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We’re excited about the future, are you?

Collective Wisdom is a new kind of communications and marketing agency for culture and the creative industries.

Bringing together the best brains in the sector, with passion and expertise across a range of artforms and skills, we build bespoke teams for projects, whether it’s launching a new venue or festival, breathing fresh life into a cultural prize or creating a compelling campaign to drive audiences.

We are purpose and impact driven. Each member of Collective Wisdom is a sought-after independent practitioner. At a time when experts are back in fashion, we can work with you to find the best solution.

Working collaboratively, we are so much more.

The team

Founder

Truda Spruyt FRSA

Truda has been working in the creative and cultural sector for over 30 years, most recently heading up the culture specialist team at Four Agency. She specialises in devising and delivering integrated communications strategies and leading teams for complex projects. With broad and deep contacts amongst creatives, organisations and media across the sector, she loves to make fruitful connections for clients. Campaigns have included launching HOME Manchester and the Library of Birmingham, creating initiatives such as Get Into Theatre for the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation and Future Skills for Kingston University and developing the prestige of prizes including the International Booker Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She is a trustee of Theatres Trust.

Shona Abhyankar

Shona has nearly 30 years’ experience in the book/publishing industry, starting as a Waterstones bookseller, and has been a book publicist for most of those years, with spells as a literary agent. She has worked in-house and agency side, so has a valuable rounded view of the many layers of book PR. Shona was previously the PR Lead for Amazon Publishing UK, and a senior publicist at Ebury. She has worked with authors including Arianna Huffington, Sheryl Sandberg, Ian Dunt, David McKee and Abi Morgan. Shona has won PPC Awards for her campaigns, is a former mentor for the Publishers’ Publicity Circle, and co-founder of the Primadonna Festival. Shona is currently on a contract with Penguin Random House as Publicity Director for Harvill Secker/Vintage.

Jen Acton

Jen is an arts marketing consultant, podcast producer and copywriter, specialising in all things digital. She worked in marketing for Penguin Press, The Booksellers’ Association and Pushkin Press before going freelance full-time in 2017. Since then, her clients have included the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Letters Live, Art Car Boot Fair, Bloomsbury Books, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. She’s worked on book launches for authors as diverse as Mary Beard to Yuval Noah Harari, from Celia Imrie to Phoebe Waller-Bridge. She loves creating communities for brands, from building viral TikTok accounts to launching chart-topping podcasts, establishing influencer networks and spearheading powerful brand partnerships.

Celia Bailey

With a career founded in magazine publishing, including Publisher of Art Review and Apollo magazines, Celia has more than 30 years’ experience in the creative industries and extensive knowledge and contacts in the cultural sector internationally. Working exclusively in Arts PR and cultural advisory since 2011, recent clients include Artichoke, Newport Street Gallery, WWF, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Miart, The Design Museum, The Line, Cure Parkinson’s, The Crick Institute and Cromwell Place.

Karen Duffy

With over 30 years experience as a book publicist, Karen has orchestrated campaigns for prize-winners and best-sellers including Aravind Adiga, Isabel Allende, Douglas Coupland, Alastair Darling, Penelope Fitzgerald, Richard Flanagan, Damon Galgut, Timothy Garton Ash, Isabel Hardman, Christopher Hitchens, Frank McCourt, PJ O’Rourke, Arundhati Roy, Cheryl Strayed, Amy Tan and Christos Tsiolkas. She was Publicity Director at HarperCollins and then Campaigns Director & Associate Publisher at Atlantic Books. She has been freelance since summer 2023, working with Sophie Hannah (on her debut feature film, The Mystery of Mr E); Hollywood actor Griffin Dunne; Tate Director Maria Balshaw; marine biologist Helen Scales; and on campaigns for indie publishers Grove Press UK, The Indigo Press, Allison & Busby.  She has been a Trustee of the Cambridge Literary Festival since 2017.

Lalla Dutt

Lalla has journalistic, public relations and marketing experience and has worked within the FMCG, F&B and Travel arenas for more than twenty-five years. She was a finalist twice in the Vogue Talent Contest for writing when she was 17 and 25 and holds the unshakeable belief that persuasion is a superpower. Some highlights of her career (for her anyway) include launching the Hello Boys Wonderbra campaign with Eva Herzigova, creating a partnership between Raymond Blanc OBE and the London Mayor’s office where Raymond served as Ambassador for Good Jobs in Food, interviewing her heroes Neville Brody and Guy Salter at BODW (Business of Design Week Hong Kong) and launching Bear in the Big Blue House in the UK!

