ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

I'm Rachel, Strategy Director at Amplify.

So what do you actually do?

I'm responsible for managing other strategists within our team, working to grow the skills, confidence and quality of work. This includes stuff like objective setting, training sessions, coaching and regular feedback sessions.

I also provide direction on how we can best approach and dissect client briefs + research, how to identify problems and develop techniques to unearthing insights and solutions.

What has your career path been?

When I get asked this I always say it was kind of an accident, but even though I never planned to work in this industry, the stuff I chose to do along the way has helped me get here.

I was always interested in people, behaviours and how they communicate. I loved films and books and was interested in how stories were put together and how they made me think and feel. Some of my favourite genres that brought these things together were thrillers, crime and documentaries.

I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do based on these interests - psychologist, journalist, documentary filmmaker, film director. All of these careers felt so out of reach and every time I had thought about which degree I chose, they all felt limiting and I couldn't commit. I liked the idea of so many things that it was hard to choose one.

I eventually ended up studying Film and English Literature. The idea of university felt daunting as I also just wanted to earn money so I chose what felt like the easier option.

University led to a summer intern op at a PR company, no idea what it was and didn’t for a long time after. I then did all sorts of different jobs in my year out travelling around. Made quite a few failed attempts to get a runner job at TV and film studios. Built up my portfolio a little bit in between and then after a very miserable bit of experience in film I gave up on the dream. I continued working in a pub and retailer before getting a job at a university as a project assistant. It was vague enough that I ended up doing a bit of a lot of things including working with small businesses and helping with the social media marketing efforts. Young people know social media right?

I eventually managed to get an internship at a bigger PR agency, talking up my pockets of experience. Spent a long time there and changed roles within the agency adapting to the changing landscape of channels, creative opportunities and platforms.

I always kept my curiosity, learning and talking to different specialisms within the agency. I didn’t realise it at the time but I was trying to find somewhere to fit in. I eventually stumbled on behavioural science in comms which I found fascinating as it spoke to my analytical side. Eventually this led me to find and follow different people on Twitter, opening up the world of strategy.

Strategy sounded like the very thing that incorporated all of the things I was good at and curious about, and began to make a conscious effort to put my hand up for more things that involved these skill sets.

Making a move into a slightly different role or career is never easy, but I found having a goal and knowing how to get there helped provide some clarity about the work I wanted to do. I was also lucky enough to have managers who enabled me to do that.

What is the best part of your job?

There are four things…

1) Helping to shape the culture of the agency and work

2) Working within fan and youth culture

3) Finding the different puzzle pieces and putting them together to define a strategy

4) Coaching other strategists and learning from them as well

Why do you do your job?

Strategy lets me do three jobs I always thought I’d be doing: investigate like a detective, write compelling stories like a journalist and build a case like a lawyer

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Debate and discussion is good and there can be more than one right answer.

Check out Rachel’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

There is no typical day but this is one of my days this week:

9.30 - 10.30
Morning meeting

A morning strategy team meeting to discuss work that is going on more broadly; what needs to be done that day and any red flags to watch out for that might need resource or management support.

10:30 - 11.30
1:1s

I meet my manager as well as one of the people I manage to discuss specific projects that are going on and where support might be needed. And just a general catch up.


11.30 - 12.30
New client brief

A new client brief comes in and there’s a kick off meeting with the business director, and leads from the studio, live and production. Everyone will have read the brief and had a point of view of what the client is asking for. We’d then discuss the approach, resource and who is doing what. Most of the time we get the opportunity to interrogate the brief and ask the client clarifying questions.

12.30 - 13.30
Lunch!
If I'm in the office I'll go explore what Old St has to offer but today it's my own lunch.

13.30 - 14.30
Reading + Emails

I catch up on my emails, read a couple of articles and newsletters of interest. I subscribe to so many culture, trends and data focussed newsletters but never get through them all.

14.30 - 16.30
Developing strategies

I'll block out a chunk of time to work on a strategy deck for a client pitch. This includes working through reports and research to understand the most pertinent insights relevant to the project I'm working on.

16.30 - 17.30
Reviewing work

I'll review a creative brief another one of my team members has been working on in preparation for a briefing session with the creative team.

17.30 - 18.00
Creative check in

The creative concept on one of my other projects is being finalised so the full team catches up to run through and share any final feedback.