Former Royal Mail Group managing director of media Jonathan Harman has joined Go Inspire in a key non-executive role as part of the company’s five-year growth plan.
Go Inspire can trace its roots back to 1989 when it was launched primarily as a print business. The Leicester-based firm’s services now span customer analytics and segmentation, CRM and loyalty management, and total campaign and marketing communications management, as well as regulatory and transactional communications.
The group’s clients include Tesco, TalkTalk, Close Brothers, and British Gas and last month it landed a multi-year contract from BT following a competitive tender process.
The business is now keen to become what it describes as a “true marketing performance partner”, helping clients to solve business and marketing challenges. Harman’s appointment is designed to support this latest growth phase.
Having spent his entire career agency side at Rapp, Claydon Heeley, RMG and Carlson, Harman joined Royal Mail in 2012 as managing director of MarketReach but eventually took responsibility for the retail letters business, data, marketing and innovation.
He left the postal giant in February 2019 and set up his own consultancy, Bloom. Last year, he was also appointed executive chair of media agency The Kite Factory, formerly Mike Colling & Company, which rebranded following a private equity deal.
Harman said: “Today’s CMOs need agile partners who focus relentlessly on delivering commercial outcomes. By doing this, Go Inspire have earned long-tenured relationships with some of the UK’s largest advertisers. I’m really looking forward to joining the team as we seek to grow the business further.”
Go Inspire chief executive Patrick Headley added: “The group has always been deeply invested in our clients’ success. That’s probably why we tend to keep those client relationships for decades – on the merit and measurement of what we deliver year in year out.
“That attitude remains the basis for our next development phase – moving from service partner to business performance partner, sharing in both the risk and the reward of our clients’ business ambitions. Having Jonathan on board to insert his wisdom and experience will help gain even more momentum on our journey.”
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