Layla El Deeb

Layla has over 15 years’ experience in the cultural sector, leading on major campaigns including the Mayor’s London Borough of Culture programme. She was Head of Marketing and Communications at Battersea Arts Centre and has worked with the Albany, Royal Court Theatre and Arts Marketing Association. She can help with communication strategy, brand and website projects, and marketing campaign management.

Amanda Freeman

Amanda has over 30 years’ experience as a music publicist working at major labels and the independent sector. After heading the press team at Island Records, Amanda moved to leading independent RMP working alongside U2 as tour publicist for two world tours, Blur, PJ Harvey, Smashing Pumpkins, Keith Richards, Moby and more. She set up Freeman PR in 2007 winning Record Of The Days Best Individual Independent PR award that year and has since diversified her roster to include campaigns with award winning film composers Clint Mansell and Sally Potter, Velocity Books and corporate PR for The Association Of Independent Music.

Lisa Gatehouse

Lisa started as an Event Manager in 2002 and has worked on a mix of corporate and PR events over the last 22 years. The vast extent of events organised ranges from incentive trips to South Africa, conferences and award ceremonies abroad to juggling looking after 10 different Christmas Parties in 2 weeks and organising the Booker Prize for 6 years including at The Guildhall and most recently at The Roundhouse. Multitasking is something Lisa adores, thriving in a world of balancing many different tasks and projects.

Ben McKnight FRSA

Ben’s wide-ranging career in communications has seen him work in the voluntary sector (London Lighthouse, British Red Cross), the political realm (Greater London Authority), and leading comms and marketing teams for high profile cultural projects, including Hull UK City of Culture, Manchester International Festival and UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK. Consultancy includes SXSW London, ULYSSES: European Odyssey, Paraorchestra and Oldham Coliseum Theatre.

Selina Ocean

Selina is an arts marketing consultant with over ten years’ experience of delivering marketing campaigns in the cultural sector for a variety of arts organisations and projects. Selina has previously led the audience development and communications strategies for 14-18 NOW; Season for Change, and delivering the marketing and digital communications campaigns for the London Borough of Culture – Brent 2020 and This is Croydon 2023; PoliNations, the marketing campaign for Kirklees Year of Music. She also delivers brand and website development projects, most recently for Love Camden, Camden Council’s arts and culture services; as well as marketing and audience development strategies for the likes of 59 Productions, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, The Javaad Alipoor Company and LEEDS 2023. Selina is currently the Chair of Fevered Sleep’s board of trustees, an arts organisation that make bold new work for and with adults and children.

Titilope Ogunnaike

Titilope (she/her) has experience working across arts, culture, charity, public and commercial sectors. Starting off her career in public relations, Titilope is well versed in media outreach and press liaison. She has led press for Black Cultural Archives and supported on large culture events including Lewisham Borough of Culture and Coventry City of Culture. As a project manager and producer, Titilope has experience in leading teams in brand creation, campaign development and execution. This includes grappling with challenging reactive briefs, managing shoots and pulling together strong teams with varying skillsets to bring campaigns to life. Her production experience covers animation, graphic design, photography and AV. During her career, Titilope has been included in PR Weeks 30 under 30 list, she’s completed the Google Rare Delegate Programme and has also often been involved in initiatives that are focused on diversifying the media landscape – this includes Taylor Bennett Foundation, Black Create Connect and various mentoring schemes.

Elspeth Osman-Allu

Elspeth has worked in marketing for nearly a decade with broad expertise in the arts and heritage sector. Working across a range of organisations and specialising in B2C marketing, she is a collaborative and strategic worker experienced at managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders. Recent work has included the launch of Joana Vasconcelos’ major art installation Wedding Cake at Waddesdon Manor; she also created a targeted, data-led digital marketing and content strategy for St James’s Piccadilly’s show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024. Elspeth covers both above and below the line marketing, with skills including brand identity, social media (paid and organic), email marketing, media planning, SEO, Google Ads, Google Analytics, website development, print and design, third party partnerships and integrated marketing campaigns.

Stephen Raynes

Stephen runs a production agency and film studio, Preference Studio, creating strategies and stories for brands, business, nonprofits and beyond. Clients include Fitbit, Samsung, the Booker Prizes, Adidas and Dune. Services include podcast production, TV adverts, live broadcast, streaming and social campaigns. Preference Studio’s work has been seen on Amazon Prime, BBC and ITV.

