KBS Alum: ‘At Gorillas our Marketing Activity Needs to be Exciting’

A typical day in the life of KBS Alum George Edgar, UK Brand Manager for Gorillas

George Edgar studied BSc Marketing, Management and Finance at Kent Business School and now works as UK Brand Manager for delivery supermarket business Gorillas. 

Gorillas launched in Germany and is an on-demand supermarket delivery company that promises to deliver within minutes of ordering through their app. The business has experienced hyper growth over the past 2 years and is the fastest growing unicorn in Europe. Gorillas has raised over $1.2BN in 2 years and served many millions of customers across 9 markets. 

Here, as part of our regular Working Day alumni feature George talks us through a typical 24 hours working for a fast-growing digital business… 

“I get up at 6.30am and cycle or get the train straight to the gym in Shoreditch. Doing cardio and weights gets my brain focused, plus health and fitness is important to me. After a shower, I head to my office in Shoreditch, a vibrant and lively part of East London and a great place to work. 

The first important job is to check daily performance figures.  As an app, we are able to crunch down data into locations and personal attributes of users. East London and Brixton are current locational hotspots, where there are lots of young professionals or graduates. In areas like Maida Vale, we get most business from those with young families, particularly around the school run times or after work.

I manage a small team, so mornings involve checking in with my staff. They might be involved in anything from a content shoot with one of our partners like The Felix Project, (a foodbank we are working with to fight food waste) to coordinating ad-hoc campaigns or putting together presentations on our activity.  As their manager, it’s important that I deal with any concerns and ensure they are prepared and on task.

As a new business, at Gorillas our marketing activity needs to be interesting and exciting. On a daily basis the team and I will brainstorm unique ways to get noticed. 

“We focus a lot on ‘experiential marketing’ ideas that get word of mouth promotion. One idea we ran with was the printing and delivering of paper door hangers with the words ‘Need a little magic? Put this outside your door tonight’ to 5,000 houses in Putney. Anyone who followed the instructions and hung it on their front door got a Gorillas branded goody box!”

I try to take lunch during the day, and I encourage my team to do the same and get away from the desk.  Whitecross food market is close to the offices, so sometimes I will treat myself to some streetfood and a wander round. Most days it’s leftovers from the night before and some fresh air.

Afternoons are often spent in meetings with media agencies creating and finalising creative campaigns for TV, radio and online and also media buyers to plan and build strategy for advertising. Shows such as Love Island or Bake Off are great platforms for us to promote on and a recent advertisement during Bake Off saw our baking related orders increase by hundreds of percent.  

My role is heavily focused on above the line media and ensuring it is on brand and performing well. Our growth function is in Berlin and the research team who do all our brand analytics and reports are there, so most days I will work with them to highlight key media channels that have the strongest performance.

I am not one to work a typical nine to five, often there’s a campaign to launch so I will always stay until the finer details are done. This job is also social and we are lucky to have brand nights on a regular basis where the team get to sample new partners products we sell through the app and have a bit of a party – it’s great team building and a good way to get to know what we are promoting. 

Even though we’re a start-up, our MD sets the standard that we need to switch off and have time to ourselves once we’re done. I love watching sport in the evening and play for a local rugby team once a week, too.  I am lucky that a lot of my friends live close by in London who I often meet up with in the evening to socialise.

Before bed, I listen to podcasts on topics in business and sport, my favourites being How I Built This, Secret Leaders and The High-Performance Podcast.”

Read about Gorillas’ award winning online ad here (you can watch the video above).

Kent Business School Alumni is a globally connected community of 23,000 innovative, entrepreneurial, and ethical students with the foresight to inspire future generations.

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