Victoria, 39, is a busy mum-of-one and successful London-based businesswoman who co-founded luxury Event & Marketing Company PAVE London with former work colleague Pete Rolfe in 2014. Together, they’re a power business couple.
The business offers dynamic, creative and bespoke end-to-end planning and marketing services for leading brands and elite individuals. Award-nominated PAVE London has quickly grown, thanks to its flawless reputation and background in unforgettable events and campaigns. Their enviable list of clients includes Fortnum & Mason, Boohoo.com, Nastygal.com, PrettyLittleThing.com, Bloomberg, The Feel Good Drinks Co., and Arcadia.
Former Capital Radio presenter Victoria, who studied English Literature at Cambridge University, used her extensive media contacts to move into opulent event planning and marketing after a chance meeting with her now business partner Peter over a shared mobile phone client. The duo quickly realised they worked well together and shared the same goal of running their own company, PAVE London was born and Victoria has never looked back.
As a female entrepreneur she is keen campaigner on Women’s issues and empowering women, 70% her team alone at PAVE London are female and her mantra in life is, to BE HONEST.
It’s Victoria’s charisma, intelligence and creativity that sets her apart from the competition. She and her team will only ever create ideas they can achieve successfully with a given budget, in time and to a quality they are proud of. Storytelling is also a great part of what a PAVE London do in their events and marketing campaigns. Victoria is a firm believer that there is a direct relationship between working hard and success and hard work is something she is an expert in.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
Leeds Girl- State school educated- Cambridge Uni- Events & Marketing role at Emap Media- Radio Presenter- Co-Owner of Award-winning Events & Marketing Agency PAVE London is roughly my story…! Of course, it’s as simple as that!
I co-run PAVE London Events, Marketing & PR Ltd, an award-winning company in central London. I set up PAVE with a former colleague & friend (Pete Rolfe) nearly 5 years ago and we’ve already worked with clients on experiential, social media, marketing & PR campaigns for brands including: boohoo.com. giffgaff, NastyGal, Fortum & Mason, Pretty Little Thing, Coca-Cola and The Feel Good Drinks Company. It’s for that brand we recently won a Drum Marketing Award. We conceived and executed an entire Summer campaign in 2017 for The Feel Good Drinks Co. called #FeelGoodSummer and we were #PROUD! It was brilliant to win and important validation for a boutique agency (there’s 6 of us FT) to be able to compete & win against massive & established agencies with fancy glass receptions!
PAVE London is a passion. It’s an obsession! It’s also hard work and challenging- but then I expected that. I ‘balance’ running PAVE with being a Mum to Sonny who is only 14 months old- it’s a cliché, but he’s made me want even more success. He’s the reason I was back at work before he was even 14 weeks old, because I want everything for him.
On some days running a business is just “one foot in front of the other”- if for example, we don’t win a pitch or a client’s budget suddenly reduces. Sometimes things don’t go our way and it’s entirely out of our control, which was the case in Summer 2016 with the Brexit vote and change in PM. It caused uncertainty in our client base as marketing budgets often reduce around elections. We had to sit tight, diversify (we added social media to our services) and really push hard on a new business drive. It taught us that new business needs to be ongoing, not just in desperate times!
How did I get here? It wasn’t planned, although everything I’ve done professionally links together as I’ve always ended up working for/on big brands. I grew up in Leeds with my twin sister Nicola Larder (who co-created ITV smash hit drama ‘Marcella’, starring Anna Friel), Mum and Dad. I went to Cambridge University to study English Literature, which I loved and story-telling still informs everything I do from conceptualising marketing ideas to writing pitches. After graduation, I went to work at Emap on truly innovative multi-media projects for Smash Hits Magazine, The Q Awards etc, then changed career radically after dreaming: “I want to be the next Chris Moyles!”, so became a radio presenter eventually ending up on Capital Radio, broadcasting live from Leicester Square. Unfortunately, during my time at Capital Radio the recession of 2009 kicked in and changed commercial radio. Ultimately, it became less fun (& more about being a celeb presenter like Mark Wright), so I changed tack, decided I wanted more control and decided to go back to working on brand marketing campaigns at an East London agency before eventually setting up PAVE London.
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
Yes! Sexism occasionally! When I had my “I want to be in the radio” dream I remember being given the opportunity to learn how to drive a (radio) desk, but with the warning: “women aren’t as technical as men”. I remember thinking: “what utter nonsense!”, but if that was what (generally male) radio station bosses thought, then I had to really teach myself to become kick- ass technically. I also got told by a radio big wig: “you look good, but not perfect”, as he slowly looked me up and down whilst assessing me for a radio job. I tend to ignore idiocy or call people out on it (in a playful way).
At PAVE London, as we run the business how we wish too, the challenges are different.. In the future, I’d like us to have more clients who are used to the agency-client relationship, so don’t question us on why our ideas and execution have a fee associated with them!
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I love mentoring people, particularly young women as I want them to be confident and develop in what is a very competitive world and a competitive sector. We run internship programmes at PAVE London and I really enjoy working with young enthusiastic clever minds. All I want is a good attitude. The rest I can teach.
What do you want to see happen within the next five years when it comes to diversity?
A diverse work force is massively important- for the success of the business. Diverse teams show greater innovation and creativity, perform better, are able to understand their customers better and keep staff for longer.
We recently worked with an international tech company who are highly conscious of this and give focus to diversity by recognising that unconscious bias exists amongst all of us; a deliberate focus must be placed on diversity, it won’t necessarily just happen. They were a dream client, who we learnt so much from.
I hope diversity remains a hot topic and not just a temporary focus for businesses.
We encourage diversity at PAVE London- in our team and in the marketing strategy we encourage our clients to consider. We’ve created an LGBTQ+ arm of PAVE London. We specialise in taking clients to Pride festivals- in the right way. In August this year, we took boohoo and boohooMAN to Brighton Pride as headline sponsors. Seeing such a hot e commerce fashion brand support Brighton Pride was fantastic. We created a phenomenal parade entry for the brand along with superb and insta-worthy installation in the festival park.
If you could change one thing for women in the workplace, what would it be?
One shouldn’t make generalisations, but I do think that women can be man-splained in and out the work place. I want to encourage women to be confident in their own voice and method. Don’t be drowned out and don’t just accept bombastic voices.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
There’s a running joke between me, my friends and colleagues that if I meet someone new and don’t tell them within 2 minutes that I went to Cambridge University, that I will explode! I’m still proud of that! I’m incredibly proud of setting up PAVE London and the clients we’ve managed to win (I love it when we beat massive agencies in a pitch) and most recently I’m proud that I co-run a vibrant business, which delivers on its promises whilst being a good Mum and amazing partner!
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
The next challenge is how to grow the business. We have a magic number in our heads, which we want to reach as a turnover. However, at the same time, it’s how to keep the quality and authenticity of our business whilst achieving growth and keeping agile and ahead of the competition. Retaining our team is key along with finding new PAVE-ITES to bring into the mix. We’d love to also create a northern office, or perhaps one that even exists in Cambridge. Did I mention btw, that I went to Cambridge University?!
