Search Seven Leads the Way in People and Purpose

The digital marketing agency announces a new leadership structure to support continued growth.

Sussex-Born agency, Search Seven, has just finished its latest financial year, reporting an incredible 50% growth in revenue, whilst seeing the team grow from four to 14 people over the past 18 months.

Over this time, new senior additions have come into the team to help with the rebuild, with a clear focus on developing a strong leadership team that will enable future growth, but also to make their people culture as strong as its charity culture, where they pledge to fundraise and donate 7% of their profits each year, raising over £80,000 to date.

Kicking off their new financial year in September off the back of a very successful 12 months and following a period of transition to adjust to the new set-up, it felt like the right time to announce the new changes.

MD & Founder, Gavin Willis, will be moving into the CEO role, with Dave Hatton taking the reins of Managing Director. Becky Henderson will be stepping up to Operations Director and Harley Andrews completes the Leadership Team as Head of Digital Marketing.

Gavin Willis, CEO

“It feels great to step up into this role knowing I have the full support of a great leadership team managing the day-to-day. It’s been a while coming but now is the right time to announce the changes, and to start looking ahead with a lot of excitement.

“My role will very much be on relationship building and placing more emphasis on being the main brand ambassador for Search Seven, ensuring our key partners, key clients, charity contacts, and friends in the community are being looked after and supported, whilst continuing to host our own charity and networking events and making a real impact on our communities, both local and beyond.

“With the rest of the Leadership Team  managing the day-to-day operations, supporting our great team to deliver a fantastic service to our clients and maintain a people culture that is now very much matching our strong charity culture already intact, I am incredibly excited about what’s ahead for us.”

Dave Hatton, Managing Director

“I am really looking forward to stepping into the MD role and building upon what we have already put in place over the last 18 months that has returned some great results for the team and the business alike.

“I have loved playing a key role in building and embedding a new culture into the team that is very much about treating one another as adults, being there for each other and making sure we are as caring and supportive as we can be.

“Focusing on company culture, especially as a remote-first agency nowadays, really does lead to a happier and productive workforce, that in itself relates directly to happier clients and can enable a company to scale with a strong people culture at its core.

“Utilising over a decade of Paid Media and Leadership experience, I will continue to support the team on new business whilst overseeing the performance of the agency across all the key functions, including growing our partnership network, and the attraction and retention of great people that can be part of something truly special we are building here.

“The Leadership Team here are simply fantastic, and along with our incredible team members across PPC & SEO, I know we are in great shape going forwards as we aim for new targets together and having a lot of fun along the way.”

Rebecca Henderson, Operations Director

“I know Gav describes me as the lynchpin (ha), but I do love organising! It is important to make sure we are all accountable and that we prioritise our efforts to get the best results possible.

“Heading up Operations in a part-time capacity, there is a lot to do and juggle, however I love the fast-paced nature of agency life and get a real buzz out of making sure we are as efficient and profitable as we can be.

“Working closely with the Leadership Team has been great, everyone brings their own skillset and personality, and my role is to be the integrator, to help facilitate discussions on new ideas and then oversee new processes, from delivery to finances, recruitment and contracts, to ensure we are in great shape as an agency and in a healthy place in terms of our margins and for growth.” 

Harley Andrews, Head of Digital Marketing

“Heading up the client side of the business has seen my responsibilities range from overseeing client delivery and managing the delivery team, to working on new strategies on how we can market ourselves better to win new business.

“My main objective is to support the team to deliver a great service to our clients, aligned to their goals, and I am really excited to see what comes next as we start to ramp up our marketing efforts to showcase our work to new, potential clients too.

“I have been part of the agency for a year now, and I absolutely love the culture here, it really is like a family where we all look out for one another, try and have a real laugh, and make sure we have great relationships with our clients, where they can really sense what we are building here at Search Seven, and I’m incredibly happy to be a part of it.”

#S7100 PLANS

A great example of the tremendous culture at the agency is summed up by Search Seven’s latest charity fundraising campaign called #S7100, whereby the team are setting themselves the challenge of bringing their fundraising total to £100,000 by end of 2023.

Since launching the #S7100 campaign in February 2022, the agency has raised £3,500 from the Rockinghorse Ryder Cup two-day event they hosted in April and have another Golf Day lined up for October 20th at the Dyke Golf Club in Brighton. 

This year has seen the introduction of team charity events to their community event roster, and in August, most of the team met up in London to walk a half-marathon around some of the city’s most famous landmarks and parks, bringing the team together and making a difference to each of their chosen charities as a collective.

In fact, in keeping with the #S7100 campaign theme, the team decided to each aim to walk 100 miles across the month of August, creating their own JustGiving pages to encourage donations, with Search Seven ‘match-funding’ their efforts up to £250.

The combined efforts came to over £4,000 which is incredible, and will make a big difference to some of the charities, which range from local, national, and even international!

The plan is to donate to each charity before Christmas, combining funds raised from both the charity walk and the Golf Day, and at a time when the funds are needed the most.

Search Seven has shown over the last 10 years, that you can place purpose over profit and still be commercially successful, generating year-on-year revenue growth and maintaining healthy margins to enable growth and re-investment.

With the new Leadership Team in place, a passionate and caring team, a fantastic charity commitment, and loyal clients and partners, the agency is looking forward to what’s ahead, with a clear focus on making sure their charity and people culture remain at the core of what they stand for. 

For more information on the #S7100 campaign, you can visit https://www.searchseven.co.uk/s7100/ 

If you are an established brand, and in need of some support on your SEO and/or Paid Media activity (or even a FREE Health Check), then please do not hesitate to contact Search Seven via info@searchseven.co.uk to discuss your requirements.