Chartered Marketer Scotland

Chartered Marketer and brand strategist

Aileen Caskie is a transformational marketing and communications strategist, with extensive multi-sector experience most notably technology, energy and financial services. A seasoned CIM qualified Chartered Marketer and communications practitioner she’s worked in enterprises from challengers to global bluechips (RBS, Visa Europe, Barclays, BNY Mellon) encompassing a rainbow of corporate cultures. She is also a proposition and branding strategist skilled at identifying, analysing and leading marketing projects.

Aileen offers a vision-driven and brand-aligned approach and is zealous about delivering professional excellence to drive sustainable growth, and positive engagement to make a difference to people’s lives.

Aileen thrives in collaborative and innovative environments with a balance between commercial imperatives and a positive sustainable societal impact. Aileen works with businesses to gain a greater understanding of who their customers are, what their needs are, and how to profitably engage them. Her analytical and creative expertise has enabled her to design and deliver a raft of marketing and communication initiatives across multiple products, services and sectors. She is a free-thinker and a seeker of knowledge, keen to share her expertise and inspire teams through creative thinking.

A Bit of Background

Creative industries experience

After graduating from University of Stirling with an Honours degree in English, Aileen’s early career (1989-2002) revolved around creative industries – freelancing as a journalist (sub/production editor and project manager) in consumer and client magazines. She honed her organisational skills in account/project manager roles in creative and marketing agencies in Edinburgh and London. Her passion for compelling visual design and succinct messaging arose from her early experience as a graphic designer and marketing executive in publishing houses.

Third sector roles
Aileen’s early roles in Glasgow in 1990s within people-centric organisations like National Union of Students, focused on development & training for elected student officers. Supporting abused women through counselling and practical help with Women’s Aid was gruelling and not her niche. More recently, Aileen has worked with local government, national government and professional membership organisations at a strategic level to help develop their marketing and communications capabilities.

London years 2001… 

From a London base, Aileen operated as an independent marketing and communications consultant for the next eight years, working with clients from Abu Dhabi to Paris and Edinburgh as well as the shires of England, spanning sectors including charity, energy, financial services, government, publishing and technology. Navigating the complexities of many of these financial organisations (Barclays, RBS, VISA Europe, BNY Mellon), which were highly regulated and had substantial issues with reputation, required diplomacy, determination and creativity. 

International energy – UAE

Headhunted by a UAE based recruiter as a result of shuttling back and forth to spend time with family, led Aileen to an Abu Dhabi base in 2009. Creating and delivering an internal communications strategy for GASCO, the largest government-owned gas processing and distribution company in the world with a multi-national workforce on four industrial desert sites was thoroughly enjoyable.

In May 2010 Aileen launched Dynamic Heart – dynamic because effective marketing never stands still; and heart because sustainable companies put marketing and customers at the heart of their businesses. Clients included technology provider of ultrafast broadband network dedicated to research and education – Janet (now part of JISC). 

Back to Edinburgh 2013…

In 2013, Aileen returned to Edinburgh, to put roots down and reconnect with family and old friends. Clients ranged from clinical software providers (Hospedia & Extramed) to social enterprise start-up Brightstripe Cultural Health, and the ICT division within the Digital Directorate of Scottish Government, as well as Prudential and Citizens Advice Scotland.

After leading the establishment of the first Member Service and Engagement Directorate in the Law Society of Scotland, she achieved her CIM level 7 Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing with Oxford College of Marketing in 2017. The College invited Aileen to be a support tutor for Level 4 and 6 students, which she did until March 2020 with a 100% pass rate and 92% of her students achieving top two grades.

Working through the pandemic with clients at opposite ends of the scale from a boutique technology-led translation business to a FTSE 30 renewables energy giant, kept Aileen very busy and challenged. She delivered a new corporate identity and full guidelines for renewables energy giant SSE, plus a full suite of brand and value proposition messaging and new digital and content marketing approach for Rubric.

In 2021 Aileen worked remotely for Dumfries & Galloway Council, and in 2022, Aileen was engaged by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow to lead the team and strategic development of communications and marketing. Most recently, Aileen was head hunted for the UK’s first fintech to lead and develop a marketing function (3 FTEs) within a B2B SAAS space. She created an ambitious integrated marketing strategy targeting growth through Account Based Marketing, requiring four pillars of investment – brand, insight, people and technology.

Now seeking her next opportunity as a strategic marketing leader in an organisation with a genuinely supportive culture and an innovative, open and collaborative environment where marketing is recognised as the engine at the heart of customer and commercial success.  

Favourite things in life

  • Watermelon and mint
  • Anything ever written by Maya Angelou
  • Islay and all its whiskies
  • Murrayfield and the 6 Nations

Best experiences

  • Trekking Peru’s Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
  • Sailing round the Arabian Sea in a speedboat
  • Driving round Scotland’s North Coast 500
  • Touring France from Paris to Montpelier

    All work and no play

    In her spare time, she is a keen fan of music and art festivals and culture, various ball sports, travel, walking and the natural world, cooking, gardening and laughter.

    If your business is wrestling with conflicting communications and muddled marketing priorities, or:

    • struggling to achieve the next stage of commercial growth and customer engagement
    • undergoing merger or acquisition activity or a total refocus of company strategy
    • facing confusion around launching a new product or service – and which markets to target
    • dealing with dwindling revenue streams and unprofitable products and services
    • watching weak acquisition, ineffective demand/lead generation and poor brand engagement
    • drifting into commercial irrelevance with competitors outpacing you
      feeing like a faded brand with outdated marketing capabilities
    • wrangling with reputation management issues and lack of brand awareness...

    Then Dynamic Heart can help. Fill in the contact form with a brief outline of your challenge and your preferred contact method and times.