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Katie Lee
Managing Director of Gravity Road
Creativebrief
Creativbrief
Career to date:
2015 - Gravity Road (Managing Director)
2014 - Leo Burnett (Managing Director)
2011 - Leo Burnett (Group Marketing Director)
2009 - Leo Burnett (Client Services Director, Homebase)
2008 - Leo Burnett (Deputy Head of Account Management)
2007 - Leo Burnett (Client Services Director, McDonald’s)
2007 - Leo Burnett (Managing Director)
2004 - BBH (Global Account Director)
2000 - Saatchi & Saatchi (Account Director)
1999 - Account Executive (CDP)
Creativebrief: As Managing Director of Gravity Road what is your primary focus?
Katie Lee: New business and managing the agency growth
Creativebrief: Please share a para on your career to date – specifically talking us through the high points.
Katie Lee: I started at CDP where I worked on Honda’s direct marketing. It was an invaluable starting point as it gave me a very good grounding of the basics including an understanding of the need for great attention to detail. I then moved to Saatchi, and I remember sitting in reception on my first day thinking ‘I can’t believe I am here’… it was a brand that even my granny had heard of. After 4 years at Saatchi I moved to BBH, where I worked with the most incredible people and learnt an extraordinary amount – it was the agency that really helped me grow strategically because you are surrounded by such best in class brains. I then moved to Leo Burnett, which felt like home – I was unbelievably happy there. I ran the family and kids side of the McDonald’s business at a really interesting stage for the brand. The negative PR backlash was beginning to turn and we were creating some great creative work as the brand gained the confidence to speak up again. It was an opportunity to really get involved in the business rather than just the advertising. I was Deputy Head of Account Management and then moved on to be Marketing Director. I love the new business role and think it’s one of the most exciting and pivotal roles in agency life. I was made Managing Director at Leo Burnett but continued to run the new business function as I feel the two roles are inextricably linked.
Creativebrief: What’s unique about your agency / business? Why did you join Gravity Road?
Katie Lee: I spent a lot of time at Leo Burnett looking at new agency models and trying to integrate digital into the main agency. It was pretty clear to me that the old agency model is a difficult one to sustain as much due to client behaviour as internal behaviour. It’s completely understandable – the taps don’t turn off on the ‘traditional’ work yet you are expected to include and build digital/social/content opportunities while maintaining margins. It’s a difficult situation. I wanted to get out of big agency world and Gravity Road was an absolutely fascinating agency: As a start up there was no legacy structure and have therefore built the ‘perfect’ agency structure with editorial and distribution baked in and leaner teams which allow us to invest more in publishing and technology hires. It’s a young, very innovative company doing interesting things that have often never been done before. We are having a lot of fun working with a bunch of brilliant agency people and clients.
“I love this industry. Great, inspirational people slogging their guts out and constantly looking to do brilliant original stuff. The ambition is never ending.”
Creativebrief: Who are the people new to you (either within your business or externally) who have particularly impressed you in the last twelve months?
Katie Lee: The Founders of Gravity Road (Mark Eaves and Mark Boyd) are two of the most brilliant people I have ever worked with. You can see why Gravity Road has been such a success.
Creativebrief: What has been your agency’s best work in the last year?
Katie Lee: Difficult to say as our work varies so dramatically from project to project but I would probably say our publishing platform for Sainsbury’s, Homemadebyyou. It’s a great working example of our different structure with editorial at its heart. The team are publishing over 30 articles a week on the platform and it’s looking to be a huge success with a central role in Sainsbury’s marketing moving forward.
Creativebrief: Industry wide, what work has excited you most this year?
Katie Lee: The publishing platform model is an interesting one and feels like the future for many brand communications: The Chalkboard is my favourite right now and I obsessively follow it from both a personal and professional perspective. It’s a great example of branded editorial with a really engaged social following.
Creativebrief: Who or what inspires you?
Katie Lee: People who really care.
Creativebrief: How do you stay in-touch with the industry’s best work and culturally relevant news?
Katie Lee: Various news feeds and that little thing… Google
Creativebrief: What work or agency from outside the UK do you think is particularly influential?
Katie Lee: I think the UK can still learn a lot from the uber creative agencies in the US who are doing brilliant and very different things.
“The old agency model is a difficult one to sustain as much due to client behaviour as internal behaviour. It’s completely understandable – the taps don’t turn off on the ‘traditional’ work yet you are expected to include and build digital/social/content opportunities while maintaining margins.”
Creativebrief: What do you think are going to be the main challenges for agencies in the next two years?
Katie Lee: Squeezed margins, a true demand for always-on, the need to completely restructure (rather than bolt on) and a change in behaviour to be able to do this. All agencies will need to get to grips with distribution to a certain degree. Social agencies are going to have a tough time – social will either be taken in-house or people will realise that they need decent content to create great social and it will be merged into other creative agencies who understand distribution.
Creativebrief: How do you see the media landscape unfolding in the next five years?
Katie Lee: Every year will bring a new Periscope but the industry will begin to approach the innovation in a more mature way.
Creativebrief: What’s your attitude to the ‘traditional’ pitch? Do you think there is a better/more modern way?
Katie Lee: It depends what a client is looking for from an agency. I think they go on too long, waste too much money and adding an additional stage at the last minute has become too commonplace. There are all sorts of different combinations that would work better depending on what clients are looking for but one size doesn’t fit all. The Tesco 3 day media pitch is a great example but if relationship is most important to you then that’s probably not going to be the best way to go: chemistry and creds, creative development workshops, getting the working teams together – often these pitches take place among the people who then spend very little time actually working on the account.
Creativebrief: What’s the best pitch you’ve been involved in?
Katie Lee: One of my first ever pitches as an account manager. It got me hooked on the adrenalin, madness and camaraderie of pitching. It was at Saatchis for chip and PIN. It was the most brilliant team and the whole process was eye opening. The quickest introduction to agency life and the longest time without sleep that I’ve ever managed.
Creativebrief: In what ways do you think the industry can change for the better?
Katie Lee: I love this industry. Great, inspirational people slogging their guts out and constantly looking to do brilliant original stuff. The ambition is never ending. I think Tom Knox’s manifesto for his IPA Presidency is a great one though – we need to be seen as a force for good.
Creativebrief: What’s the next big thing for Gravity Road?
Katie Lee: Tomorrow. Every day there’s a big thing. That’s why it’s such an exhilarating place to be.
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