Olivia Riggon

Olivia is an account manager with a background in PR and communications, specialising in the cultural sector. She kickstarted her career with a Taylor Bennett Foundation Internship, working across the Culture and Travel teams at Four Agency. Over her three years at the company she worked with a range of clients including Cheltenham Literature Festival, Norwich Theatre, The Booker Prizes and The International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Claire Scott

Claire is a highly experienced publicist with over thirty years experience in publishing, most recently as Director of Media Relations at Ebury, Penguin Random House. She has worked with many high-profile names including David Attenborough, Mary Berry, Caitlin Moran, Rick Stein and Jon Sopel and has an enviable track record for building and executing strategic campaigns and events and creating bestsellers.  Breakout campaigns include The Volunteer by Jack Fairweather, which won the Costa Book Award, and Chris Packham’s memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar. On the TV side she has worked with key brands from The Great British Bake Off to BBC landmark natural history series Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and Blue Planet.

Anna Skipwith

Anna (hellosocial.media) supports creative small businesses and individuals to build engaged online communities. She is a social media coach and trainer, using step by step teaching methods. Anna offers 1:1 and group training, social media audits and content and strategy planning. She has worked with diverse small businesses as well as creatives including award winning artist Alexandra Harley and comedian Helen Lederer. Her #DogsAtPollingStations initiative began in 2019 as a community project and is now a local tradition. In the 2021 London Mayor Election and 2024 General Election her photos went viral and were published by the press and national TV. She used this as a platform to champion ‘social media for good’.

Jen Tree

Jen brings over seven years of experience as a freelance Social Media Manager and Strategist, operating in both a consultancy and day-to-day management capacity to help brands maximise their impact and efficiency across paid and organic content streams from TikTok to LinkedIn and everything in between. She has worked with SMEs, creatives, and charities across various sectors, including the arts, hospitality, digital, lifestyle, retail, charity, property, legal, medical, and travel with organisations such as Jerwood Foundation, Coqfighter, Music for Youth, The Law Boutique, Club Soda, and 57 Festivals. Jen has lived and worked in East London for fourteen years, she is a passionate sculptor and embraces her ADHD and Autism, which she believes adds a diverse, dynamic dimension to her ideas and creative planning.

Ruth Waldram

Ruth is a publishing and branding consultant who worked as Vintage Brand Director for eight years, writing brand strategies, developing brand identity and activation, growing social-media and newsletter channels and devising multi-channel campaigns for Vintage Classics publishing. Before this she was an award-winning publicist working on campaigns for H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Girls by Emma Cline and authors including Richard Flanagan, Rose Tremain, Howard Jacobson, Jesse Armstrong and Posy Simmonds.

Angela Allan

Angela is a communications and events professional with over 20 years’ experience of working within publishing and the creative industries. Previously Communications Director at Canongate Books and Head of Events at Hachette, she has also held senior roles at major communications and talent agencies managing a diverse range of clients across publishing, music, TV, film, charities and the arts. She has led campaigns and produced tours for authors, poets, wellbeing experts, actors, Musicians and TV personalities, as well as programming and promoting festivals and special events including Letters Live, Book Slam and the Edinburgh Wellbeing Festival. Authors she’s worked with include Prof Alice Roberts, Dame Kelly Holmes, Ian Rankin, Kae Tempest and Lemn Sissay.

Matt Hall

Matt has spent over three decades developing and creating content for national UK broadcasters, major independent production companies and huge online media brands. He has produced and exec’d shows for BBC Radios 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6. He was the Multimedia Editor for Culture and Sport at The Guardian, and most recently Head of On Demand Audio for News UK. Amongst many projects, Matt has created and produced the Backlisted podcast, worked with both the Young Vic and the Royal Court on major video collaborations, and has recently founded an award winning walking food tour of Melton Mowbray, where he lives.

Skills

Strategy, brand advisory, PR, media relations, thought leadership, profile raising, crisis comms, talent management, event management, social media (organic and paid), advertising and media buying, digital marketing and development, brand strategy, creative assets, visual storytelling, podcasts

Sectors

Literature, ideas, visual arts, design, live performance, publishing, cultural placemaking, major events, festivals

News

Updates

All shall have prizes!

It’s awards season in the book world and it’s been a busy month above and…
Updates

Collective Wisdom’s First Month – and what a Month!

Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to individually and collectively in the first…
Updates
Cultural Conversations at the Barbican Centre with Collective Wisdom
Launch
Truda Spruyt launches new PR and Marketing agency for culture and the creative industries

Work