April Fowden

Account Director

April has built her career working on fast moving retail accounts but is just as comfortable turning her hand to brand experience and brand development projects. Her dedication and commitment to her work is shown through the fantastic client relationships she has built and the memorable campaigns she consistently delivers for clients as diverse as Nisa and Every Can Counts.

Most memorable brand experience

“The famous Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ ad was a game changer – it really broke the mould. Taking a traditional and conservative brand and giving it a contemporary twist that everyone was talking about overnight. That’s when I decided I wanted to work in marketing”

Bethany Bevis

Senior Account Executive

Since 2015, Beth has worked for some of the UK’s most exciting and ground-breaking hospitality groups, delivering impactful and innovative sales and marketing strategies at a group-head level to support rapid growth, expansion, and record-breaking openings. She brings a bank of expertise in managing complex and multi-layered projects, a thorough understanding of the commercial impact, and the experience to deliver under high-pressure and in challenging environments for real businesses.

Most memorable brand experience 

Burger King is nailing it for me in recent years, from their ‘Whopper of a Secret’ and ‘Never Trust a Clown’ stunts to their genius Twitter reactions. They have captured attention by staying on top of the trends with an out-of-the-box, controversial and fearless approach – speaking their mind, acting fast, poking fun, and letting their customers in on the joke. It’s a masterclass in deploying an unconventional and innovative approach to obtain maximum exposure in 2021.

Dev Gahir

Head Of Digital

Having built a wealth of digital experience within a number of integrated agencies since 2014, Dev brings a real depth of knowledge in both creating and managing highly complex multichannel digital strategies across a multitude of industries. His engagement with stakeholders at all levels means he can design the best digital approach for clients with a real understanding of commercial impact whilst also leveraging a deep knowledge of digital initiatives to help deliver impactful customer experiences in a digital world.

Most memorable brand experience

“I remember seeing the Honda ‘Cog’ advert in 2003 when I was deciding what to do with the important last few years of my education and, in that exact moment, thinking that some very smart and creative people thought that up from nothing… I immediately knew I wanted to be one of them!. ”

Duncan Liddle

Business Development Manager

The piece of brand comms that has always resonated most with me is the Reebok “Belly’s gonna get ya’ campaign from the early 00s. I always like an underdog and this struck a chord with me – it got right to the heart of the issue and showed a completely different personality to the slick Nike and Adidas brands.

Emily Wharton

Senior Digital Account Executive

Emily graduated from the University of Leeds with a first-class honours degree in Communication and Media. Emily has a broad range of experience in creating digital content for a variety of audiences and markets and brings these skills to her role at Banana Kick. She has successfully completed the Google Digital Garage: Fundamentals of Digital Marketing and Google Display Ads certifications. 

Most memorable brand experience

One of the most memorable campaigns for me is the Dogs Trust: ‘A Dog is For Life, Not Just for Christmas’ message. The iconic slogan (created in 1978!) is just as recognisable and meaningful today. Just like all good marketing campaigns, it is instantly recognisable and can be adapted every year.

Felicity Clark

Creative Manager

Felicity has been part of the Banana Kick team for a while, but as a freelancer. She has over 7 years experience, ranging from print design, packaging, retouching, POS and more and after winning BK Freelancer of the Year in 2018 we asked to become a permanent part of the team. We’re happy to say she accepted!

Most Memorable Brand Experience

Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ advert campaign. They made Mac’s look like the cutting edge new product with fun additional features that everyone had to have and made PCs look like an outdated, boring product.

Gary Coupland

Head of Studio

With 12 years national and international agency experience behind him, you could say that Gary knows a thing or two about creative artwork. As our Artwork Manager, “Coups” is responsible for the day-to-day production and management of creative artwork for both print and digital projects across all of our clients.

Most memorable brand experience

“Being a huge fan of Adidas and of their famous blue trainer box, my most memorable brand experience was seeing an oversized Adidas Originals shoebox designed as a set of bespoke table and chairs, featuring a standout display and ‘try-on area’ where you could sit down and try on a pair of Gazelle trainers. Obviously I bought (another) pair.”

Gary McCall

Chief Executive

After a successful client side and agency career, Gary founded Banana Kick with Nick and Rich in 2008. With a passion for delivering memorable customer experiences, Gary is committed to producing truly unforgettable campaigns for our clients.

Most memorable brand experience

“During the Gulf War, people stopped flying out of fear of terrorism. British Airways needed to do something to get people in the air again. Their answer – ‘The World’s Biggest Offer’, where all seats on the 23rd April, 1991 were free. 500m people read about the campaign, 200m saw it on TV and 5.7m entered. Within 120 days BA flights were back to pre-war levels – brave, ambitious and successful. A truly memorable brand experience.”

Jamie Ferguson

Client Services Director

Jamie has spent his 22 year career delivering high quality and effective marketing solutions to clients as varied as Nisa, Shell, Morrisons, the NHS, Sky Bet, The Car People and Alliance & Leicester. At Banana Kick he is dedicated to ensuring all our clients receive the highest levels of service and quality every single day.

Most Memorable Brand Experience

“A brand needs to deliver on its promises but so few actually do. So when I first visited The Corner Café in Leeds and they delivered everything they promised and have consistently done so for the 10 years since, you have to be impressed. That’s why this place is an icon in Leeds and one of the most enduring small brands in the city.”

Janice Lewis

Senior Creative Artworker

After building up an impressive range of experience in her native South Africa, Janice joined us in our creative studio, where she has been a key member of our team delivering accurate, impactful and creative artwork for all our clients. She has an unmatched eye for detail and a real creative sensibility, so when you put a piece of artwork into Janice you know it will come out bulletproof.

