Lizzie Berwick is Co-Owner and Media Director at Threefold Media, an independent media planning and buying agency founded in 2003. With over a decade of experience, she brings strategic insight and hands-on expertise across integrated campaign development, advanced audience targeting, negotiation and buying, and the development of tailored media solutions that deliver measurable impact.

She has worked across a wide range of sectors, supporting start-ups, established brands, and complex multi-market organisations, and is committed to helping brands navigate the media landscape with confidence, clarity, and a strategy built on genuine partnership.

Threefold Media has been operating as an independent media planning and buying agency since 2003, over two decades that have spanned enormous change in how brands communicate with their audiences. Looking back, what have been the most rewarding aspects of navigating that evolution, and what has kept the agency’s approach consistently effective?

“The most rewarding part has been keeping the business thriving while helping clients make sense of the changing media landscape in real time. When the agency started in 2003, planning was far more linear, channels were fewer, data was limited, and campaign cycles were longer. We’ve witnessed the industry shift from a largely analogue approach through to digital and from static placements to dynamic, targeted personalised experiences.

“What has kept our approach consistently effective is a very deliberate balance of curiosity and precision. We’ve never been afraid to evolve, we’ve embraced new platforms and new formats, but we anchor everything with fundamental planning principles, by understanding the audience, defining the core objective, and investing where media will be most effective. That combination has allowed us to stay flexible without chasing trends.”

You co-own the business and serve as Media Director, carrying both strategic and commercial responsibility. It’s a combination that gives you a uniquely complete view of the agency. How does holding both roles strengthen the service you provide to clients, and how has your approach to that developed over time?

“I’ve worked at the agency for over a decade now and have been a co-owner of the business since 2021. Stepping into ownership changed my perspective, it made me more invested in the quality of the work we deliver and in the relationships we build with both our clients and the media owners we work with.

“As Media Director I am closely connected to the day to day planning and the challenges our clients face. Holding both roles means I’m involved, not just as a business owner, but as someone who genuinely enjoys the process of solving problems for clients.

“The real strength of the dual role is that it keeps me personally accountable for quality of what we deliver. Clients know I’m genuinely invested, not only in their media plans, but also in them and their success. I appreciate that their budget is hard earned and always take a step back in the planning process to ask myself, if this was my own budget would I spend it here? If the answer is no, I cannot, hand on heart, recommend that my client does.”

Threefold Media works with clients across a broad range of sectors, delivering strategies that produce measurable results in each of them. What is it about the agency’s approach that translates so effectively across such different industries and business types?

“Our process is underpinned by selected core pillars rather than by assumptions. Every brief starts with audience behaviour, the client’s objective and sector context, not with pre-set channel preferences.

“That discipline translates well across all sectors because the intelligence we gather shapes the strategy, not the other way around. Whether we’re working with a start-up entering a crowded market or an established brand managing nationwide campaigns, we build each plan from the ground up, rooted in how their customers actually discover, consider, and buy.

“The result is relevance. And relevance is what works in every sector.”

Effective media campaigns rarely rely on a single channel. Threefold Media activates across print, digital, out-of-home, radio, podcasts, cinema, television, and direct mail. How do you determine which combination of channels is right for a given brief, and how does that multi-channel thinking strengthen campaign performance?

“We start by clarifying the job the media needs to do, does the campaign need to shift perception, generate demand, drive response, or are we looking to achieve a combination of these objectives? From there, we assess which channels the audience really value and which of those deliver against the core objectives most effectively. We consider what role each channel plays in the consumer journey, and how they can amplify one another.

“Multi-channel campaigns tend to outperform single channel campaigns because they create multiple touch-points, reinforcing the messaging, and reaching the target audience where they naturally move throughout their day. A well balanced mix of channels captures attention, builds mental availability, and then converts it, rather than relying on one channel to do everything.”

You’ve made a compelling case for maintaining advertising investment during economic downturns, citing research showing that brands which held their spend during the 1981/82 recession significantly outperformed competitors both during and after it. How do you help clients recognise that as an opportunity?

“It can be a tricky line to tread as budgets are often dictated by those higher in the client’s business and we understand that it can feel counterintuitive to forge ahead whilst others are cutting back. It is however worth keeping in mind the past evidence that shows maintaining visibility during challenging periods is a way to gain long-term advantage. You cite the 1981/82 research, but this was also true in the post 9/11 dip and following Covid.

“Beyond the studies, we help clients see the competitive dynamics: when others pull back, share of voice becomes cheaper, audiences remain active, and strong brands can consolidate their position.

“Our role is to contextualise the opportunity, frame the potential upside, and help clients invest at the right level and in the right places to stand them in the best stead for resilience and future growth.”

The tools available for audience targeting have advanced considerably, with data-driven technologies now enabling a level of precision that was previously out of reach for many brands. How are you integrating those capabilities into campaign planning, and what difference does that make to the results clients see?

“Today’s data-driven tools allow us to understand audiences with far greater precision. They tell us how they behave online, what content they gravitate toward, what motivates them, and where their attention is shifting.

“We integrate these capabilities from the first stage of planning: identifying priority audience segments and determining the environments where the message will be most effective. This drives more efficient media investment, reduces wastage, and improves both upper-funnel and lower-funnel performance.”

Threefold Media builds fully bespoke solutions for every client rather than applying a standard model. What does that mean in practice for a brand coming to you for the first time, and how does that tailored approach produce better outcomes?

“It means we don’t arrive with a ‘one size fits all’ template. Instead, we begin with questions so that we can get under the skin of the client’s specific needs.  What problem are we solving, who are the target audience and where are the most meaningful opportunities for growth?

“From there, we build the strategy piece by piece; audience, channels, messaging moments, ensuring the plan reflects the brand’s actual needs rather than fitting them into a predefined model.

“This tailored approach consistently yields stronger outcomes because it treats every client’s context as unique. The strategy works for them, not merely in general.”

The agency has supported start-ups, established brands, and complex multi-market organisations, a wide range of clients at very different stages. What are the principles that hold true across all of them, and what do you enjoy most about working across that variety?

“Regardless of size or maturity, three principles remain constant for any media campaign. The first is understanding the audience: not just who they are, but how they behave and, most importantly, what media they really value. The second is clarity of objective, knowing what success truly looks like for the client. The third is commitment to measurement, ensuring every campaign teaches us something that sharpens the next.

“What I enjoy most about the variety is the different kinds of problem solving it creates. Start-ups can move at speed and bring bold thinking. Established brands often have more strategic complexity, whilst multi-market organisations bring scale and nuance. Each approach brings its own challenges, but working in this way keeps us inquisitive and makes each campaign fresh and different.”

Looking ahead, which developments in the media sector do you believe will create the most significant opportunities for brands, and how should business leaders be approaching their media strategy now to ensure they are positioned to capitalise on them?

“Potentially the biggest opportunities for brands will come from the continued convergence of technology, creativity, and consumer behaviour. For example, the continuing shift to addressable media across all channels, including TV, audio, and out-of-home (OOH), which will let brands combine reach with precision in ways that were not previously possible.

“Alongside this would be the rise of attention focused planning. The industry is shifting from counting impressions to measuring attention. Planning against environments where consumers are genuinely engaged will help brands achieve greater impact with fewer wasted exposures.

“To capitalise, leaders should approach media strategy as an integrated ecosystem rather than a set of individual channels. The brands that win in the next decade will be the ones that embrace this new fluidity, combining smart data, strong insight, and bold creativity to engage audiences in more meaningful and measurable ways.”