BRANDS

BRANDS

A decade of writing words, having ideas and leading teams for brands who do good, and have fun.

Emily began her career selling dog food on the internet as the social media editor at tails.com. There, she ran the social channels and wrote words for dog owners (and lovers) all over the UK, eventually supporting with a rebrand, PR and editorial content. She loved that job so much. After all, at what other company would you, as part of your job, have to spend your days papping photos of dogs, and conversing with a person who is pretending to be (and writing as) their dog via Instagram DM?

Emily also liked big brands (and she cannot lie). In 2018, she dived into the world of advertising at Proximity London – where she cut her teeth (and sharpened her pencil) on the craft of writing copy worth reading. She wrote words and came up with ideas for brilliant clients like IKEA, Virgin Voyages, The Economist, Disney, John Lewis, Marvel, Virgin Holidays, ASDA, P&G, Bacardi, Volkswagen and more. She started off flying solo, but eventually joined forces with the wonderful Elspeth Watson to be the (at the time) only female creative team in the agency.

Wanting to move closer to customers and their experiences, Emily moved into the business of building brands and helping them find their voices. In 2019, she joined the launch team at Skin + Me, helping to build the brand from scratch and creating (and gatekeeping) their tone of voice and brand culture – for which she was awarded the Women In Marketing Highly Commended Copywriter Award in 2022. She was really awkward about it and nearly fell over on stage.

After two years, in search of flexibility and variety, Emily finally went freelance. She helped brands like Lick, Harry’s, Freddie’s Flowers and a few others with creative campaigns, strategy, tone of voice, editorial, copywriting, brand identity and company culture and values. But full time freelancing didn’t last long. After a few months of working with Freddie’s Flowers two days a week, she was asked to come in-house as their Head of Copy for four days a week. A year later, she was made Head of Brand + Creative.

In August 2023, Emily zipped off to Amsterdam for six months to look after the creative team, and all their excellent work and ideas, at Tony’s Chocolonely as their Global Head of Creative’s maternity cover.

In February 2024, Emily returned to London as the Global Head of Copy & Editorial for Bumble, where she looked after all the writers and all their words, which we used to help people find their people across Bumble Date, Bumble For Friends, Badoo, Official, Fruitz and Geneva.

In August 2025, the stars aligned and Emily finally went out on her own. Now, she’s in her fractional era. Her multi-hyphenate era. Her various em dash era. Her Em(ily) Dash Powell era, if you will. You’ll find her writing good words for good people at good brands and publications, and helping those good brands figure out who they really are. Brands like Ffern, Netflix, Trip, Tony's Chocolonely, Starling Bank, Snapchat, Stylist and a few others, too.

Emily is someone who brings ideas, captures ideas, sharpens ideas and brings ideas to life – with an abundance of energy and enthusiasm. She also helps writers to find their voices and get over their hurdles. Emily mentors writers, train writers, advocate for writers – and make sure good writing is fought for in good businesses.

She cares deeply about company culture, and believes that the best brands are the ones that truly live and breathe the values that they project out into the world. In 2020, Emily was named as a Pitch Superwoman – along with 99 others who spend their days championing creativity and diversity across the creative industries, making it a place that as many people want to, and are able to, work in. In 2022, Emily was named as Campaign Magazine’s Future Leaders ‘One To Watch’.

Emily is an advocate of flexible working and a vocal supporter of the 4 Day Work Week Campaign. She is also the world’s biggest crisp enthusiast and will do (almost) anything you ask in exchange for a bag of salt & vinegar Discos.

Highly Commended Copywriter at the Women in Marketing Awards

For the Skin + Me tone of voice.

Interviews and features

LIKE, REALLY NICE THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT EMILY

  • “I always say you can tell a true leader by the strength of their team. Under Emily’s leadership, the copy team at Bumble didn’t just grow, it thrived. She built an environment where writers felt empowered, trusted, and inspired to do their best work. That's who she is.

    Emily is deeply respected by her team and peers alike. She combines strategic thinking, incredible wit, and a strong sense of creative vision. She knows how to build a brand voice from the ground up, and just as importantly, how to flex it across channels in a way that feels consistent, fresh, fun! and impactful.

    Working with Emily was a gift. She is one of those rare creative leaders who makes everyone around her better, and I feel lucky to have been one of them.”

  • “Spend five minutes talking about copy, brand strategy, or just what you had for lunch with Emily, and you’ll walk away better for it. She’s one of the most talented professionals I’ve worked with: a writer, creative leader, and strategist with incredible knowledge of her craft, people, and how to make words work for brands.

    I’ve been incredibly lucky to report directly to Emily at Bumble and call her my manager. Her guidance has shaped not just how I write, but how I advocate for myself and my work. Emily brings vision, thought, and real joy into curating copy, and every one-to-one feels like a collaborative workshop that encourages you to zoom out and think about what you’re really trying to achieve creatively. 

