About us

Automotive experience, built for more than a decade.

From Auto Trader and Hyundai to fleet, mobility and warranty brands, we turn insight into PR, digital and social campaigns that deliver measurable business results.

The Drum Consultancy team collaborating on campaign ideas

Our approach

Built around automotive audiences

We understand the people who move the automotive market: motorists, dealers, manufacturers, fleet operators, insurers and mobility businesses. That focus lets us turn complex products and data into stories that people want to read, watch and share.

Our experience spans Auto Trader, Hyundai, BookMyGarage, Fleetondemand, Activate Group and warranty brands—combining PR, events, digital, social, research-led content and video to build market share.

Our creativity. Our innovation. Our passion.

It’s our talented people that shape our culture. We work closely with our clients, as an integral part of their marketing teams, delivering outstanding service.

By developing strong relationships, we build trust and transparency. Our client-centric approach is at the core of our business, together with delivering consistent and measurable results for clients. This has been the cornerstone of our success.

Our leadership team

Meet the team

Karen Hughes Maddison

Founder and Managing Director

Karen is a founding partner of Drum and a consumer and B2B marcomms specialist with some seventeen years’ experience. She started Drum after working in top ten UK PR agencies including Porter Novelli and Hill & Knowlton, on brands including Kellogg’s, Chivas Regal, Skoda, VW, Apple and ASDA.

Karen has led campaigns across automotive, fleet, mobility, digital and social—alongside property, retail, consumer technology, professional services, finance and insurance.

A career highlight was leading a five-year corporate, trade and consumer marketing programme for Auto Trader. Drum worked closely with its events, editorial, sales and digital teams to build the brand’s authority with motorists, dealers and manufacturers.

The team helped establish Auto Trader as the UK’s largest motoring website, with more than 10m monthly users at the time, through sustained PR, events, partnerships, digital content and customer-facing campaigns.

Karen is responsible for driving the strategic development and growth of Drum; setting, reviewing and improving client service standards; and hands-on client handling.

Jacob Ananenu

Creative Director

Jacob specialises in digital, social media and content, helping automotive, lifestyle and consumer brands use platforms and creative ideas to grow their audiences and businesses.

He leads Drum’s digital and social activity, combining short-form video, content planning and performance-led optimisation to deliver campaigns that are both distinctive and measurable.