So why the deck chair image? Partly because we like it, partly because it makes us feel relaxed and partly because we hope it will help you feel relaxed too. A bit like how we hope you will feel when you work with us. We could even pretend it’s the view from our office window but we would not be telling the truth! Maybe it’s aspirational - a vision of where we hope to be when the weather is cold and it’s raining outside!
Who are WadeGair? We are Emma and Chris Gair and we started our company in 2007 just in time to watch things get really interesting across the economy throughout 2008 and into 2009.
Between us we have over 20 years experience of working in digital media with knowledge that covers a broad mix: from software development for web applications and websites; to large-scale branding and business analysis; to content management and copywriting.
Chris Gair - Technical Director & Digital Consultant
Chris is the technical guru of the company. He is the one who works his magic and provides our clients with digital solutions that really do work and really do what they want - on time and on budget.
His expertise and technical ability have come from over 13 years of working in web technology across a number of industries and organisations providing both business- and marketing-specific digital solutions. His roles have included building the highly successful property website for Foxtons Estate Agents, which at the time was arguably the world’s most advanced property site by introducing ground-breaking technology such as floorplans, virtual tours and pdf brochures.
Chris went on to build a web-based project tracking and reporting system for the UNFPA - a system that was rolled out in SE Asia across seven different countries where it is monitoring 30+ projects with a reporting structure that reaches as far as Brussels and New York.
www.unfpa.org
www.asia-initiative.org/ptrs
Chris has also worked as Operations and Technical Director for BPM Media where he developed the company website and various business products, including a hugely successful property podcasting service.
Emma Gair - Digital Consultant & Managing Director
Over the last 10 years Emma has built up a wealth of experience in project management, digital consultancy and client services. She was worked across a range of digital and marketing projects and with a cross-section of clients - from policy leaders at the Home Office to international organisations to smaller niche companies such as architects and technology firms.
The key to the work she delivers for her clients lies in understanding their businesses, products and services - as well as their marketplace and individual challenges and needs.
Her early career was spent in television and the music industry before moving into an online environment when she worked as a content manager for Foxtons Estate Agents in 2000. Her next move took her into a B2B digital services company which subsequently became JWT Specialized Communications (now JWT Inside) where she worked on both public and private sector accounts. Her main clients included the Home Office, DfES (now Department for Children, Schools and Families) and the Metropolitan Police Service.
Working with the Metropolitan Police:
Emma says: “This was one of the most enjoyable and challenging projects I have ever worked on and I was involved with it for a number of years managing the team that was responsible for delivering the digital recruitment strategy for the Met. For such a widely recognised name and brand it was a challenge to present them as a possible employer and we had to break down a number of pre-conceptions and open up another face of this often controversial, but never boring, organisation.
Aside from having to get a very new message out there we also had to communicate with, and relate to, a very diverse audience as we were recruiting across a wide-range of roles from police officer, special constable and police community support officer to support staff, cadets and volunteers. We were also trying to appeal to candidates beyond the usual communities they reach - for example, encouraging women and people from ethnically diverse backgrounds to join up.
The project encompassed the full marketing and communications cycle from first contact via online and offline marketing through relationship building and the full application process to training and induction into the Met. The digital solution also included technical integration with the Met’s internal HR software system and was developed to transfer data into and out of the system which meant overcoming some long-lasting and well-established protocol rules banning such a practice.
We achieved great things with this digital strategy whilst I was working on the project and became a leading recruiter and won a number of top awards - all of which we had been tasked to do.”