Lucy Burton
Creative Consultant
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
GROWING TALENT WITH FLAVOURS & CULTURE
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
GROWING TALENT WITH FLAVOURS& CULTURE
A UNIQUE CREATIVE CONSULTANT
I help stills and motion talent, creatives, creative agencies and production companies win the right work — not just more work.
Over a decade in the advertising and production industry, most recently building relationships across creatives and production companies from the inside, has given me a clear view of how new business actually happens in this world: through trust, timing, and the right introduction landing at the right moment.
Not through cold decks and spray-and-pray outreach.
I work as an embedded, freelance new business partner — parachuting into a roster, a studio or a production company and picking up exactly where you need me most.
Why Memento
Food and drink imagery is not decoration.
It's the long hours and early mornings given by farmers, promoting sustainable farming and better animal welfare, encouraging healthy, sustainable diets and clearer food
the first bite,
Memento exists to connect brands, agencies, and publishers with the photographers and directors who understand that — and to give talent the representation, strategy, and career support that this specialist world rarely offers.
We're not a volume agency. We're a small, considered one, working across food, drink, and the lifestyle and cultural work that surrounds them.
Who I work with
Photographers and directors
Career strategy and new business
I’ll work with you on a career and commercial strategy built around your work, then help put it into action: building relationships with agencies and brands, taking portfolio meetings, developing briefs, pitching and negotiating. The aim is a steady pipeline of commercial work that doesn’t depend on you chasing it at 11pm after a shoot day.
Marketing, growth and day-to-day support
Alongside a marketing and growth strategy, I can take the admin off your hands so you can focus on making the work. That might be inbox triage, replying to enquiries within 24 hours, managing your bookings and diary, following up on outreach and chasing invoices. When jobs come in, I can support with quoting, usage negotiation, production, campaign scheduling and client account management.
a new business pipeline that doesn't rely on you doing it yourself at 11pm after a shoot day.
Creative agencies
I help creative agencies grow. That means finding and winning the right new clients, developing fresh ideas to take to them, hosting events that bring commissioners and collaborators together, and building a presence on Instagram and LinkedIn that keeps your agency front of mind when the next brief lands.
Production companies
I help production companies sharpen their positioning, refresh their outreach and open doors with the creative directors and producers who aren’t already on their list. Having worked inside a food and drink production company and alongside agencies for over a decade, I know how commissioning decisions actually get made, and how to get your company into the conversation earlier.
Sharpening positioning
In a crowded market, being good at what you do isn’t enough; people need to understand quickly why they should call you. I’ll help you define what makes your company distinct, whether that’s your roster, your specialism, your approach to production or the kind of work you want more of. From there, we make sure your reel, website, credentials and treatments all tell the same clear story.
Between jobs, I can help you keep your name in front of the right people through LinkedIn, Instagram and regular updates on new work and talent, so when a brief lands, you’re already front of mind.
What I actually do
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Strategy & positioning: Working out what makes you distinctive, who you're actually right for, and how to say that clearly — before a single email goes out.
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Outreach & relationship building: Researched, targeted outreach to creative directors, producers and commissioners — the kind that reads as a person wrote it, because I did.
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Talent scouting & roster building: Mapping the landscape of photographers and directors by aesthetic, specialism and client fit, so agencies and production companies get the right names, not just a long list.
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Pipeline & retainer support: A structured, ongoing presence in your new business efforts — I typically work in retainer blocks, embedded enough actually to move things forward.
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Market & competitor insight: Understanding of who else is operating in your space, what's working for them, and where the gaps are.
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Websites & marketing collateral: Building new websites, updating and refreshing existing ones, and designing pitch decks, one-pagers and marketing materials that actually reflect the quality of the work behind them — brought together with the same UX thinking that shapes everything else I do.
New business isn't a bolt-on activity — it's the sum of how you present, how you work, and how you're perceived, all pulling in the same direction.
I bring both my design thinking and a UX background to this, which shapes how I approach the whole thing: mapping the actual journey a creative director or producer goes on, from first impression through to briefing you in, and removing the friction at every stage.
A polished portfolio means little if the enquiry process, the website, or the follow-up doesn't hold together. I look at the whole experience, not just the outreach email.
A holistic view of new business
Increasingly, agencies and brands are asking not just what you shoot, but why and how. I help talent and companies articulate a genuine sense of purpose — sustainable production practices, meaningful representation, honest storytelling — and build that into positioning rather than bolting it on as a line in a deck.
Done well, this isn't a compliance exercise; it's a real point of difference that resonates with the clients worth working with.
Purpose & sustainability
MEET LUCY BURTON
I'm both a talent agent and creative consultant with over a decade of experience specialising in photographers and directors.
However, I have worked across the creative industries as a whole.
That experience was built working closely with photographers inside a leading food and drink production company — learning first-hand what makes a shoot succeed, what talent actually needs from representation, and where the industry falls short.
SELECTED CLIENTS
We believe every client is a valuable long-term partner.
Want to explore positive businesses with a heart for social impact and positive change whilst delivering business tips for modern businesses?
The Circular Table is a newsletter with a positive stamp.
At the Circular Table, I explore positive businesses, fun projects, and innovative ideas that have a social impact and enable positive change, inspiring content ideas, whilst delivering business tips for modern businesses.
I will shine a light on a community of projects, brands, creatives, change-makers and maybe the odd eco-warrior, from the world of business and beyond.
The Circular Table
Working in partnership with world-renowned and award-winning portrait photographer
Tom Oldham, we are building creative libraries in deprived schools around the UK.
With a call to arms, we collect creative books and equipment to give to underfunded schools.
CREATIVE CORNERS
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LET'S WORK
TOGETHER
