Meet a Chamber member: Grant Jennings

Hi Grant, can you tell us a little about who you are and what you do?

I’m the Managing Director at Creative Blend, which is a digital marketing agency with a charity commitment… More on this in a moment. We work with a range of amazing clients from boutique hotels, all the way through to hospices and HR firms. We specialise in branding, marketing and communication, development and design.

We’re a small team, but we’re focused on the human element of our work. Supporting our clients to understand their market/users/customers before suggesting the best solutions. We believe in creating digital experiences, with a sense of humanity! We make sure we demystify our work and explain things simply.

We are a data-driven agency and we make honest suggestions and decisions with our clients’ best interests at heart.

That’s a large service offering, you must have your fingers in a lot of pies! What are your favourite projects you’ve worked on?

We’ve been very fortunate to work on some amazing projects since we started in 2012. But I think some of my favourites are the ones where we implement a big change for a client, or help launch a new brand!

Projects like CarZam was a great one to be involved with – taking the business from a concept/idea to full brand launch. Creating logos, colour palette, font selection, signage and stationary. When we were finished it looked fantastic!

We also love projects that develop into a long-term relationship. We’ve worked with Kinderly since 2018 and have supported them to grow their presence and begin engaging with a larger audience - we've increased their engagement across social media by up to 282%! 

As with many of these projects we look to create a personality. It seems simple but by understanding the user/customer we can help our clients create better digital experiences and create the right communication strategy for their audience.

You mentioned your mission statement – can you tell us a bit more about that, and why you decided it needed a refresh this year?

Truthfully, we’d become so busy in the last 2/3 years and had neglected to go back and review - a very easy mistake to make when things get busy!

When we finally sat down together (on Zoom) and discussed what the company now stood for, and whom it addressed, it was clear what we felt most impassioned by. Helping clients to build connections with their audiences, supporting them to achieve their goals and ultimately creating better digital experiences!

This review then led us to speak with our own wider community including the Chamber’s very own Amy Lishman. Since our review we feel more true to ourselves and this has now brought about further changes within the team, including a larger training budget, introduction of a well-being budget and growing the team.

We know you’re also currently working with another Chamber member, Off The Fence, as part of your charity commitment. What is the charity commitment and how does it work?

Our charity commitment started in 2012 when I started Creative Blend as a one-man band. Chatting to a friend in the pub one night, I described how after speaking to a few local charities it seemed any money they received whet back into overheads (staff, premises, electricity etc). Which left them trying to fundraise again almost immediately.

At the time the business didn’t have any money, but I did have some time I could donate. With this I began offering a small amount of my time per month to help support the local charity I’d met that year. This ranged from training to building new brands and being part of any new ideas they had.

Today we’ve provided over 1,000 hours of free support to many Sussex charities. Working with charities like Whoopsadaisy (I’m now a trustee here), Grassroots suicide prevention, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Off The Fence, YMCA Downslink to name a few. 

We’ll launch our new Charity Commitment drive at the beginning of next year, where we ask any interested parties to fill in a short questionnaire. This helps us understand where our help can make the biggest impact.

You’re very active in the Chamber – running Bite-sized Learning workshops, coming to networking events, and signing up to the Living Wage Campaign. What’s the most valuable thing for you about being part of the Chamber?

I love being part of the community and meeting new members. 

Since becoming an ambassador for the Chamber, it’s been great to meet all of the new members, and share ideas with the team.

You mentioned you’re a trustee of Whoopsadaisy - how did you get involved with Whoopsadaisy?

I always joke that after being part of the Charity Commitment in 2017, the Whoopsadaisy team didn’t want to let that support go! Either way, I was very flattered when I was asked in 2018 because I had used so much of the equipment at Whoopsadaisy as a young child myself (to learn to walk again). I couldn’t say no!

For those who don’t know, Whoopsadaisy is a small charity based in Preston Park who provide care and support to families whose children have movement disorders such as cerebral palsy. The charity provides this care and support using Conductive Education, which helps babies and children to walk, learn and ultimately have fun!

And finally, do you have a fun or interesting fact about yourself?

I’m not sure if this comes under either category, but I once appeared on the television show Children’s Hospital whilst being a patient at Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital.

Also I swam with sharks in Florida…no not in a cage. When I saw the fins originally I thought it was a pod of dolphins, however my dad wasn’t so sure and after rushing out we later saw a shark attack just off the coast. Gulp! 

Grant Jennings is Director of digital marketing agency Creative Blend. Find out more about Creative Blend, their previous projects and more on their website. 

And, stay up-to-date with who's in the Chamber, and what's going on in our city, by signing up to our mailing list. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk