In our first ever re-visit to a previously profiled colleague, we catch up with Carlo Sambucci, whom we spoke to in October of 2023. When first spoke to him he was a fresh-faced International Marketing graduate on a three-month internship. We wanted to know how he had grown and progressed with two years of experience behind him as a fully-fledged Marketing Assistant…
What does your typical day look like?
No two days are ever the same, but consistently I’ll liaise with the sales team to see what our objectives are for the week, create email, SMS and social campaigns from this and make relevant updates to the website. Sometimes there are larger projects which I chip away at, and a lot of things are recurring, so I plan those in week to week.I do all of the social media for Cab Direct and The Minibus Centre, which are the two brands that I primarily work on, plus other ad-hoc requests.
One of my primary roles is the social media advertising, primarily Facebook and Instagram., That’s something that I began to take on as my own thing, to be a source of knowledge for the rest of the team and advise across different brands that I wouldn’t normally work on.
The last time we spoke to you, you were on your three-month contract. How have things changed since then?
I’ve had a lot of experience since that three-month internship. Through the campaigns I’ve worked on and just putting myself forward to try different things, my knowledge and skillset has increased massively since then
You mentioned taking on the social media advertising stuff. How are you finding that?
It’s great. Before Allied I’d never set up any campaigns, so outside of work I taught myself and learned about the Facebook ad platform, watched lots of how-to videos on YouTube, followed industry experts and set up some dummy campaigns to increase my knowledge
When I joined the team there wasn’t anyone who was a paid social expert, so I looked into it and began setting them up for Cab Direct and learning from them to begin with.
I control that for Cab Direct and The Minibus Centre now, constantly monitoring and optimizing them, and since Sirus joined us, I’ve built their ad account up from a completely clean slate. They hadn’t really done any social advertising there, so that’s been a really good chance for me to put my skills to the test, working across different brands and audiences.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you find in your role just now, and how do you overcome them?
Well, there’s a lot to do working across multiple brands. Sometimes that’s challenging, but in a good way, because it really allows you to get a taste of different markets and audiences, and you learn to change within the space of an hour from one tone of voice to another, and how the needs are so different between similar things, even though it’s all the automotive industry.
The changes within the Meta platform move at a rate that is difficult to keep up with as well, because they don’t really tell you, “we’ve made changes to X,Y and Z,” it’s only when you start seeing it reflected in your campaigns you realise that they’ve changed a certain way that they measure performance or the targeting has changed. I meet with some of the Meta team every few weeks and subscribe to their newsletters that allow me to keep ahead of any new features or updates to avoid this occurring quite as frequently.It’s fast paced, constantly evolving like everything in marketing, but you’ve just got to keep ahead the game.
What is your impression of the company culture here at Allied?
You can always find help if you need it. I find that if I have an issue I need supported on, then it’s not difficult to find someone even if it’s another department. Everyone helps you with any issues and it’s a helpful and encouraging culture.
Specifically, within the Marketing team, I think we’re all quite close and we all uplift each other. It’s never a case of, “this is my job, I’m not doing anything else.” When the things need done, everyone pitches in. The team also allow me to try new things and if I express interest in something, then they encourage me to get stuck in and develop the skills.
What is it that you enjoy most about your job at Allied?
I think the range of different marketing practices that I do and how I develop those processes and grow my personal skillset. There’s opportunity for me to continuously develop my skills and career.
Where can you see Allied going in the next few years? And how do you see your role in that?
I think we’ll just continuously expand; there’s exciting things
happening for all of the brands right now as I see from the team and specifically, there’s a lot of opportunity with Cab Direct, especially with MAXiCab.
MAXiCab is a really exciting project and we’re working hard to get it licensed in London. That will be a massive achievement for the business.
If there was one thing that you were able to tell someone about working at Allied what would you tell them?
If you’re looking to have an interesting day every day – or at least not have the same boring day every day – then it’s a good place to work. You’ll stay busy, there’s great variety and plenty of opportunity for you to find what’s right for you.
When you find yourself with a few days off. How do you like to unwind?
I try to get outdoors as much as possible, weather dependant. I like to go walks or drives. I’m partial to a wee trip to the Highlands and Islands. I’ve been to quite a lot of them.
In my last chat with you I think I had just come off a trip around the Hebridean islands which was great. The past two summers, I was in Skye and Lewis, and I just came back from a trip to Colonsay which is a wee island near Mull on the Outer Hebrides.
I like to get out and about there, take in the scenery, and have a little bit of an escape from the city.
I like cooking as well.
What’s your favourite thing to cook?
It depends on what mood I’m in. I like to cook things connected to my Italian heritage. Stuff like classic tomato sugo, meatballs, sausages, Italian chicken, fresh pasta made from scratch; family recipe stuff, with some nice memories attached to it.
If I’m feeling a bit fancier, I’ll do a Duck a L’Orange. That’s one of my favourites with the pavé potatoes and everything.
I like cooking. It’s a good little escape, especially after a busy day. I come in and then that’s all I’m focusing on, and then I’ve got nice little reward at the end of it. It’s just another channel for me to be creative, so I like that.
Do you think you’d have been a chef if you hadn’t gone into marketing?
I considered it. I’ve liked cooking since I was young and that is the path I thought I’d go down, but the hours and the money kind of put me off.
Plus, I feel now that if I was a chef I’d have fallen out of love with cooking. So, I can just do it personally now and develop my cooking skillset without having to work to the bone in a kitchen and get sick of the sight of food.
You mentioned your Italian heritage, do you feel quite close to that?
I do. I go to Italy every year, to where my family are from. I don’t have any close relatives as they all emigrated long ago, but I do feel quite close to it. I’m proud of it.
I’m trying to learn the language as well. I said this two years ago in my last profile and I’m only a wee bit further forward, which is slightly embarrassing. It is tough learning a language at this age, though; I wish I had stuck with it. My mum and dad, tried to make me learn it when I was younger, and I kicked and screamed my way out of it.
But now I’m trying to reignite it and learn the language get more in touch with my roots again.
