Business name: Play the Field
Based: Alnwick
Website: playthefieldnorthumberland.co.uk
Person nominated: April Bowden, founder
Play the Field is a unique and forward-thinking digital marketing business based in the north-east of England. Last November, Bowden decided to escape city life and set up the Northumberland-based agency. She saw a gap in the market for accommodation providers and restaurants to market themselves on digital platforms with measurable results.
With Bowden’s industry experience and knowledge of the market, Play the Field aims to help and assist businesses across the region through promotion on social media platforms.
Bowden provides a voice for these businesses, which has helped them to increase sales, footfall and presence. Since then, Play the Field has developed into a popular blog and marketing platform for tourist attractions that wish to gain publicity through a new form of marketing.
Bowden now writes for NFU Countryside magazine’s blog, which aims to promote businesses with a different monthly theme. Alongside this, Bowden now writes for the Visit Northumberland #WildNland campaign, which aims to give SMEs a voice.
Play the Field’s first few months of business have seen pure organic growth from word-of-mouth. As the business stands currently, Play the Field has more than 10 clients in varying sectors including tourism, accommodation providers and property management.
Play the Field is constantly evolving and exceeding all goals. Over the next 12 months the focus will be on growing the business, retaining existing accounts and winning new ones.