27 Apr Welcoming Ric Sumner, Head of Marketing, to the Ortho Consulting Group Team
Earlier this month Ric Sumner joined Ortho Consulting Group (OCG) as our new Head of Marketing.
Ric has moved into the role after nine years working in sports marketing, PR and production at an industry-leading content agency partnering with some of the world’s largest brands and major events across the UK and Europe.
With a background in print and digital news media, Ric can draw on his experience in a wide variety of marketing and content roles, including broadcast journalism, video production and post-production, and his most recent position as head of creative studio.
This encompassed leading a multi-disciplinary team of 20 content specialists delivering digital and social content marketing campaigns for clients including the British Olympic Association, Premiership Rugby and London Marathon Events.
We caught up with Ric to chat to him about his experience at the company so far, moving roles during a pandemic and what the rest of 2021 holds for the team.
What attracted you to the role with OCG?
“I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career to have worked with some fantastic companies who embraced new challenges and were focused on diversifying their portfolio of clients and services.
“This has given me the opportunity to constantly refine and enhance my skills as a marketer, and ultimately is what drives me as an individual – to help teams adapt and grow to meet new industry requirements.
“What I love about OCG is they share the same passion for delivering outstanding customer service, adapting our services to ensure we’re providing clients with what they really need.
“Their approach really chimes with my own and I already feel at home.”
How has the pandemic impacted your role?
“Like most businesses we have been forced to pivot to a digital-first content strategy, streamlining our plans and working hard to add value in other areas.
“Working with a smaller group of content pillars forces you to review your output and focus on your core offering, which can be a positive.
“With international travel restricted this included launching a successful webinar series at the start of the year, which I was able to assist with in an advisory capacity.
“The feedback from clients, partners and our audience has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’m looking forward to building on this momentum moving forward.
“With major events and exhibitions looking more realistic as we move into the summer, we’re busy developing new strategies to implement when we’re back on the ground and able to meet clients face-to-face again.”
What are your priorities for the next quarter?
“OCG already has a good, engaged audience across owned channels which means we’re starting from a strong position.
“We’re very fortunate in that we have a talented, creative in-house team and a great client roster so telling the story of the business, celebrating our successes and showcasing our partners through our existing content pipeline is simple to deliver.
“My immediate goal is ensuring our content strategy is aligned with our sales funnel so we’re driving traffic and conversions, delivering an ROI on our marketing investment and reporting that back into the business.
“We want to place our customers at the heart of our content and support them with solutions that make a difference. We have a fantastic research division within the team and I’m hugely excited to tap into their work and how we share that with our audience.”
If there’s one thing you hope to implement, what is it?
“If the last 12 months have taught us anything, it’s that authentic video content that connects with your audience doesn’t need to involve high end production crews on location, expensive cine-cameras with prime lenses or grips rigging lighting gear.
“You can deliver great results using some of the new platforms that have evolved during this period to meet consumer need like riverside.fm and livestorm.co, which I’ve used for successful campaigns previously.
“Sharing insight, leadership and testimonials through branded video is an exciting opportunity for us and I’m looking forward to driving this over the coming months.”
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ric to the team,” said OCG founder Matt Woods. “We are confident Ric’s background in content marketing working with some high profile brands will benefit the business in the years to come.
“Our marketing offer to our clients continues to grow and this appointment will only enhance the services we are able to offer customers.”
Contact Details
Email: ricsumner@orthocg.com
Mob: +44 (0) 7916 120 977
LinkedIn: Ric Sumner