Heather Westgate calls time on TDA

Heather Westgate, one of the direct marketing industry’s most passionate advocates, has shut up shop at TDA, bringing the curtain down on the Cheltenham agency she founded more than 18 years ago.
The business, originally set up as The Direct Agency in 1996, counted Blind Veterans, Anthony Nolan, Alzeimer’s Research, Help for Heroes, Cineworld and Zurich among its clients. It ceased trading last week.
On her profile on the TDA website, Westgate stated: “I founded TDA because I believed that we could be more proactive, think more strategically and be more creative than the agencies I was using when I was a client. My passion is still making sure TDA delivers brilliant work without the aggro!”
But speaking exclusively to DecisionMarketing, Westgate said: “TDA has been my baby for 18 years and it has been one of the toughest decisions I have ever had to make to close it down. However, agencies of our size are hard to maintain in the current economic climate. Most clients either want the scale of a large agency or the greater agility of a smaller one. Medium-sized businesses can’t survive on project work – it is just unsustainable. It certainly is the end of an era but I would like to thank all our clients and staff for contributing to so many amazing times over the years.”
Westgate started her career at Blitz magazine in London in 1987, but a year later switched to the marketing department of Royal & Sun Alliance. By 1991, she had moved agency-side to Cirencester-based Hamilton Wright, then had a spell at Target Direct before setting up TDA.
She says she will continue to work in agency-land but ruled out the launch of a “TDA 2.0”, maintaining she wanted a more flexible business in the future. She has already registered a new business, “We Are Marketing UK Ltd”, with Companies House.
A highly respected figure within the DM industry, Westgate has played an active role on the committee for the DMA Awards for many years and has been chair three times. In 2008, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the IDM.