Name: Daniel Coulter
Age: 28
Job title: Brand activation manager
Company & location: Jimmy’s Iced Coffee – Christchurch, Bournemouth
Education: Sport and Exercise Science BSc – Oxford Brookes University
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I played a lot of rugby when I was younger, and naturally wanted to pursue a career in sport, either in strength and conditioning or in teaching. I played for 12 years growing up, and after university, my first full-time job was running the rugby academy in a local school. It was a great job and I loved working outdoors in a sporting environment.
Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? Everything kind of fell into place! I really loved Jimmy’s as a brand being born and bred in Bournemouth.
I was actually in their ‘Keep Your Chin Up’ music video when I was a student, way before I started working for them. I knew a few people who worked for the company already and loved the idea of working with a bunch of like-minded people.
“Watching people pick them up off the shelves while doing your weekly shop is pretty rewarding”
Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I manage everything from sample campaigns to live events for Jimmy’s, basically anything experiential.
Our main goal is to raise brand awareness by getting cans into the hands of the public in a variety of creative and different ways. We want to interrupt people’s days in the best ways possible.
What does a typical day look like for you? Every day is different. One day I will be managing our sample crew, getting them from city to city to get cans in hands and the next I will be heading to an event and building an activation with our brand team.
This year we have had a lot of new product launches, which has taken a lot of our attention, but it’s been really cool to work with different people to get these live, especially with the new Myprotein products. There’s never a dull moment.
Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I started working part-time during festival season in 2018, working on the Jimmy’s festival truck serving up White Russians, cartons of Jimmy’s and having the best time. I then got hired full time as an events co-ordinator and worked my way up from there.
What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? Seeing people in the wild drinking the product that you’ve worked so hard on, will never get old. I can spot a Jimmy’s BottleCan a mile away. Our 380ml BottleCan has recently launched, and watching people pick them up off the shelves while doing your weekly shop is pretty rewarding.
Read more:
-
Cold brew coffee 101: everything you need to know
-
Is Britvic on to a winner in iced coffee with Jimmy’s?
-
Starbucks adds trio of RTD protein drinks with coffee
And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? That all drinks businesses are huge. Our brand team is all in house and is only six people strong. Everyone smashes it and nails their own segment. Over the years, we’ve built a great brand despite being a small team.
What advice would you give to other young people looking to get into the food & drink industry? Start looking at the shelves, find out what brands you like the look of, try their products and start following their journey.
What’s your ultimate career dream? I would love to own my own coffee shop one day down the line. A really good coffee and pastry is my guilty pleasure, hence my love for Jimmy’s. I would love to create a place where people want to spend their time, whether it’s working or downtime.
Interested in finding out more about food & drink careers? Check out GrocerJobs for the latest vacancies
No comments yet