Jemma Robertson: coping with setbacks (pic: Terry Murden / DB Media Services)
Still in her twenties, Jemma Robertson has built a business on the legacy of her late father, writes TERRY MURDEN
Occupying a top floor office in Glasgow’s Charing Cross area, a digital marketing team has been pulled together by a young manager building a business on her late father’s legacy. Jemma Robertson, the daughter of advertising agency founder Guy Robertson, says that following in his footsteps always seemed likely, though fate determined that it became a case of the business needing her.
She was just out of university and little more than a year into joining her father’s reborn and scaled down second coming of the GRA agency when he died from injuries sustained in a fall while walking in a park close to their home.
Robertson senior had been flying high in the late 1980s and 1990s, serving some big accounts, including Highland Spring and Toyota GB. But he was a victim of the 2008 financial crash when the bank called in its loans. The company folded and about 50 staff lost their jobs.
He set up a leaner agency, initially operating on his own with a number of smaller clients. Jemma worked with him during her university holidays.
“From my teens I knew I wanted to work in marketing and I was always interested in brands and how they influenced people’s behaviour,” she says. “It was only when I got more involved with the business that I could see the opportunities, so I joined full-time.”
That was in 2019 and the following year the business was thrown another challenge when the Covid pandemic struck. For GRA, however, it created even bigger openings than Robertson had anticipated.
“Many businesses were forced to put their operations on hold, and they began to take stock of how they would work in the future,” she says. “They spent time working on their marketing strategies and how they might shift online. It brought in lots of business.”
Just as the new agency had begun working on this rush of clients, it was dealt another blow, this time a tragic one. Guy was walking through Dawsholm Park in the north west of the city when he slipped and suffered a fatal injury. He was 59.
“It was a terrible shock, as you can imagine,” says Robertson. Apart from dealing with personal grief she had to think about the agency and her own future.
“I had no thoughts of not continuing. I only had a year of experience but I felt a need to carry on and I was back working within two weeks, or I would also have lost the business.
“I had to think about the clients, the people who had engaged us to do pieces of work. We were between some big projects. People had trusted us and I couldn’t let them down and I knew dad would have wanted me to keep building the business.”
For eight months she worked alone, using freelancers until she reached a point where she needed help. In early 2021 she hired the first of what is now a team of seven staff, including herself – up from four this time last year – working across a range of marketing services from strategy and design to social, advertising and digital.
The business was relocated from 300 sq ft in a nearby office to its current 1200 sq ft of rooms in a corner building in Woodside Place. It has a client roster that includes Coatbridge-based confectionery manufacturer Lees of Scotland, timber specialist Fleming and Glasgow independent school, The High School of Glasgow. It is making a breakthrough with clients in the US.
Over the four years since she took the reins profits have grown 100% and turnover is sitting somewhere between £300,000 and £400,000
Still only 27 years old, she has a long career ahead of her. How does she see the sector changing? “We are seeing a shift back to traditional forms of advertising and marketing, partly because media themselves have become better at targeting their readers and listeners. A 360 degree, or omni-channel approach [a bit of everything] seems to be the preferred way forward at the moment.”
Does she ever ask herself what her father would have done in certain circumstances? “In the early days, yes,” she says. “A voice in my head sometimes reassures me that he would have approved. I think he might also be a little jealous of how far the business has come.”
PERSONAL CHECKLIST
Occupation: Managing director, GRA, a digital marketing agency
Birthplace: Glasgow
Age: 27
Education: Aberdeen University (Business and Marketing)
Career highlights: Joined father Guy in his advertising and marketing business and took full responsibility in mid-2020.
Other interests
I believe in work hard, play hard. I enjoy socialising with friends and exercising.
Do you have periods of doubting yourself?
I have an amazing team and clients and it makes coming work every day a joy.
What frustrates you?
The Budget didn’t help small businesses. Sometimes I feel things pile up against those trying to run a small firm. I also hate inefficieny and people not doing what they say they will do.
Who would you invite to a fantasy dinner party?
Although I’m not a football fan, I think Sir Alex Ferguson is nothing short of a legend. Yes, some of his management techniques may need to be ‘refined’ for today’s society but he knew how to get the best out of people (even if they didn’t know it at the time) and he always made sure his team won – or had the best chance of winning.
Karren Brady – I think she is powerhouse of ideas and I love the fact she was the MD of Birmingham City Football Club at 23.
Steven Bartlett – I’ve been a big fan of Steven for years now and think he is extremely articulate, knowledgeable, strategic and not scared to go against the grain.
Grace Beverley – Grace has two flourishing businesses (one that has generated more than £10m in sales in two years) that she started while still at university.
All three of them took a risk at a young age and achieved what some people don’t in a lifetime, before they were 30.
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