    Emily has a way of instantly sharpening the thinking in any room just by being in it. From elevating creative brainstorms with sharp ideas to providing thoughtful, one-to-one feedback, she brings insight that feels like gold dust into everything she does. Simply put, she's one of the best. Any brand would be lucky to have her, and if you spend five minutes with her, you’ll understand why.”

  • “Emily is one of the most talented and inspiring creatives I’ve had the pleasure of working with. As our Interim Head of Creative, she brought a rare mix of authenticity, leadership, and sharp creative thinking to every project. Her copywriting is not only compelling and distinctive, but it is always rooted in real human insight. I simply love hearing her talk and write! Emily leads with empathy, encourages bold ideas and consistently raises the bar – I loved working together. Any team would be lucky to have her.”

  • “Emily is one of the kindest, most authentic creative leaders I know. She leads from the front, side and back, supporting and championing every single person on her team. She knows when to step in to sharpen creative concepts, and when to whisper words of encouragement, then sit back to watch her team shine. Any brand would be lucky to have her at the wheel.”

  • “I was lucky enough to work with Emily at Freddies Flowers, and promoted her from Head of Copy to Head of Brand, deservedly so.

    Within a very short time, Emily had taken the brand research and turned it into a pithy position, "To Brighten More than Homes", that reflected the business ambition to build a long-term emotional connection with the brand. This was supported by the brand framework and message hierarchy (Fred's Shed) and embedded in the business, across marketing, product, CS, and styling, as the north star for communication, proposition development, and product features.

    With Emily's experience in leading creative agencies, we were lucky to utilise her copywriting skills with the development of our first above-the-line campaign for Mother's Day, "Mothers and Others", reflecting this important seasonal moment for floral gifting, but sensitively broadening the appeal of the creative to recognise, all the significant mother figures in our lives. As a result, we sold out of boxes of flowers 48 hours early!

    Em is a box of creative treasures, highly brand literate (especially in D2C), and a great team player...with lots of laughter in between!”

  • “So Em. Fast-talking, fiercely bright, fantastic writer. But that's just scratching the surface. Em has a genuine passion for words – words that are simply brilliant when she gets her hands on them.

    She writes with a wit, depth, capability and sagacity that continually astounds. She questions herself to get the very best work (and will question you too so you'd better be on top of your game). She can effortlessly change her style to suit the brief, knows her social media and can reel off writing influencers at the drop of a hat. And yes, she's really lovely, she's really collaborative, she's really creative and she's really funny (although not always intentionally).

    We were incredibly lucky to have her. There aren't many writers as all-round talented as Em, so if you get the chance, snap her up. Honestly, you won't regret it.”

  • “If ever you need to move a mountain, Emily is the first person to call. She is tenacious in all the right ways and truly devoted to her craft like no one else I have ever met.

    Her writing is an absolute delight, and she's the kind of copywriter who can deliver a brief that's 10x better than you imagined possible.

    As a colleague, she inspired me to work harder, think bigger and be nicer. I hope to work with her again someday but failing that I will definitely be queued up to buy her first book.”

  • “Emily is excellent. She’s a curious creative – always looking to learn. Like the time she came to my Copywriting Masterclass and afterwards, asked me to be her mentor. Or the time she used her annual leave to intern in the publishing industry.

    She’s hard-working too – always writing. Not just in her day job, but beyond it. She’ll spend evenings writing features and articles for major publications, and she’ll spend weekends writing comedies and plays. And all her writing is rewarding to read. She just gets a brand’s tone of voice, and her personal work is full of her personality: funny and fabulous.”

  • “I'm so glad that mine and Emily's paths crossed at Proximity when we were paired as a conceptual team for a Virgin Voyages project. She has a fantastic ability to take influence from everything around her in order to create beautiful work that is true to whatever brand she is working on. Her enthusiasm, passion, energy and self-confidence in her work is what makes her so great.

    I could not think of a better person to collaborate with. It could be a project for snail food and I would still have fun creating something with her, that, I know would be thought-provoking, insightful and brilliant.

    If you're looking for someone to understand your brand, then be able to push it in ways that people hadn't thought of, then look no further than Emily Ash Powell. She's one of a kind.”

  • “Emily is an outstanding creative. She brings the best energy to any team, a perfect mix of enthusiasm, ideas and integrity. If Emily puts to work her excellent craft of copywriting she does it with genuine care for your brand and what you stand for, as well as complete empathy for your customers and users.

    Superwoman 2020 is no joke, her work has real impact and she creates real culture that can’t be manufactured, making success wherever she goes.

    Every team needs an Emily, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get Emily Powell.”

WORK WITH EMILY

WORK WITH EMILY