, director of food and drink PR & marketing agency William Murray and sits on the advisory boards of Breachlock and Verified Visitors.
He brings a wealth of financial expertise to the table, looking after forecasting, financial planning, budgeting and contract negotiation to make sure you get the best deals and are primed for profit.
Strategic seller.
Passionately persuasive.
Expert business coach.
A chartered coach and business consultant, John has 40 years’ experience in senior sales, marketing and consulting roles.
He is currently the managing director of change management consulting business JM Consulting and sits on the board of William Murray playing a vital role in team coaching and steering the strategy of the business.
Previous roles include executive director at Ernst & Young, UK managing director of biotech company Sanofi Genzyme, and chair of Autointel.
Legal advice.
Analytical thinking.
Sharp negotiation.
Jim’s three decades in law bring more than just legal advice to the table. He’s an analytical thinker and sharp negotiator with a strong sense of humour and sharp sense of justice.
He’s a highly experienced courtroom lawyer heading a large litigation law firm. When he’s not in the court room, Jim is training young advocates how to build successful, convincing, civil and criminal court cases on behalf of clients.
Jim sits on the board of William Murray offering advice and strategic council.
Retail team
Retail entrepreneur.
Straight-forward advice.
Full-service marketing.
With more than 15 years’ experience working in retail and hospitality – both as a full-service marketing professional and as an entrepreneur/owner operator – Rebecca has a unique set of skills to identify the right steps a brand should take to succeed.
In 2008 she launched Yog, the UK’s first frozen yogurt. As co-founder she grew the business to a £3M turnover, with a 12-store yogurt chain and retail range in Wholefoods, Waitrose, Ocado and Tesco in the UK, El Corte Ingles in Spain and Lulu and Spinneys in the Middle East.
Brands that she has worked with include AMT Coffee, PizzaExpress, Smashburger, Chosen Bun, The Street Food Company, Poncho8 and Crepeaffaire.
Rebecca has created and launched brands, managed store openings and product launches and hosted a range of media events as well as business planning, marketing strategy and marketing communications planning. She has excellent contacts in retail and OOH media and is our go-to when it comes to shopper marketing.
Contact strategy.
Category manager.
Data guru.
David has over 25 years’ experience working in senior category and strategic management roles. He’s our data guru and uses category and consumer insights to help brands enter retail – and grow sales once they’re there.
He’s worked with every major retail group in the UK and has a black book full of buyer contacts both here and in Europe.
Category expertise includes: speciality milks, cheese, dairy products, breakfast cereals, savoury biscuits, wine, juice & smoothies and chilled meals.
David has established relationships with all the major data companies. He is an expert in category systems from the likes of Nielsen, IRI and Kantar to retailer systems such as the Dunnhumby Shop and Nectar 360.
Retailer relationships.
Sharp negotiation.
Sales expertise.
Sales specialist Alexis has over 25 years’ experience working in senior commercial and national account management roles. He thrives on helping brands grow their sales through retail.
Alexis has worked across grocery, convenience, wholesale and online. He’s an expert in business development, account management, negotiating, forecasting and relationship building. Combine this with his category knowledge, and you’ve got a killer combo that has helped brands like Nestlé, Mr Kipling and Ryvita.
Over the years he has gained listings for a number of small to medium sized brands with major retailers and been instrumental in growing them once they’re listed.