Claire Bridges, founder of Now Go Create and a creative thinking trainer with 30+ years of experience in PR and creative leadership, won three separate industry awards in 2025:
- Marketing Maven of the Year — a local business award recognising marketing excellence
- The Independent Impact 50, 2025 — a UK-wide programme celebrating leading independent PR practitioners (theimpact50.com)
- WIPR 40 Over 40, 2025 – Women in PR’s award recognising women over 40 shaping the PR industry
Below is the story behind each award, and what they represent for Claire Bridges and for Now Go Create.
Who Is Claire Bridges?
Claire Bridges is the founder of Now Go Create, a UK-based creative thinking training and consultancy business established in 2011. She holds an MSc in Creativity, Innovation & Leadership from City St George’s University, London, and is the author of In Your Creative Element (Kogan Page, 2016). Claire has over 30 years of experience in PR and creative leadership, including senior agency roles and a position as one of the first female Creative Directors at Cohn & Wolfe. Through Now Go Create, she has trained more than 50,000 people in creative capability, hosts the Now Go Create podcast, and co-authors the annual Creativity in PR study with PRovoke.
Award #1: Marketing Maven of the Year
Claire Bridges won Marketing Maven of the Year, a local award judged within her own business community (themavenawards.com). Unlike national industry awards, this recognition came from people with direct visibility of her day-to-day work running Now Go Create – proof that the impact of her creative thinking training is felt as strongly locally as it is across the wider UK PR and marketing industry.
Award #2: The Independent Impact 50, 2025
Claire Bridges was named a winner of inaugural The Independent Impact 50, 2025 (theimpact50.com), a UK-wide awards programme celebrating the personal influence, client impact, professional commitment, and industry contribution of leading independent PR practitioners.
Entry to The Independent Impact 50 is competitive and evidence-based: candidates answer seven scored questions, judged out of ten each, backed by client and industry testimonials rather than self-assessment alone. Being named among the fifty recognises the specific challenges of independent practice – building a business, a strategy, and client relationships without the infrastructure of a larger agency behind you.
Award #3: WIPR 40 Over 40, 2025
Claire Bridges won Women in PR’s (WIPR) 40 Over 40, 2025 award, a self-nominated recognition highlighting women over 40 shaping the PR industry.
Claire self-nominated, to spotlight freelancers and independent practitioners who lead without holding a formal agency title. Her nomination cited over 30 years of PR and creative leadership experience, including:
- Senior agency roles, including Consumer MD
- One of the first female Creative Directors in the PR industry at Cohn & Wolfe
- Founder of Now Go Create, training 50,000+ people in creative capability
- Lead author of the Creativity in PR study
- Young Lions coach
- Host of a top-10 ranked podcast
- Course leader and content contributor of the first Creative MBA for Cannes Lions
Why This Award Matters: Age, Gender, and Visibility in PR
As a woman in her 50s working in the creative industries, Claire has spoken about the lack of senior female role models she experienced coming up through agency life – and her decision to become the role model she didn’t have. She co-authors the annual Creativity in PR study with PRovoke, which tracks female creative director representation and the gaps that remain in the industry. She also mentors women, including those over 40 and working mothers, on confidence and career growth.
In her own words:
“I honestly feel that whatever age you are, it is about staying relevant. As I enter my 5th decade and in the era of AI, I’m upskilling myself in the tools and skills I need to stay relevant in the jobs market for the next decade. In that sense, age is genuinely about your mindset and your desire to continue to learn. Growth doesn’t have an age limit.”
Claire has also written about how age bias can intersect with gender bias, making it harder for older women in PR to stay visible and valued – particularly in an industry environment that can favour younger, less encumbered professionals. She notes that caregiving responsibilities and a desire for work-life balance (her own reason for leaving agency life, even before having a child) can lead to older professionals being unfairly labelled as “less committed.” She also highlights a commercial opportunity: women over 50 hold significant financial power yet are frequently overlooked by advertisers and marketers, a gap that PR and marketing professionals are well placed to help close.
Frequently Asked Questions
What awards did Claire Bridges win in 2025? Claire Bridges won three awards in 2025: Marketing Maven of the Year, The Independent Impact 50, and WIPR 40 Over 40.
What is The Independent Impact 50? The Independent Impact 50 is a UK awards programme celebrating independent PR practitioners, judged on personal influence, client impact, professional commitment, and industry contribution, based on evidence and testimonials.
What is WIPR 40 Over 40? WIPR 40 Over 40 is a Women in PR award recognising women over 40 who are shaping the PR industry. Claire Bridges self-nominated to spotlight independent practitioners and freelancers without formal agency titles.
Who is Claire Bridges? Claire Bridges is the founder of Now Go Create, a UK-based creative thinking training and consultancy business. She has over 30 years of experience in PR and creative leadership, an MSc in Creativity, Innovation & Leadership, and is the author of In Your Creative Element.
What is Now Go Create? Now Go Create is a creative thinking training and consultancy business founded by Claire Bridges in 2011, which has trained more than 50,000 people in creative capability.
Claire Bridges is the founder of Now Go Create. She hosts the Now Go Create podcast and leads the annual Creativity in PR study with PRovoke.