Marketing challenges and bubble wrap suits - a goodbye to Lexie Gower

It is with a heavy heart that we have said goodbye to Lexie Gower, our inimitable marketing manager (and closet abseiling supremo) who joined Datum in July 2013 and is now ‘seizing the day’ (her own words) in her well-earned retirement. 

Having completed a degree in Business Studies (majoring in marketing) and the Professional Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIMDipM) Lexie moved into the world of IT marketing. Before joining Datum, she was a senior Campaign Manager within the EMEAR team at SAP and then manager of the European team within services field enablement at Cisco Services until this was disbanded globally. Lexie saw this as her opportunity to throw her talents into the ring with a small company where her contribution could be more visible, and she was excited by the opportunity to learn about another technology sector and help guide a fledgling organisation along the untrodden route ahead.

Lexie’s take on her time at Datum

We spoke to Lexie prior to her departure to garner her lasting memories from her time at Datum. There were too many to list, but some highlights include:

• The exciting marketing challenges. Developing an identity for a new and small (but rapidly growing) single-site business that has a tight geographic reach and is competing with some really big players can be challenging, and Datum’s brand perception needed to be strengthened yet further after Datum separated from Attenda/Ensono in 2016/17.  Furthermore, the misconception amongst some companies that colocation is a commodity has made it even more important to communicate the benefits of what Datum offers - and that there’s so much more to good colocation than the storage of IT workloads and real estate. 

• The incredible team spirit and positivity at Datum. In Lexie’s words: “I’ve loved working with the close-knit Datum team to create a brand that is synonymous with security, quality and superior client service – something that has ensured that Datum has a prestigious client list that would be envied by companies four times the size of Datum! It has been refreshing to work with a group of professionals who are all pulling in the same direction and are committed to offering exactly what they promise to offer - no nonsense, no gimmicks.”
• The realisation that a bubble wrap suit might be what’s needed. Two weeks before Lexie started at Datum, she made her mark at a team segue trip. Confident in her segueing abilities (she was near the front of the group), and keen to admire the woodland around her whilst moving on at speed, she took her focus off her ‘driving’, hit a bank and ricocheted off it at speed. Luckily her injuries weren’t too severe although her pride probably took a knock. And, as this incident set the scene for other injuries during her time at Datum, she earned the reputation as someone who might require some sort of protective layer.

The future beyond Lexie

Lexie has certainly made her mark on Datum and has used her marketing flair to support us throughout a crucial part of our development. Datum has grown enormously since Lexie joined us in the summer of 2013, but our core values have remained consistent throughout - we stand out through the quality of our offering and our desire to make client satisfaction the be all and end all. And those are the principles we will continue to be guided by.

We will miss Lexie and her wealth of experience in both marketing and IT but know that she has laid the unshakeable groundwork for our ongoing development. The marketing will be in good hands despite Lexie’s departure and Lexie must surely be in no doubt that she is not off the hook entirely – we will be calling on her to get involved in discrete marketing projects – retirement or no retirement….!