Meet our account manager at Flood Studio Sydney as she shares her creative inspirations, insights on building a collaborative environment with clients, and valuable advice for aspiring account managers eager to make a meaningful impact in the industry.
Was a career in the creative industry always something you were drawn to?
Absolutely, I’m always busy with some kind of personal creative passion. Like most people working in creative industries, I’m also a visual learner, so being in a creative industry is essential for me to thrive. I’m not made for the corporate world that’s for sure!
You’ve recently became an Australian citizen. What journey has led you to Aussie shores?
Partly the sunshine and partly the nomad lifestyle. When I got here, a long nine years ago, I was travelling like all the Brits do, but then I fell in love with the land and never left!
You’ve collaborated with a diverse range of clients. How do you tailor your approach to each project to meet their unique needs and objectives?
The intricacies of project objectives are usually similar across the board from an account manager point of view; you follow a render brief/animation storyboard/client branding, ensuring delivery as efficiently as possible within budget. What clients really want, is to be heard and feel special, like their ideas matter more than other projects you may be working on. With that in mind, I do my best to make this happen by being “a people’s person” and reading between the lines ensuring important details are carried through the project. Sometimes clients don’t know what they want or what will look good, but if you can read between the lines for what they’re trying to achieve and ask the right questions to get a solid direction, it helps you do your job more efficiently and the client feels like you’ve gone above and beyond for them.
As the lead account manager of Flood Sydney, how do you employ to foster a creative and collaborative environment within the team to ensure the successful execution of projects?
I try not to put my team under time pressure, allowing time to quality check work for internal feedback, ensuring senior creatives are also happy with work prior to delivery. I like to let my team know they can come to me to help problem solve anything they’re struggling with, so I’m able to take the “stress” out of their workflow as much as I can. When I don’t have the answer, I find somebody who does. Alongside organising social/teambuilding events, I like making work as fun as possible which in turn gives the team something to look forward to.
Having worked in the content industry across various countries, what trends do you see shaping the future of content creation, and how do you stay ahead of the curve?
Great question, I see AI driven design and automation taking over certain aspects of the production process we have, such as quicker real-time rendering, easily creating/optimising 3D models, higher quality photo realistic renders/animations, cloud-based collaboration and on-site augmented reality. I feel these will assist us with delivering output content much quicker, meaning we can spend more time on creativity, making projects individual with a bespoke look and feel and having the capability to take on more projects without production “traffic” and deadline clashes.
Your experience spans Australia and Europe. How do you navigate different regions, cultural nuances, and preferences while ensuring a consistent level of creativity and quality in your work?
Another fab question with a less exciting answer than the previous one! European and Australian design are certainly different in their features. Australian design for me is closer to American styles, whereas European design is based on Palladian/Medieval/Roman styles taking a modern twist for example with more glass in the façade and curved stonework etc.
However, as an account manager, I ensure the brief has been adhered to within budget and on time to a high quality, so changes in cultural nuances and preferences don’t really affect me directly. I check the team has incorporated the correct look and feel based on the clients brief/brand/architectural style, and completed their work to a high standard that we’re happy to put our name on!
What advice do you have for aspiring account managers who want to make a meaningful impact in the industry?
Organisation skills go without saying, as that’s the job role itself; however I would say learning to manage people and different personalities can be challenging, and that’s what the other half of the role is about. You can teach yourself to be more organised but people skills come with years of experience. My advice would be; never take anything personally, there are always several solutions to a problem and even the upper management of huge global companies are just as approachable, so don’t be afraid to ask questions to get the job done to the best of your ability.
What do you miss most about the UK and what do you like most about being in Australia?
Other than my loved ones, I miss the art culture, architecture, quality of food, restaurants that are priced reasonably and the nightlife, and being able to go out to get food/drinks at whatever time you like. The latter is a doubled edged sword though, as it makes England the country that never sleeps which isn’t necessarily healthy either.
I love that Australia is less populated than where I was born. I can breathe here and it’s not claustrophobic! As the years have flown by, I have so much respect for how the Australian people are so connected to nature and their lifestyle is outdoorsy. How could I return to miserable England where it’s grey 9 months of the year?!
Vegemite or Marmite?
Eeeeewww gross, neither! If you’d like to know between Tim Tam’s or Penguins, it’s Penguins all the way, my childhood lunchbox special!
