Clwb Marketing, a free networking community for marketing professionals, has reached more than 100 members, just six months since it was founded.
The community was the brainchild of Lauren Hill and Kirsty Bird, who work within the marketing team at Caerphilly-based Thomas Carroll Group. They realised that post-pandemic, many marketeers had been left with depleted teams and were feeling isolated by working from home. Many were also facing similar challenges at work, such as reduced budgets, tight deadlines, being spread too thin and a lack of understanding about marketing’s role within a business.
After doing some research over the preceding years, Lauren and Kirsty found that there were no communities in Wales that catered purely for the marketing sector and that people working in the sector all had similar challenges and issues but had no outlet to discuss matters and share best practice. That’s when the idea of Clwb Marketing was born.
Lauren explains: “We have been really pleased with the response to Clwb. When the pandemic hit, many businesses reduced their marketing budgets and hence their departments, and so many people were feeling isolated in their roles.
“We wanted to find a way in which we could share best practice, contacts, experiences and offer empathy, help and advice to fellow marketeers who may not have anyone else to discuss work matters with – and came up with the idea of Clwb Marketing.”
Co-founder Kirsty, who felt particularly out of the industry after returning to work following maternity leave, added: “We started talking about what we wanted Clwb to achieve, we started the WhatsApp community group and then held our first face to face event in July. At the time around 20 people attended – which we were over the moon with – but on our latest webinar we had around 40 people log on, which is amazing.
“We’re so happy to hear that our members are finding value in being part of the community. Feedback so far has been really positive, with people saying that they love having access to support from their peers and being able to ask questions and get help almost instantly. It’s even led to business referrals and job opportunities for some!”
As the news about Clwb Marketing gathered pace, it also secured a sponsor in advertising agency Hello Starling, which is now supporting the community with funding for its events and promotion.
Kirsty said: “Having Hello Starling on board has been amazing for Clwb, as it has allowed us to secure and arrange even more great speakers for upcoming events and webinars and extend our reach. We have lots of exciting things planned for our current and future members.”
Clwb Marketing holds quarterly in-person events and bi-monthly webinars, where members can learn from and get inspired by marketing experts, and catch-up with like-minded marketers. Outside of the meetups, members can ask questions, request support and share ideas via the community WhatsApp group.
Recent exclusive events include a marketing clinic webinar with Jade Tambini, founder of B2B Breakthrough Academy, where members were given help and advice on planning marketing campaigns, trying to make the most of budgets, and gearing up for 2025.
There are also plans for a talk from a very successful Welsh entrepreneur on running online shops, including TikTok shop and Shopify – with a date to be organised – and many more events in the pipeline.
Lauren added: “We can’t believe how popular it’s been and how much sharing ideas and expertise has already helped so many in our industry and this is only the start. Kirsty and I have been invited to discuss Clwb on podcasts and also deliver marketing talks ourselves, which has been a lovely bonus.
“We are looking forward to welcoming new members, organising more events from the best in the business and creating a really supportive and integrated community.”