Most memorable brand experience

“Toyota South Africa’s ‘Buddy’ campaign is my all time favourite brand campaign. Their range of adverts that featured a wise-cracking, smart-talking dog with attitude was not to be forgotten!”

Jody Edwards

Intern Account Executive

Jody is currently studying Events Management at Leeds Beckett University and has joined us as part of a placement year to gain valuable work experience, before returning to uni for her third year studies. Jody discovered her passion for events while assisting the operations team at Royal Ascot and has developed an understanding of marketing for events during her studies, which she is looking forward to putting into practice while here.

Most Memorable Brand Experience:

I’ve grown up participating in sport so when I saw ‘One Day’ by Nike it immediately caught my attention as the message resonated with me. I was impressed by the narrative that Nike showed, using legendary female athletes training in various sports and using their influence to stand up to gender barriers ultimately helping to encourage more young girls and women to play sport.

Laura Barrand

Senior Account Manager

Laura graduated in 2015 with a degree in Creative Advertising, since then, she has built her career in Account Management. Cementing strong relationships and working across a varied mix of international, integrated clients across a range of mediums, from creative conceptual briefs to delivering data lead strategic solutions.

Most memorable brand experience
Anything Ikea! I think all the marketing they do is great – from tongue in cheek reactive social posts, to cleverly thought out TV campaigns. “Safe doesn’t really do it for me, I tend to gravitate towards ideas that have an element of the unknown about them.” – Kemi Anthony, Ikea UK Marketing & Comms Manager.

Oliver Mitchell

Senior Account Manager

From the Grand National Festival to the Tour de Yorkshire, Oli has been involved in delivering some of our biggest experiential projects to date. He isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and get stuck in. A real team player on and off the rugby field, nothing is too much trouble and he always gets the job done – on time, on budget and to a high standard.

Most memorable brand experience

“A standout brand moment for me was seeing the Adidas ‘There will be haters’ advert, as I felt it was something out of the ordinary compared to traditional sportswear advertising. It was edgy, took risks and used something controversial to Adidas’ advantage. Needless to say my current rugby boots are from the brand.”

Phil Curry

Head of Creative Services

Phil has over a decade of experience in creative services, having worked at a number of leading agencies in the north and joining Banana Kick 5 years ago. When he’s not managing our studio workflow, Phil is the brains behind sourcing some of the more memorable items we’ve produced for clients, including 3-D roaming dinosaurs and a giant pink tractor! If Phil can’t source it, then it can’t be sourced. He loves a challenge and always delivers. On time and on budget.

Most memorable brand experience

“As part of a big promotion for McCain, I had the opportunity to visit the factory in Scarborough where I was involved with putting prizes into pizza boxes for competition winners. I even had to wear a hair net!”

Rebecca Blessington

Designer

Rebecca brings oodles of graphic design experience to the team, having turned her hand to many aspects over the past seven years. During her early career, Rebecca designed Point Of Sale for ASDA before broadening her skills to packaging and 3D visualisations, and now specialises in concept design and branding. She has a particular love for Photoshop and is even a dab hand at freehand illustration!

Most memorable brand experience:

“The O2 advert ‘Be more dog’ campaign. Aside from the hilarious decision to CGI a cat’s head onto a dog, it really struck a chord that we should all take a leaf out of a dog’s book and be more happy and enthusiastic about life. I now own a very sassy, laid back Afghan Hound called Pasha and my friends often use the catchphrase ‘Be more Pasha’ whenever we’re giving each other advice after a hard day.”

Richard Flaherty

Managing Director

As an original ‘Day One’ Banana Kicker, Rich has pretty much been there, done it and has the promotional t-shirt. With a passion to drive the agency forward in experiential marketing, you’ll find him coming up with big ideas and hoping someone will help deliver them.

Most memorable brand experience

“As a self confessed sports fanatic, my first trip to Wimbledon will live long in the memory. As a celebration of all things British, SW19 is a very special place – from the strawberries and cream to the Pimms, it’s all about the experience. My experience was crowned with watching not only Federer and Agassi, but also seeing Tim Henman make his final Wimbledon appearance. Unforgettable.”

Tom Elcock

Finance Manager

You could say that our Finance Manager, Tom, is the backbone of our agency. Keeping the finances in check is no simple task, yet Tom manages to make it seem a breeze. A keen park runner in his spare time, Tom is used to the fast pace that agency life has to offer.

Most memorable brand experience

“Cards Against Humanity’s ‘anti’ Black Friday campaign was a memorable moment for me. After taking their entire website down and encouraging users to buy nothing for $5, Cards Against Humanity managed to raise over $70,000 in a day, which they went on to squander on stuff for themselves. Brilliant!”

Will Hartley

Account Executive

Will graduated from Northumbria University with a first-class honours degree in Sport Management. He spent time with Banana Kick whilst on his placement and enjoyed it so much that he has come back to work with the team again. Will loves football, whether that is watching his beloved team Arsenal or playing 11 aside for his local team.

Most memorable brand experience

A campaign that stands out for me is the Budweiser Lionel Messi collaboration. To celebrate Messi breaking the record for the most number of goals at a single club, Budweiser sent a bottle with a number on the label, corresponding to the goal from Messi’s record. A total of 644 bottles were sent out, including 21 bottles to one keeper. It was a great campaign, as not only did it celebrate the GOAT, it also gave us something to talk about which wasn’t pandemic related.