After graduating with a journalism and media degree, Freya King got her first start in digital at Mamamia before moving to SBS Media to work in the brand partnerships team. She chats to the Comms Council about her love for digital, what it’s like to work publisher side, and how the AdSchool digital course helped her succeed in the fast-paced role.
TCC: Why did you do the AdSchool Digital Strategy and Experience Design course?
FK: My role within SBS Media is focused around digital solutions so I need to stay up-to-date and constantly refresh my knowledge base to ensure I’m delivering the most value to the business, and fulfilling my role as digital upskiller/educator to the rest of my team. This course looked like a great way to do that (and it was!)
TCC: Have you done any other training in digital training? At school, university, on-job training?
FK: When studying journalism and media at university, a lot of our assignments prompted us to think about social media and digital platforms. However the industry is moving at such pace I imagine the courses have evolved further – they’re probably building AR apps and all sorts.
I also spent the first few years of my career at Mamamia, which was a great introduction to the industry and a rapid upskill in terms of digital content strategy. I definitely picked up a lot of on the job training there, which I’m extremely grateful for.
TCC: Have you always worked publisher side, and how is it different to your other roles?
FK: I’ve always worked publisher side. I guess I still can’t accurately compare having never worked client side, however I do think it’s a unique approach because you have to balance several different stakeholder objectives. It’s about meeting client objectives, whilst still delivering an experience our audience seek out, whilst staying true to SBS’s unique role and purpose. It’s very much that ‘Venn diagram sweet spot’ that we seek to land on, and that combination is truly challenging and exciting to work on day-to-day.
TCC: Do you work with agencies on digital strategy for SBS Media? (or have you in other roles)? What has the experience been like?
FK: The great thing about working publisher side is that I get to be involved in a range of digital strategies for different brands.
TCC: Has upskilling in digital strategy helped you when discussing briefs with agencies or team members?
FK: Definitely! This course really reinvigorated my love of digital. It’s made me push briefs further and definitely addressed some of the fatigue that can creep in when you get caught up in the day-to-day. I’ve introduced some of the different techniques I picked up into our day-to-day practice, and I am constantly dipping back into the plethora of resources that the presenter generously collated for us.
TCC: What are your 3 takeaways from the digital strategy course? How are you implementing them in your day-to-day?
FK: Design thinking and user-mapping is a really useful framework to approach briefs. In my previous role (which was content driven), we were always instructed to focus on the perspective of the audience and this course helped provide tools and structure to this process.
Rapid prototyping is another excellent concept. It’s easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of brainstorming and ideas with people who are working alongside you, but going out and testing your ideas is so invaluable – and for the most part, inexpensive. It’s something I’m trying to do more of.
Speed of change is just going to keep increasing so it’s key to continue to learn and seek to improve our own understanding of the digital landscape. There are so many ways to be doing this and I picked up a whole heap of excellent resources from this course that mean my learning is continuing beyond these six weeks.
TCC: What is your advice to aspiring digital strategists?
FK: I think the biggest thing generally is listening to your audiences, and being agile enough to pivot and change based on your customer interactions.
TCC: What could clients do better when giving briefs and working on campaigns?
FK: Share the overarching strategy! It’s so much easier to deliver the right solution if you understand how you fit into the bigger picture.