What’s the one thing better than doing work you enjoy with people you like?
Doing work you enjoy with people you like – and winning awards for it afterwards!
That’s exactly what we’ve been doing with one of our favourite clients, Drove Vets, with whom we won the Practice Marketing award at the Veterinary Marketing Association Awards in March.
Our entry into the awards was the culmination of 18 fantastic months working with Lynne Gaskarth and the rest of the Drove team, who are perfect clients: good people, lots of fun and doing fantastic marketing that is increasing the success and profitability of their practice.
And it’s been a great opportunity for us to show off the full range of our team, with a wide variety of projects delivered – successfully – in that time.
So, let’s take a look back at what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. Hopefully you’ll learn something to take back to your own practice. Enjoy!
Who are Drove?
Nearly 200 years old and still open to evolving and growing. That's Drove Vets for you!
When we started working with Lynne and the team in September 2024, there was a lot of water under the bridge from previous teams and campaigns.
But the reality was they had lost their way a bit. Getting things done had become hard and they were rather stuck without a clear plan for where to spend their marketing resources time and a website they found difficult to work with.
Six branches across Swindon and the surrounding area, a hospital at its heart, a client base built up over generations – but always with two eyes set firmly to the future.
Over 2025 we got stuck into a proper full programme together.
New health plan, new website, in-house out of hours, refreshed referrals, new client campaigns across digital and physical channels.
It was a lot. It was brilliant. And we’re ecstatic it was recognised by the VMA’s panel of knowledgeable judges.
The Lifetime Care Club
Here's the thing about relaunching a health plan when you already have 9,000 members on the current one: there's no hiding place if it goes wrong.
This isn't a standing start. Every existing client is watching. Every team member needs to come on the journey with you. The stakes are high and everyone knows it.
We know a thing or two about designing a health plan. It takes buy in from the team on the ground to make it fly – and Drove’s Lifetime Care Club is flying.
Since October, we’ve been moving clients across to the new plan. Already, over 850 have upgraded to Unlimited membership. Plan turnover is up significantly.
The "nothing to pay today" moment that we bang on about constantly? That’s happening day in and day out across Swindon.
We'll try not to say we told you so.
The website
Tracing your roots back to 1839 is a prestigious claim for a veterinary practice. Having a website that looks like it can say the same? Not so much!
That was a joke that we couldn’t resist making and it’s a little unfair, as the old Drove website wasn’t too bad. But it was big, unwieldy and difficult to use – both for clients and for the team in the backend. So we fixed it.
The result is something we’re particularly proud of, a website that looks great and makes finding the most important actions we offer as easy as possible.
Head to the website and it’s so easy to book an appointment, register a pet and join Lifetime Care Club. Our careers section is a fantastic showcase of who we are. Referrals are working hard.
We also organised a photoshoot for the team, and the website is where this work really sings – no more stock images of suspiciously cheerful strangers in scrubs and latex gloves.
Drove 24/7
Bringing out of hours back in-house is one of those decisions that sounds straightforward on paper and is anything but in practice.
It's a big operational move – and a significant statement about what it means to be a truly independent practice.
No outsourcing to VetsNow. No third-party locums. Just Drove, at the Swindon hospital, whenever you need us.
The branding and messaging we built around the launch kept it simple: your independent hospital, always there.
Which, when you think about it, is exactly what Drove has always been.
We’re excited to see what the future holds for Drove 24/7.
What we actually think
We've worked with a lot of practices.
The ones that achieve the most are almost always the ones that are willing to be open-minded – and then follow through on it with swift decision-making so we can get into the weeds and get shit done.
Drove are that practice.
Relaunching a 9,000-member health plan, building a new website, launching an in-house OOH brand, all in the same year, while finding time to have some fun, while running a busy multi-site hospital? That's not a “we need to do some marketing, can you do something for us on Facebook?”. That's a business transformation.
Winning the VMA Practice Marketing Award is a brilliant recognition of everything the Drove team has built.
We've had a fantastic time being a part of the journey.
Although we’ll be more than happy to take a bigger chunk of the credit if Lynne isn’t in the room.
Do you want to take your practice on a similar journey? Let’s talk.
Vet practice marketing
To us it's personal
If you’re eager to improve your practice’s marketing but you’re unsure where to start, I’m taking on new clients for the next quarter! Book an initial discovery below!
