What does your department do?
I’m a Senior Account Director in the Campaign Management team. We are responsible for working with clients to fine-tune their briefs and, once confirmed, for implementing those experiences.
Campaign teams are the hub of the agency; to launch a campaign successfully, we often must engage all the different departments at N2O, from creative to talent, finance and HR, production and logistics to digital and social services and then coordinate them, so that each campaign exceeds its requirements for our clients.
Essentially, we oversee projects from start to finish, provide comprehensive reporting throughout the event and wrap it all up at the end with recommendations for next time!
What does your role involve?
My role has developed as I have also spent time in a Client Development capacity. This is something that naturally evolved due to building strong, trusted relationships with the accounts I oversee.
My team and I currently manage all our Unilever projects. Although early days, I’m also very much involved in our Grocery Aid projects, so my day-to-day involves collaborating with all the teams we bring together to manage these experiences and ensuring that implementation goes to plan (and on budget)!
How long have you been at N2O?
11 years last Monday! I joined back when we were a small company based in Windsor; it’s been exhilarating to see how much we have grown.
What was your route to it?
Honestly, it was never something I thought I’d be doing. However, after my A-Levels, I worked some totally tedious jobs, and I stumbled on a shiny ad for a position at N2O in the Talent Management team. Before the age of LinkedIn and online job ads, I think I even saw the ad in the paper.
I essentially nagged N2O for the job, and I’m very glad they took a chance on me. It’s a role I fell into, but I’m so happy and fulfilled at N2O – I can’t imagine doing anything else now!
After six months with the TM team, I felt a pull to get stuck in with the on-the-ground experiences, bringing the clients’ visions to life and getting involved in the logistical side of the projects. So, moving into the Campaign Management team felt like an exciting step, and it continues to motivate me to this day.
What does the future hold for your department?
The Department seems to grow weekly, and I’m so happy to develop my current team as we build a bigger department to handle the influx of extra work coming our way through Unilever and other clients. I want to continue mentoring and supporting my team and passing on everything I’ve learned so far.
I’m thrilled that we’re delivering this year’s Waitrose & Grocery Aid garden party in May. We are working closely with the Grocery Aid team and the plans are already looking very exciting.
I’m looking forward to branching out more into bringing our clients’ brand experiences to life and pitching for new projects.
What is your most satisfying project so far, and why?
After 11 years, it’s pretty tricky to pick just one!
2022 was a great year for me; we were finally back to running events in the real world, and I had the chance to work closely with the Elida team, a relationship that has been building since Elida was part of Unilever. We worked to deliver Elida’s first company conference with a circus theme which was incredibly exciting, especially seeing the full team come together for the weekend and meeting people in person, which we hadn’t been able to do before.
I worked with the team who delivered the Coca-Cola Christmas conference up in Liverpool a few years ago. I was responsible for the master brand; it involved five days away from home for the stand builds with very little sleep, and then we went live…the doors opened, and about 2000 Coca-Cola colleagues entered all at once. It was a blood, sweat and tears experience but being able to sit back at the end with such a hardworking group of N2Oers and say, “we did that”, was so rewarding.
What do you like most about your job?
The people. There’s such a real family feel at N2O, which I don’t think you can get anywhere else. Even as the team has grown over the years, that still feels the same. I love who I work for/with – Clare, Terrence, Julia, and Jo to name a few. They’ve given me unwavering support and training to get me to where I am now.
Also, I love how unique the briefs we receive can be; they challenge and excite me every day. There’s no better feeling than working with all the various N2O departments on an experience and watching all that hard work come together; it is unbelievably rewarding.
And, finally, what are your interests outside work?
I bought my first house last year and to say it was a renovation project is an understatement. Everything needs doing. So, I’m enjoying planning and doing each room with my dad’s help. I project manage; he does the heavy lifting! I love putting my aesthetic into each space, so it feels like home.
I’ve recently taken up yoga which I love; I really appreciate the downtime it offers.
Plus, I have a gorgeous niece and nephew with whom I spend much of my spare time.
