It’s time to celebrate the achievements of CommsCouncil career accelerators. In this series, we’re profiling recent completers to share their learnings, goals and overall inspiration. Meet Suzi Williamson, senior account manager at Leo Burnett Melbourne, who was a CommsCouncil graduate who went onto to take our IPA Campaign Planning residential course last year. She reveals her original aspiration to be a journalist and how she takes pride in work that impacts the way people behave.
TCC: How long have you been in the industry and in your current role?
SW: I started working at Leo Burnett Melbourne as an account executive in Jan 2014. I’m still there now as a senior account manager.
TCC: What is the best thing about your job and being in the industry?
SW: The best thing would have to be the people. I’m so lucky to be able to work with such smart, creative, driven (and weird) people which means no day is ever the same.
TCC: What made you want to get into the industry?
SW: I didn’t actually set out to work in advertising. I studied Professional Communication at RMIT and while I originally wanted to be a journalist, I saw the massive changes happening in the media industry and decided PR might be a safer option in terms of being able to get a job. I applied for lots of graduate programs once I finished and one of them was run by The Communications Council. I went there to meet PR agencies and ended up with a job at an ad agency!
TCC: What are your wider career goals?
SW: At the moment I am really enjoying working on fun and creative ideas that we can see actually impact the way people behave. If I can keep working with leading clients across various industries with some freaking smart people involved, I’ll be happy.
TCC: Who do you look up to in the industry?
SW: We’re so lucky at Leo Burnett Melbourne to have a really strong leadership team with senior women in every department, so I’m not short of inspiration in the office. Outside of that, rather than individual people, I look up to client/agency teams that have such strong relationships that they’re brave enough to put out amazing, ground breaking work. It’s that level of trust between a client and their agency that I really respect.
TCC: What are your main sources of inspiration?
SW: I’ve only just recently gotten into podcasts and I love them! I find them an easier way to learn about topics that I would never think to read about like behavioural economics, mental health, true crime and all the random stuff covered in This American Life.
TCC: What motivates you on both a daily basis and to keep striving towards your goals?
SW: As corny as it sounds, the reaction to campaigns I’ve worked on is what keeps me motivated. Seeing sales results roll in and getting feedback from friends, family, and random people who know I work in advertising is so rewarding and really reminds me why we put in all the hard work.
TCC: What made you want to do the IPA Campaign Planning course last year?
SW: Planners can be mysterious creatures within the wider setting of an ad agency and their role can be so varied from client to client but also from brief to brief. I really wanted to get a deeper understanding of how they approach the client problems and opportunities they work on, and also steal a bit of that magic for myself to understand how I could be a more strategic suit day-to-day.
TCC: How would you describe it in a nutshell?
SW: A high intensity, eye-opening whirlwind of intelligent people with clever ideas.
TCC: What was the best thing about it?
SW: There was a group project as part of this course that really helped us to practise and cement the new ideas we were learning. It was also great to meet account people and planners from other agencies, compare processes and approaches all while discussing the ideas we’d heard each day.
TCC: What was the number one thing you were able to apply in your day to day work?
SW: One thing that did come through clearly was that planning and strategy should be a collaborative effort. Planners and account people should work with creatives and data teams to prepare creative briefs to ensure that everyone is getting something out of the process and thinking. Clients should also be taken on this journey to ensure we’re all heading in the right direction, together!
TCC: What is your favourite project/campaign you’ve worked on to date?
SW: Reword, an anti-bullying software we designed to detect potentially hurtful language in real time, would have to be my favourite. It’s just so different from anything I would have imagined I’d ever get to work on and it was so great to see so many people rally behind a good cause. It was also a huge learning curve in getting sh*t done in the most creative of ways.
TCC: What’s your passion outside of work?
SW: I’m not one of those people who has one burning passion that fills their life, although things I do really enjoy include baking, going for walks, watching films and docos and eating.
The Communications Council’s Grauate Program provides member agencies and graduates with a unique foundational learning program. Our IPA Residential courses Campaign Planning, Business & Agency Leadership and Strategic Planning help transition managers into leaders. Find out more about upcoming courses here.