Employee Spotlight – Josh Illingworth

What is your position and how long have you worked at FOD Mobility Group?

I’m the Digital Marketing Manager at FOD Mobility Group and I’ve worked here since June 2015, going on seven years now! Fresh out of a foundation degree, I started as an apprentice through FOD’s brilliant apprenticeship scheme and worked my way up from Marketing Apprentice, to Assistant, to Executive and now Digital Marketing Manager.

What does your job role entail?

As Digital Marketing Manager, my job is to oversee the digital marketing strategy for the business. This involves planning, implementing, optimising and tracking the results of all our digital marketing activities and providing support to the Marketing Director and all other departments within the business.

This includes a lot of content creation and campaign building to assist the sales team in generating leads for new business opportunities. This can be through direct marketing campaigns or the maintenance and building of our existing product and service brands.

My background is very content creation heavy, so I am highly skilled in digital design, copywriting, video production, website production and animation. Working at FOD has given me the opportunity to gain a plethora of skills to help me along the way with my progression. I also get involved in mentoring and training other members of the marketing team and providing a consultative view on everything the team produces to ensure we are creating the best content we can as a business.

What projects are you currently working on?

Projects I am currently working on in Q2 2022 include working with the HR team on recruitment marketing campaigns, including this great new series of employee spotlight blogs. I’ve also been supporting the new business development team, creating tender and bid response content for a number of large opportunities. I’m currently designing a new website for our client HITRANS to promote their Go-Hi rural MaaS app (powered by FOD’s Mobilleo platform).

My favourite creative projects to work on are the big meaty ones like websites and recruitment campaigns with multiple requirements. These provide something I can really get my teeth into and constantly be working on. The weeks fly by when I’m working on a big project!

What are your goals within the next 12 months?

My goal within the next year would be to really knuckle down on marketing campaign production and measurement to further my skillset as a Digital Marketing Manager. I love to see a direct impact of my work, whether it be generating new business for FOD or compliments from colleagues, customers and suppliers on the ‘agency standard’ marketing we produce in-house!

What do you find most rewarding about your role?

The thing I find most rewarding about my role is seeing solid results from something that I created or had involvement in producing. This could be FOD winning a bid for a new large business opportunity or just simply positive comments on the campaigns we put out. I think it’s also rewarding and important when senior members of the business recognise your hard work and give compliments where due. It’s nice to know you are appreciated and your hard work is really making a difference.

What do you enjoy most about working at FOD Mobility Group?

For me, working for FOD is all about the culture, environment and the support I’ve been given over the past seven years. Not knowing what to expect from the get-go, I was welcomed into the business with friendly faces and a relaxed, open and positive atmosphere. There’s a certain level of trust there and it especially helps in a creative position like my role.

The HR team have been excellent with continuous support and you are very well looked after. They had a huge challenge on their hands with the pandemic. They handled the situation really well and the business has adapted to the flexible working model with ease. I think the culture that was built in the years prior to Covid had a lot to do with that success.

What advice would you give to someone looking to join the business?

For someone looking to join FOD my advice would be to bring an honest, open and friendly attitude. Always do your best and be yourself. One thing I love about our workforce is the diverse set of personalities we have here!

What motivates you in your career?

My key motivation is to bring a fresh, up to date perspective to our marketing activity and see results from that input. I also love seeing my progression and how far I’ve come in the last seven years. I also like how my career interlinks with my personal hobbies. I have an interest in marketing theory and the psychology behind it. I have been able to transfer skills I have learnt in the workplace, to my personal projects outside of work.

What is the best career lesson you’ve learned to date?

That would be to value your own professional opinion but also be open to constantly learning more. In the creative process, there are many directions you can take a project. If you are part of a team it is especially important to explain and give reasoning behind your thinking, and to work with others to reach the best possible outcome.

What things do you enjoy outside of work?

Outside of work I am heavily involved in music events and DJing. Having started the hobby when I was about 14, I’ve since created my own music event platform called Wave. We run events in the local area, both in nightclubs and outdoors in the summer. My skills in marketing have transferred over amazingly and it has allowed me to develop the Wave brand to where it is today.

Other than my music I’m an avid gamer. I spend a lot of time socialising with my friends, going to festivals in the summer (the highlight being Boomtown Fair) and I’m partial to a drink or 10 during my downtime!

What three words best describe you as a person?

Ooh this is a tricky one! I’d say creative, practical and determined.

What did you want to be when you grew up and why?

When I was younger, I never really knew what I wanted to do specifically. I knew I wanted to do something I enjoyed and that made me happy (with enough money to be comfortable). I got a job at McDonalds when I was 16 and that job, although it paid me enough to enjoy my later teen years, made me even more determined to find something I didn’t dread having to do. I can confidently say I am really enjoying the career path I chose and definitely made the right choice.

Who would you most like to meet and why?

I think the person who I’d most like to meet, who is sadly not with us anymore, would be film director, Stanley Kubrick. He was a creative visionary when it came to filmmaking, even to the extent of having an unfortunate disregard for others sometimes.

I would have loved to know how he ticked, which is shrouded in mystery to this day. The Shining is my all-time favourite film, not just because it’s the best horror film out there but because of the way he adapted the original Stephen King text. The whole set design of the film with everything you see being there for a reason, and the way he got the best performances out of the actors, despite his approach being considered quite controversial at times.

Where is your favourite holiday destination?

My favourite holiday destination to date was probably Egypt. I went there in 2007 and it was a baking hot, beautiful beach resort. I’ve been interested in the culture and history of Egypt ever since I saw The Mummy films as a child.

The standout moment for me was a trip to a walkway out to sea that was half a mile long, and jumping off the edge of it where the surface of the seabed dropped down like the edge of a cliff onto the most amazing, untouched coral reef. It was like a scene from Finding Nemo. I saw different types of exotic fish swimming through the multicoloured coral. It was a beauty!

What are your top three albums of all time?

Wow, this is a very difficult question for me, but I would have to go with albums that shaped my musical taste. The first one would be ‘Hold Your Colour’ by Pendulum, this was the album that fueled my love for Drum & Bass really. This opened me up to the whole genre which is key for me today.

The next one would have to be ‘The Fat of the Land’ by The Prodigy. I’ve always been heavily into electronic music, but this album is probably one of the earliest I listened to. A child of the 90s, several hits from this album influenced the genre from its 1997 release. Too many stand out tracks from this album that are engrained into popular culture even to this day are ‘Breathe’, ‘Firestarter’, ‘Smack My B*tch Up’ and my personal favourite ‘Mindfields’. Phenomenal. RIP Keith Flint x.

The last album was a split decision between ‘Homework’ by Daft Punk or ‘Dark Side of The Moon’ By Pink Floyd. Both are outstanding and influential albums but I’m going to have to go with the latter as I don’t listen to electronic music 24/7. This record is such a journey from start to finish. I can put it on for its 42-minute run time and get lost in my own head. It’s almost like therapy and sounds so fresh even to this day. Pink Floyd were really masters of their craft and this is one album everyone should listen to at least once in their life.