Welcome aboard Liam Hayward

Liam Hayward recently joined the crew as digital marketing executive, drawing on his marketing degree, agency experience and nomadic wisdom. Here, Liam shares the story of how he came onboard and what he hopes to achieve at The Bigger Boat.

I grew up on a former farm in Lancashire with my four brothers, spending my days adventuring in the surrounding fields. In the early 2000s my family moved to Spain to escape the melancholy English weather. Looking back, it’s easy to see where I developed my wanderlust and nomadic aspirations.

After returning to the UK for my GCSE exams, I remained here to attend college and started working at a hotel part time during my studies. Once I’d finished college, I continued working in the hotel and soon found myself managing my own department. In 2013, I decided that my time in hospitality had run its course and I wanted to use the skills I’d learned to broaden my horizons.

I started studying marketing at Huddersfield university, and for my third year placement I was offered the incredible opportunity to work for an agency in Singapore. During my 12 month internship, I worked on projects for household name brands such as HP Inc, Google and Logitech. I was also able to experience the stunning variety of the country while supporting VIP events and exhibitions, as well as exploring Southeast Asia (and learning to scuba dive) in my time off. After completing my placement and graduating from university, I worked client-side for NHS Confederation promoting their annual healthcare exhibition, and Premdor as they rebranded to Masonite UK.

The travel bug bit again in 2019, and I found myself heading to Australia to live out my (belated) gap-year fantasy. Whilst hostel life had its charms, my sleeping pattern, liver and wallet suffered trying to keep up with the backpacker lifestyle. I soon settled near Sydney and worked for an agency servicing clients including Nestlé, Kraft, Heinz and Asahi Breweries. 

I returned to the UK in early 2020, right as the UK entered its first lockdown. I worked for Amazon for a spell until I finally saw my opportunity to return to normality when I stumbled across an opening at The Bigger Boat for a digital marketing executive. I was feeling a little rusty from my time out of the office and felt I needed a fresh start in an area of marketing I’d previously only dipped my toes into. I applied with a cover letter bursting with boating puns, and the rest is history (in the making).

So far at TBB, I’ve been getting reacquainted with agency life while wrapping my head around all the new stuff. I’ve already jumped in at the deep end optimising websites for search engine visibility and creating new paid ads to appear on Google. I’m looking forward to developing an understanding of the more in-depth aspects of PPC and SEO, and getting to know my crewmates.

My spare time is spent reading books, trying to keep my 20+ houseplants alive, and trying to cook something slightly more adventurous than pizza every night!