Glug HQ's Malin Persson
Olivia Downing
- 'How to get lucky' - Sick of people telling her she's lucky to have her job even though shes put in a lot of hard work to get there herself.
- She became a copywriter at an advertising agency as a day job
- #schoolofthought graduate programme.
- As long as you build on your own experiences and put the graft in anyone can be 'lucky'
- Find that time of the day to dedicate to your own projects and do your own thing
- Relate to lots of different people in a very short space of time - element of empathy - our words are less important than our abilities to relate.
- There is somebody on the receiving end of your work. Knowing this makes you better.
- Ask yourself what is the worst thing that could happen - fight the fear and do it anyway!
- Do more things on your own - the more things you do by yourself the more opportunities you open yourself up to because you have to make friends and speak to new people.
- It's not all roses all the time, people do have wobbles.Take the time to look after yourself and then get back into it.
- Don't wait for the change - be it.
- When you enter the industry you find out lots of facts
- The industry has moved on but the statistics remain the same, all the panels are the same and nobody is doing anything.
- Wasn't seeing the results she was expecting to in the creative industry so set up CIA - Chicks in Advertising, a group of women who talk about their experiences of being a woman in the creative industries
- Chicks in advertising Student Busary - Helps female creatives with travel costs after university going to interviews etc.
- If you have an idea for something that could be a big thing then DO IT! You never know whats going to take off.
- 27 years old from Sweden, works for Glug
- If you want a job, do your homework
- We're a man made industry
- Make sure you realise that if you have a bad situation at work
- 'Oh shit' moments are your intuition telling you something isn't right and you need to listen to your gut instinct.
- Be interested rather than be interesting
- You don't need an elevator pitch, you need to be a good listener
- Work on your own dreams, or find one you want to adopt
- Do your research and find what makes you stick and where you draw your line.
- Type in the job titles you're interested into linkedIn, stalk the people and see how they got to that point.
- You need to figure out the commercial ladder if you want to climb it. Why did the client choose the other pitch?
- Everyone is looking for maximum profitability.
- You can look at the competition and what the stakeholders are doing - if you figure that out you'll be in an irreplaceable position.
- Dare to ask about business, dare to ask about money and talk about money.
- Talk about projects you're not involved in
- Dare to be seen as serious. Climb the ladder, be ambitious
- All the jargons you hear, google and figure out.
- Knowledge is power. Ask your pals.
- Confidence in knowing what's going on gives you the confidence to ask for pay rises etc.
- Give people an opportunity to place you into context and where you want to be so you need to leave a trail to be relevant in peoples minds.
- If people around you know what you're opting for and aiming towards if they hear those opportunities arise they will put you forward. If they don't know about it they will never suggest you for the interview.
- A job is like a gym membership. You need to show up, do more and do it today. Figure out a routine and change it every now and again.
- Perseverance and stick to it.
- The robots are coming and it's going to be amaing. We don't have to be worried in the creative industry because we are practising emotional problem solving every day. We are practicing being human and bringing the human factor into whatever we do so whatever jobs that can be automated arent really that exciting anyway.
- But unless you start being aware of them and get to know them now they're gonna start getting more and more complicated, get to know these things and you'll be less scared by all the media propaganda etc.
- The future is freelance.
- Stay relevant.
- Part-time marketing manager from team cooper in Sheffield and full-time mum
- Flexible working
- Flexibility is the future
- Account executive at an Agency in Sheffield was really good at it and loved the work
- Then had a baby, got peed and pooped on and was off work for months then expected to get back to it.
- At 11 months old she went back to work at the agency for 4 days a week
- He cried every day she left him at nursery
- She picked up the lions share of the work while her husband was at work
- Then had another baby which made it twice as hard
- She was dropping the ball all of the time, she couldn't make meetings because she was dropping the kids off at nursey and she just lost all confidence in what she did and didn't feel like she could do it anymore, she didn't feel like she was doing a good job at home or doign a good job at work and she became a statistic.
- 43% of qualified women leave their careers when they have a family
- THAT'S SHIT
- That shouldn't happen. If someone doesn't do something about this we're going to still be having these conversations about gender ineuality, about 'the confidence gap'
- Nothings going to change for the next 50 years
- That's why flexibility is the future.
- She went back to stay at home with her kids but after 6 months she was tearing her hair out and was itching to get back to work.
- It's ok that being at home with 2 kids isn't enough. She wanted more from life and didn't want to put her career on hold.
- So she did some freelancing, picked up a few clients here and there.
