JUST YOUR EVERYDAY
COLLECTION OF ACTORS,
RAPPERS, COMEDIANS,
FOOTBALLERS, POLITICIANS,
ASSASSINS, JOURNOS AND
CARTOON CHARACTERS.
Paul Houlding
Chief Executive
Paul Houlding
When he’s not breathless after running up and down the pitch for ten minutes, Paul, aka Steven Gerrard, is our CEO. Before founding isobel in 2003, he’d been Board Account Director at Saatchi & Saatchi and a partner at Banks Hoggins O’Shea.
After a spell in New York’s film production industry, Jamie, or Peston, cut his teeth at JWT, before spells at DLKW and M&C Saatchi. He joined isobel in 2012 and put on the big boots as our Account Partner. If you need the latest, he's got a finger on the pulse.
After beginning his career as an Art Director at Gold Greenlees Trott at the tender age of 18, Rob has been a regular winner of national and international advertising awards and has judged many as well. He’s also the spitting image of Barbra Streisand.
Bear with, bear with! Sarah, aka Miranda Hart, joined isobel in 2014 after moving across the pond from Toronto. In Canada she worked at both Grey and john st. on a wide range of clients including War Child, Heinz, and Mitsubishi Motors, for which she won a silver Cannes Lion.
Steve lost 38lbs to play his role as Planning Director for isobel. He’s a regular speaker on the conference circuit and has won two coveted IPA effectiveness awards for Waitrose and Bluewater. His doppelgänger is Matthew McConaughey. The Dallas Buyer’s Club one.
Sue, our very own Victoria Wood, is a Price Waterhouse-trained chartered accountant, and has mentored companies in sectors from interior design to horticulture and beyond. She has been Finance Director since isobel’s inception in 2003.
Chan, or if you look very hard, Michael McIntyre, is the agency’s wizard. Art working, motion graphic design, animation, video editing – the lot. After years and years of freelancing he’s finally found a home at isobel. He’s not half as funny as he looks.
Zoltar, often misspelt as Zoheb, has spent the last decade producing award winning social strategies for Harley-Davidson, Quorn Foods, Ella’s Kitchen, Chupa-Chups and Sky. If you’ve got a quarter, he’ll read your future too.
“When will I be famous?” singer, Matt Goss, aka Ben has worked with Simon since 2006. Before joining isobel the pair worked at CHI & Partners where they launched a TV service for TalkTalk, helped rebrand Argos and produced several striking and effective campaigns for Lexus, Big Yellow and British Gas.
Simon, or as he’s known on weekends: Ludacris, worked with Ben at CHI & Partners. Over the last ten years, he’s created numerous striking and effective campaigns for clients such as British Gas, Visit Wales, TalkTalk, Lexus and Argos. He’s had a few hit singles too – B***H!
Alex, aka Sheldon, is a published novelist and award winning short story writer. He got into advertising in 2014 and has since worked on countless projects – from isobel’s new and existing campaigns to these extremely well-crafted profile descriptions. He’s so great.
Bola has lots of experience within the PR, Design, Marketing and Advertising industries. Prior to working at isobel, she worked for PR specialist Four bgb for 12 years. And in 2012, she was listed by TIME as one of the most influential people in the world… or was that Viola Davis?
Jennifer Garner... or Lisa to her friends, leads a double life as a superstar actress by night and a superstar Business Director by day. She started out here at isobel, flew the nest and returned a decade later after building experience on brands like Kellogg’s, P&G and Fever-Tree.
Pedro Pascal, or as he likes to be called on weekends, Tom, has gone on to do great things since his face flattening performance in Game of Thrones. He's created campaigns for Paddy Power, Yorkshire Tea, Yopa, and Hostelworld with Mariah Carey.
Since his identity was changed for obvious reasons, notorious JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, now just "Lance", has worked as an advertising creative, dreaming up wonderful campaigns for brands like Refuge, Tesco and Virgin Media.
When he's not masterminding his evil plans for world domination, Gru aka Zohaib is masterminding our finance department – keeping on top of timesheets, invoices, giant lasers that sort of thing.
Whatever happened to Matilda? Well, she grew up, changed her name (Becky), got stylish, and got a job. She's since worked her magic at Grey on Pringles, Lucozade and other big names. Now she's with us here at isobel. Miss Honey would be proud.
It turns out everyone's favourite Blue Peter presenter, Matt Baker, or as we know him, James, is a deft hand when it comes to motion graphics. And yes, if you ask him nicely, he'll give you a "here's one I made earlier".
Rhona works behind the scenes making everything go smoothly. Phone calls, meetings, coffee runs, foot massages – you name it. And she looks a bit like whatsherface off that BBC Three children’s show.
The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp, tired of helping other people move on Location Location Location, decided to make a move herself — to isobel. Here she's a friendly face who's always on hand to help the team and our clients. We call her Fran. Not sure why, it's just a nickname that stuck.
Emily, AKA Leela, captain of Futurama's Planet Express, used to run a pretty tight ship in the Financial Services agency Teamspirit, but now brings her "no rain or sleet" attitude and "kick-your-ass" grace to the team at isobel.
Amy, aka the island chief’s daughter Moana, is the agency’s favourite kiwi. She started out in film and TV and went on to produce amazing work for McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Coca Cola and more. Then she built a raft and sailed across the world to isobel.
Australia's most famous bride is well over her wedding obsession. These days Muriel, or Paige as we know her, is obsessed with all things isobel, running the show behind the scenes. Her family use to say she was terrible, but actually, she's rather good.
Gemma Bunton gave up her music career to start anew in advertising. She’s since worked on big campaigns from Mazda to Gala Bingo, and today is spicing things up at isobel. She still won’t tell us what zigazigah means though.
Wednesday is reinventing herself in London under the pseudonym "Ellie". She's swapped playing with spiders and researching the Bermuda Triangle for some good old advertising. She's still working on her smile.
Tulisa went into hiding and changed her name. Now known as A L to the ICE, she's more than a friendly face. She's practically running the show as one of our house managers. NA NA NIII.
Jemal, aka Ricky Martin, got bored of being top of the pops and moved into the design business, working on great brands like Nike, Crocs and New Look. Now he's rocking our studio and livin' la vida loca.
Ellie aka Shiv, grew up and took her experience of apocalypse survival planning and used it to plan great strategies for brands like Dr Martens, M&S and Benefit. Now she's doing lots of thinking for us — when we're not all hiding from clickers.
