Making work at the speed of social culture
Lucy Doubleday, UK Managing Director at We Are Social, on maintaining momentum in your career and making work at the speed of culture.
Nicola Kemp
Editorial Director Creativebrief“Social drives culture.” In a wider marketing ecosystem where brands and agencies alike are obsessed with connecting with culture, Lucy Doubleday, UK Managing Director at We Are Social, is explaining how embracing social media lies at the heart of creating culture-first brands.
While culture has become the most ubiquitous catchphrase in marketing, We Are Social has earned its stripes as the OG agency when it comes to creating ideas worth talking about.
Doubleday is at the heart of this success. Her leadership impact underlines that being culture first demands having compassion and empathy for your teams. To successfully lead culture as an agency, you have to invest in creating a culture where employees can truly bring their whole selves to work.
With a well-earned reputation for being an empathetic leader, Doubleday has successfully accelerated her career by investing her time and energy into the teams that she loves to work alongside every day.
A drive which was recognised as she stepped up to the role of UK Managing Director in September this year. Doubleday joined the agency in 2013 as operations director. She was later promoted to managing partner. The new role has a wide ranging remit of overseeing UK leadership, driving client growth, championing culture, wellbeing and ED&I initiatives.
As an active mentor with BIMA and a participant in the Who’s Your Momma programme by SheSays, Doubleday is a leader who walks the walk when it comes to prioritising talent.
As an industry, we talk about social driving culture a lot, but what is missing is the fact that we need to lead with entertainment first.
Lucy Doubleday, UK Managing Director at We Are Social
The enduring power of entertainment
Doubleday has maintained an expansive view on the role of social media in driving a brand forward. While some marketing leaders are content with culture-first to translate to little more than reactive social, she takes a more holistic view on the role of entertainment in driving social marketing forward.
“As an industry, we talk about social driving culture a lot, but what is missing is the fact that we need to lead with entertainment first,” she explains.
Pointing to the agency’s recent humorous social series for cider brand Somersby, a social series starring sassy squirrels, Doubleday believes that entertainment is crucial to success.
Staying creative while being chronically online
The lightness of the Somersby campaign is rooted in the culture of We Are Social. As Doubleday explains: “Being chronically online for us is about living and breathing social, driving really close teams, having a dedicated approach to community management and really understanding what brands and cultures are driving forward on social media.”
Doubleday shares an unapologetic love of community management. She says: “If a brand gets community management right, you can identify new product trends, you can learn so much from your consumers.”
She points to the ‘Verified by Vaseline campaign’ as a great example of a brand successfully leaning into community and fandoms. In essence, by listening to consumers and understanding the role of your product in their lives, you can successfully lean into authentic community engagement.
You don’t have a really engaged audience if you are just responding to the trends all the time.
Lucy Doubleday, UK Managing Director at We Are Social
Hype is not a sustainable strategy
While in 2025 marketers might not still be tasking their agencies with ‘going viral’, the ability to play the long game and look beyond the hype cycle is increasingly core to brand success.
Whether the rise of AI-influencers or RichTok, the danger for marketing leaders is that they exist in a state of continual distraction. In a world of few certainties, the fundamental truth remains that the latest hype cycle may not be fundamental to your brand growth.
“All of these hype cycles are signals, not strategies,” says Doubleday. She continues: “I think it is really important to recognise when that trend is relevant to you. You are starting to see more backlashes to opportunistic branded responses. If it is not relevant, then don’t get on board.”
While many brands are looking to embrace a ‘challenger’ mindset, Doubleday underlines that sometimes the strongest sign of a brand that knows what it stands for is when it knows when to stay silent. She believes that successful social strategies are built on three pillars: moments, movements and mindsets; from fast ephemeral cultural trends, through to ingrained cultural values that are learnt over time.
“You don’t have a really engaged audience if you are just responding to the trends all the time,” she explains, adding: “There is a really important listening piece to a social strategy, which you then use as a basis to build those moments that matter.”
It is important not to always be in broadcast mode.
Lucy Doubleday, UK Managing Director at We Are Social
Setting a sustainable pace in an always-on industry
In an era of almost perpetual transformation, clarity has been a driving force in Doubleday's career. She knows what she wants to do and why she wants to do it.
“I love working with smart, diverse, interesting creative minds that come at problems in different ways,” she explains.
The diversity of her role also keeps her constantly engaged. “Being in social you have to have an open mindset as you are constantly working at pace, meeting new people and understanding what makes people really tick,” Doubleday adds.
It is a simple yet nonetheless fundamental truth: “You will not win at social if you don’t understand people,” she says.
This isn’t just a pithy quote, Doubleday meets every new joiner at We Are Social, finding out what attracted them to the business and what they aim to do. “If you know people better you can really help them achieve their goals,” she explains.
It is this positive energy which is so vital to avoiding the transformation fatigue hitting the industry. As the mornings get darker and the year comes to a close, Doubleday is focused on shining a light on togetherness. “I get my energy from being around people and getting people together. We are conscious of the importance of bringing people together to celebrate the wins and the great work. We have to stop being awkward about celebrating the wins,” she adds.
A truth which, like Doubleday’s career, will successfully thrive beyond any given trend cycle.
The future of social strategy: lessons from the top
We Are Social’s Doubleday on setting yourself up for success, maintaining momentum and moving beyond social-first thinking.
Q: What would be your advice to marketing leaders starting out in their careers today?
A: The same principles of marketing still apply; identify the audience and understand how to sell the product to the audience. Keep what we are doing as marketers, front and foremost of your strategy.
Keep broad to start with and listen a lot to stay connected to culture.
In your career path, specialise a bit later; that broad understanding is important. Don’t be afraid to fail.
With agency relationships it is important to recognise that the best work comes from closer relationships. So think about anything you can do to set that relationship as a partnership, not a transaction.
Ask for a mentor or a buddy. It is important to have someone in your working life that you feel comfortable with saying when you are stuck.
We run lots of training for young talent and my number one piece of advice is to always ask. Don’t assume that everyone knows the answer to the question you are afraid to ask.
Your career develops through promotion but it is that constant daily upskilling that really helps. So don't be afraid to go back to basics and ask for feedback even when it feels uncomfortable.
Q: How do you keep the pace to drive meaning and momentum in a creative career?
A: The pace of social, combined with the tussles of leadership, mean it is important to navigate change while challenging your own ability to change and flex.
It is ok to not have all the answers. Recognise that you have a team around you that you believe in. That team will help you navigate all the changes that come your way.
It is important to take the time to build your own network and some of my peers are from different agencies. There is a real strength in acknowledging that everyone is working so hard but on your own, you won't always have all the pieces to solve the puzzle. You have to build as you go and you have to be comfortable with discomfort.
When I get overwhelmed it is because I am trying to solve everything at once. I chunk things off into smaller challenges and that gives me a much greater sense of momentum. It is important to move things forward when you don’t have all the answers.
Q: What is the biggest myth you would like to bust about social media?
A: The biggest myth is that social media is easy. That you can simply respond to the latest hype and that will deliver everything you need. We are now seeing more spent on social media than broadcast platforms.
Marketing leaders need to invest both their budgets and their time to truly get the most out of social. Social is not just a marketing moment, you need a long-term strategy.
We are having some really interesting conversations on how we embed social in the heart of the business and how we take community management to the next level. It is a shift from being ‘social first’ to embedding social at the heart of your long-term strategy.