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Sophia Wetherell
Brand Planning Industry Manager at Google
Ben Somerset-How
Client Director Creativebrief
After graduating from university, Sophia started on the Lowe grad program and trained as a planner working across Johnson & Johnson and Innocent drinks.
She later made the move to M&C Saatchi where she stayed for the best part of a decade. The first four years Sophia worked up the rungs in account management, working across some of the most challenging and exciting accounts from Change4Life to RBS, Ladbrokes to BeatBullying. As an Account Director, she had been supporting the Global CEO, Moray MacLennan, on some international projects outside of the day job. He then asked her to work for him as Director of International Development, where she worked across network opps, global new business and marketing. While out in New York helping launch the office, Sophia was persuaded by the local team to stay, and has just returned from a two year stint in the Big Apple.
Sophia now works at Google and has taken the deep dive into Digital Media – her role entails working with agencies to ensure they are getting the best out of Google’s platforms, technology and tools.
creativebrief: Why did you choose a career in marketing?
Sophia Wetherell: I’ve always had a huge interest in the arts, and took an art foundation diploma after school. Much as I loved the studio world, I also had a keen interest in business, unsurprising given my parents were entrepreneurs. I wanted a job that allowed me to do both. If I’d been a more astute teenager I might have looked at my bedroom wall (plastered in Boddingtons and Perrier posters rather than boy bands) which spelled out rather clearly where I was headed.
creativebrief: What do you think makes a successful career in marketing?
Sophia Wetherell: If you asked me about a happy career in marketing I’d have said a passion for creative communications, an interest in human behaviour, the ability to enjoy a media landscape that is changing all the time. But success isn’t always the same as happiness, so perhaps you’d add in tenacity, guts and charm – lashings and lashings of charm and patience.
creativebrief: And who is a great example of this?
Sophia Wetherell: Carrie Hindmarsh and Eileen Naughton.
creativebrief: What do you think are the main challenges facing marketers today?
Sophia Wetherell: The rapid evolution and ceaseless change happening in ad-tech and mar-tech. Understanding how to strategically leverage cloud capabilities. Being able to sift out which data is most valuable to your brand, understanding how to segment it and use intelligent targeting to find your most valuable audience. How to deliver outstanding sequential messaging campaigns with bespoke, compelling creative. The biggest headache of all is then how to do all of the above on budget.
creativebrief: How do you keep up with constant stream of innovation in marketing comms?
Sophia Wetherell: I’m extremely lucky because at Google I live at the heart of innovation and I get to play with the tech and tools at a very early stage. I feel pretty up to speed, but I also accept that it’s impossible to know everything. I try and focus on the areas most relevant to my business, and geek out on those. I also have a lot of friends who are entrepreneurs, and I learn a lot about what’s coming up from them.
creativebrief: How does this impact your relationship with agencies?
Sophia Wetherell: It’s a privilege to be able to share new innovations with them, and they’re always excited to get their hands on an exclusive Beta, or new tools and platforms. It’s a two-way relationship though – they’re constantly being sent innovative media formats or ad-tech, so sometimes they’re the ones teaching me.
creativebrief: How do you know if you’re getting the best from your agencies?
Sophia Wetherell: Mine is a different relationship from the traditional marketer – my role is to support the agencies, not the other way around. We are partners with our agencies, because if they’re not winning, their clients aren’t winning. Their clients also happen to be our clients, so it’s very symbiotic. I know we’re getting the best from one another when the commercial outcome benefits all, and the work looks great & feels exciting.
creativebrief: Of your recent work, what makes you particularly proud and why?
Sophia Wetherell: The most rewarding sessions are often the workshops we run with agencies and their clients – in these we use Google tools and data to unlock insights, then using these insights we start to build ideas that leverage our most exciting platforms and technology. Being in the room when creative ideas are growing is always spine-tingling.
creativebrief: How do you think marketers can raise the profile of marketing within their organisations?
Sophia Wetherell: I’d suggest that no profile-building exercise is best executed alone; you need allies to build credibility and momentum. When I was working on internal marketing projects for M&C Saatchi I had to ensure I had finance, legal and senior management all on board, and depending on what kind of advertiser you are you’d need to add product, operations etc. Different departments need to understand what it is you’re trying to achieve, and what the value of that will be. Once they do you might find you have some surprising allies.
creativebrief: Do you see yourself as a generalist or a specialist, does it matter?
Sophia Wetherell: It entirely depends on the environment – when I speak to clients about online video strategy I’m a specialist, but if I’m in a room of YouTube engineers I’m a generalist (at best). I think I’m comfortable seeing myself in the place where creative marketing intersects with technology, but that does sound quite niche. Does it matter? In a leadership capacity, yes; it’s important to be aware of your skill-set and where the gaps in your knowledge lie so you can build a team to complement these.
creativebrief partner, the Marketing Academy is a non-profit organisation which provides a unique forum for industry leaders, marketing gurus, entrepreneurs and inspirational people volunteer their time to inspire, develop and coach the next generation of future leaders. The Marketing Academy gift a maximum of 30 ‘Scholarships’ each year to the fastest rising stars in the marketing, advertising and communications industries. A team of high profile mentors and coaches develop these stars through a process of mentoring, coaching, networking and personalised learning. 86 mentors, 30 Coaches, 20 Judges, 36 companies and an owl called Merlin all provide their time, resources and knowledge to assist in shaping the minds of our future leaders. Furthermore as a vital part of their curriculum all Scholars volunteer at least one day per year through our Donate28 initiative to work with charities who need bright young marketing minds. For a full list of the individuals involved, see the Sherilyn Shackell interview.
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