- Then she found a job that was both part-time and flexible and they called out for women who perhaps had been on maternity and were looking to get back into work.
- That's really progressive and doesn't happen very often. That was team Cooper.
- But it's not just for mums. She felt like she is much more productive when she has control over her day. It doesn't matter where she is, she doesn't have to be in front of her allocated desk everyday so that she can get her job done.
- She can be at home, she can drop her kids off at school, she can then go into the office if she wants to, or a coffee shop...wherever she's feeling most productive. As long as the job gets done it doesn't matter.
- 72% of global businesses reported increased productivity when they offered flexible working.
- You can't argue with that.
- It's about attracting talent.
- We all want it but we don't have it and if we did have it, it could take us on a journey to a better place. 76% of employers saw increased staff retention.
- She's really happy where she is now. She can manage her own diary and has a balance between family and her career. She doesn't have to choose.
- It's about reaching out and having a network of people.
- If CIA was around when she was having kids maybe things would be a little different.
- She couldn't see anyone in her position when she was going through having to make these difficult decisions and hapily balancing family life and work.
- You can't be who you can't see. If you surround yourselves with people who are in the same position and have a network you might be able to talk each other round and talk about it.
- She's in a WhatsApp group with 27 women who look out for each other, look out for opportunities for each other and support each other.
- As long as you have people in your network who you can talk to it really helps.
- Talk about how you're feeling. Go to your bosses with the stats and the productivity and take that to the table and talk about it.
- Can we have it all? If we really want it. Yes we can.
- Companies that offer flexible working will be the ones that reap the benefits.
Ellen Ling
- Copy writer
- Worked on Pepsi Ad, Simply Be - Rules ReWritten
- Worked at D&AD in the New Blood Awards Section
- Commercial Creativity Industry
- Joined the D&AD content team
- What makes a winning piece of work?
- What do you think the gaps in the industry are?
- What would you want to see in a CV?
- Applied to a copywriting job at LOVE
- Design, advertising, packaging design, 3D
- Roses without the prick - Fun Copy
- Survive your experiences
- Hungry talent meets starving industry
- You are that fresh perspective and that thing that they don't know about yet
- All the things that they have learnt over time that the more you know the less you know
- Disrupt the system
- Studios need a jolt of energry from students to break up the stuffy routine
- Need people to come in and shake it up
- The industry should be built on exchange
- Intern article - If you're not hearing different opinions it should be alarm bells you're hearing instead
- Not a box-ticking exercise it's in your interests to have different people around you with different opinions
- If no ones challenging you what the fuck are you learning
- Ego gets in the way
- Diversity in terms of culture, background and dicipline.
- Royally fuck it up and think your way out of it - don't blame the brief
- Without clients and their problems we have nothing
- I can't be a novelist so don't give me a blank page. I need some kind of stimulus, a problem to solve that your brain can get around
- Problem-solving - everything we do in the creative industries is about solving problems
- Find your gut instinct for what the solution is.
- Build up gut instinct and be a detective.
- You can so easily be mediocre and be like 'that will do'/that makes sense/that's sensible/the client wants this/we'll give it to them. But it's hard to be like this is the right answer, I worked fucking hard for that. I did the groundwork and this is it.
- Because you'd done the detective work and knew this is the right answer you can argue your point more efficiently and convince others.
- This is where award-winning amazing work happens when you've got ideas from fully doing the research.
- That's your job.
- Work out who you are and be that. Your feelings, your opinions, your perspective on things is all that you have. It's what you can bring to the table and the brief. Personal interpretation of things, your craft, your experience of the culture. There's no point wasting time being someone else.
- Don't grow a wishbone where your backbone should be. 'I really hope I get that job, I really hope the client likes it.' You have to go out and have conversations with people and make your path.
- If 2 people are in a room having a conversation and your name comes up, what is the 1 word that you'd want them both to describe you as? Live up to that and be that.
- Be a genuine person that people will come back to time and time again.
- What's the box you want to be in? How do you want people to see you?
- Be less credited on something way better.
- Doesn't matter if your name was on it or not - who gives a shit? Care about making something that's amazing.
- Be the dumbest person in the room. Be a good listener and learn something new. You learn nothing when you try to pretend you know everything.
- Be honest. There are enough egos in the industry. If you don't know something, ask about it. It's good to ask questions - be confident to ask questions and you'll be much more enriched. Who gives a shit if you know everything? Nobody knows everything. Ask someone and you will learn so much more.