We help in-house marketers and leadership teams in growing businesses make clearer marketing decisions, strengthen their brands, improve their websites and deliver focused digital marketing.
Our role is not to add more activity for the sake of it.
We help you work out what matters, build a clear case for it and turn the agreed direction into practical work that supports the wider business.
Need a clearer direction for your marketing?
Talk to Big Bear.
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If you are responsible for marketing in a growing business, you will probably know the feeling.
There is always something that could be improved. There is pressure to keep things moving forward. Ideas and expectations are coming from different parts of the business.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, you are the person expected to decide what happens next.
The problem is that the right decision is rarely obvious.
There are plenty of possible tactics, different opinions about what matters most and rarely enough time to step back and think properly.
And even when you have a direction in mind, there is another challenge: getting everyone else to agree with it.
That is usually where things get stuck.
Big Bear exists to help you make better marketing decisions.
That does not mean adding more activity for the sake of it or jumping straight into a list of tactics.
It means helping you reach decisions you can stand behind, explain clearly and get signed off without every proposal turning into a long internal debate.We often come in when something does not quite feel right.
Marketing is busy, but it is not as effective as it should be.
Different activities are happening, but they are not necessarily pulling in the same direction. Or everyone agrees that marketing needs to improve, but there is no clear agreement about what “better” actually looks like.
Our role is to help you step back, make sense of it and work out what deserves your attention.
That can mean challenging what is already in place, simplifying something that has become overcomplicated or giving you the evidence and confidence to move forward with the direction you already have in mind.
Because more often than not, the hardest part of marketing is not doing the work.
It is deciding which work is worth doing in the first place.
We do not stop at the thinking.
Once the direction is clear, we can help turn it into something tangible through marketing strategy, branding, Webflow websites and digital marketing.
The exact mix of work varies from business to business.The principle does not.
Everything starts with understanding what the business is trying to achieve, what marketing needs to contribute and why a particular approach is worth investing in.
That keeps the strategy and the delivery connected.
Explore our services
Big Bear Creative is led by Dave and Emma Sheppard.We started the business in 2016 with a simple belief: marketing should feel useful.
Not overwhelming. Not unnecessarily complicated. And definitely not something that creates more confusion than clarity.
Over the last 10 years, we have worked with a wide range of businesses, often alongside in-house marketers balancing commercial expectations, budgets and internal opinions while still trying to move marketing forward.
Between us, we bring strategic thinking, creative direction and practical delivery.
But just as importantly, we bring a way of working that helps our clients feel clearer, more confident and better supported when they have important marketing decisions to make.
Emma is Big Bear Creative’s co-founder and Brand Director.
She has extensive experience in brand strategy, visual identity and creative design, including work connected with brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Co-op.
Since founding Big Bear in 2016, Emma has helped businesses develop clearer positioning and distinctive visual identities that support their wider commercial goals.
She has also completed Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA in Marketing.
Dave is Big Bear Creative’s co-founder and Digital Marketing Director.
He has worked both agency-side and in-house, with experience involving businesses including BGL Group, BoilerJuice, Beagle Street and Compare the Market.
He specialises in digital marketing strategy, SEO, websites and paid media.
Dave is the author of SEO Freedom, a speaker at marketing and SEO events, and a recipient of four SAM Business awards.
Izabela "Izzy" is a Digital Marketing Strategist at Big Bear Creative, specialising in hospitality marketing, paid advertising, content and campaign strategy.
She helps clients turn marketing data into clear, practical decisions, with a strong focus on commercial performance rather than surface-level metrics. Her work includes Google Ads, content planning, conversion improvement and strategies that help hotels generate more profitable direct bookings.
Izzy also creates and shares practical insights on hospitality marketing, covering subjects such as booking journeys, customer behaviour, campaign profitability and the changing role of search and AI.
Her thoughtful, evidence-led approach helps clients understand what is working, where opportunities are being missed and what should happen next.
We are not here to throw ideas at you or push you towards more activity.
We are here to help you make the right call and follow it through properly.
That means being honest about what we think, including when the answer is not the easiest one.
It means asking questions that get to the cause of a problem rather than immediately treating the symptoms.
And it means keeping the conversation grounded in what the business actually needs, rather than what happens to be fashionable in marketing at the time.
We also know that making the decision is only part of the job.
Often, you then need to explain the thinking to a board, director or wider leadership team.
We help you build a clear and logical case around the recommendation, so everyone understands what you are proposing, why it matters and what the business should expect from the investment.
Working with us should feel straightforward.
You understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.
You are not constantly second-guessing the plan or wondering whether you have missed something important.
You have someone experienced to sense-check your thinking with, someone prepared to challenge it where needed and a team that can turn the agreed direction into practical marketing work.
Just as importantly, you avoid wasting time and budget on things that are unlikely to make enough difference.
There may be:
If that sounds familiar, that is exactly where Big Bear can help.
Big Bear Creative
Allia Future Business Centre
King’s Hedges Road
Cambridge
CB4 2HY
Call: 01223 776090
Email: hello@bigbearcreative.co.uk
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