About us
Founded by former colleagues Chris Thornhill and Jen Bayford, Growth Animals was created out of our desire to share the secrets gained from our decades of experience developing marketing strategies at some of the world’s leading brands including Carlsberg, The Body Shop and the Goodwood Estate.
Perfect for ambitious SMEs who want to grow, but aren’t yet in a position to commit to the permanent overhead, Chris and Jen offer affordable, part-time, highly-experienced senior-level strategic marketing expertise and leadership. Plus, the option of our delivery team and our network of trusted partners for a full spectrum of marketing services, flexible dependent on your needs.
Despite being different ‘animals’ with individual strengths and skills, what we all have in common is our tenacity for business growth and our passion for ethical marketing!
Meet the team
Introducing the Growth Animals. Find out a bit more about us and what we each bring to the table.
CHRIS THORNHILL
Co-founder & CEO
Chris is a fantastic leader and has brilliant business acumen, having spent his career working for some hugely exciting, energetic and entrepreneurial organisations both in the UK and globally. He’s led teams that have launched, promoted and grown brands across multiple sectors and markets.
Like Barack Obama, Chris’ Myers-Briggs animal profile is a falcon, and we are inclined to agree this personality-type suits him. He is indeed a great communicator, a logical thinker and problem solver, someone who pushes boundaries and takes calculated risks to fantastic effect.
JEN BAYFORD
Co-founder & Marketing Director
Highly-experienced marketing and brand strategist Jen is a dolphin personality profile. Jen is friendly, cheerful and energetic and . Jen loves people, so she’s an extremely relational member of the gang. She can always be relied upon to provide an upbeat atmosphere and create an environment whereby others think they can achieve anything.
During Jen’s career of experience launching and growing brands of differing sizes and maturity, Jen has shown herself to be an imaginative and inventive problem solver, who is focussed on getting the job done.
JAMES NUNN
Digital & Delivery Marketing Manager
James is our resident Digital Marketing Specialist. He’s responsible for our clients’ digital presence and is the go-to for developing digital strategy in line with a client’s marketing objectives. He’s an ace at project managing website builds and developing online search strategy, and integrating requirements like CRM/Email marketing and paid marketing across multiple channels.
James, who has worked in a similar roles for financial and corporate organisations, brings the all-important digital knowledge and expertise our clients rely upon. A seahorse animal profile, he works best when inspiring the rest of the team and clients. He is a perfectionist, easy-going and calm and enjoys the ever-changing, complex world of digital marketing.
MIA RICHARDS
Digital Marketing Executive
Currently studying for her Digital Marketing degree at Chichester University, Mia is with us for a fixed period to experience agency life, and put her marketing knowledge to use in practice. Mia hit the ground running and is a valuable member of the Growth Animals team.
Mia is a fantastic self-starter, getting stuck into all areas of marketing and supporting the team to deliver great work for our clients. Just like Mia’s polar bear animal profile, Mia is strong and determined, and very dependable.
Our company values
Throughout our time together, we have become increasingly focused on the ‘why’ behind the brands we work on, and that’s why you’ll see our personal values shining through in everything we do:
We are a tenacious bunch, determined to help you achieve your goals but also support you to make a difference for your customers and create a wider positive impact with your business.
We believe life is too short to take oneself too seriously, and as creative people, not only will we help you grow, you’ll be having a bit of fun along the way.
We know that some marketing approaches aren’t always ethical, which is why we hold ourselves and our clients to account, question the status quo and ensure the most ethical practices are used.
Don't just take our word for it...
Don’t just take our word for it…
Growth Animals are a fast working, bright, innovative team that really understand what it means to act as supportive partners to your business.
We absolutely love the brand that Growth Animals created for us. We were blown away by their insightfulness and creativity and enjoyed every minute of working with them.
Jen and Chris played instrumental roles in the strategic expansion of the Goodwood Road Racing Club.
Growth Animals really helped our marketing team develop plans to grow awareness of the charity’s services and successfully increase our charitable donations.
Thank you for your support! I feel we’ve moved forwards in our thinking and approach with the help of you folks.
I would recommend the team at Growth Animals to any business looking for expert advice on how to grow.
The team at Growth Animals are extremely knowledgeable – they certainly know their stuff! If your business needs any help with marketing, you need not to look any further.
Every moment with Growth Animals was incredibly helpful, insightful and full of good advice.