Transcript
Sonja Kamper: Servus and welcome to the Word of Marketing Jobs podcast, where I'm taking you on a marketing journey of job awareness, consideration and application.
Sonja Kamper: And in today's episode, I have a very special guest with me here today. Hello Erwan. Hi Sonja, thank you for welcoming me on the podcast. Of course. So you are a creative strategist, right?
Sonja Kamper: That's a fancy word ah for for describing my job, yes. So let's jump into it and learn a little bit more about your job with some this or that questions. Okay. So I will always say this or that and you say the one that just fits your job the best.
Sonja Kamper: Okay. Great. So B2B or B2C? B2C. SME or large corporation? can be both, but ah ah in my case SME.
Sonja Kamper: Okay. Are you more local or international? Can be both as well. In my case, international, surprisingly. Oh, okay. Didn't know that. So, are you more an agency or in-house?
Sonja Kamper: I act as an independent for my customers, but I could be in-house. But for in my situation, it's more agency. Okay, clear. So, are you a full-stack marketer or a specialist?
Sonja Kamper: I'm more a generalist, full-stack. So, do you have a small or a big team? It's a small team. And are you structured or more on the flexible end? I need to be structured. by My job, by essence, needs to be structured.
Sonja Kamper: Okay, very interesting. So now we have like a first little glimpse of what it's like. So how would a job slogan look like for you? For me, if I had to summarize a creative strategist job in one sentence, it would be that this is finding ways to monetize the psychology of consumers.
Sonja Kamper: Very interesting. And now I'm even a more excited to dive into some tasks. So how does your day look like? What do you do? How do you help your clients? Yeah. If if I had to describe the a creative strategist then we need to split the words and analyze them separately. So we have the creative side and we have the strategist side. On the creative side, it means that I'm responsible for imagining new creatives and usually it's about ads.
Sonja Kamper: So imagining new ads, both static and video, that are going to display on different media, but on my side it's only ah social media. And on the strategy side, it's about reflecting about the strategy, how to implement these creatives in a narrative that the consumers will understand and will make sense for them so they can buy our products.
Sonja Kamper: So what concretely do you do? So there's the part of designing the ads. So I'm like, if it's a static, I'm on Conva, I'm designing some some visuals ah in in different shapes. If it's video, I organize some tournages, so some shootings. I invite people to ah to play some actors. I have some scripts for them that I write.
Sonja Kamper: They read the scripts. I shoot with them. I then de-rush the things. make sure I send them to one of our video editors. Then when the when the video is ready, I deliver them to what we call a media buyer, which is responsible for putting it online.
Sonja Kamper: And then it's all the value chain of the advertising i must follow it. So it's until the reporting from the media buyer and then taking some conclusions about what to make better, what to avoid, what I've failed and what I've succeeded.
Sonja Kamper: Okay, so it's more like you're the key person and you pull like the relevant parties in the team what you need for the deliveries. Yeah, in a sense it's about project management. I have another view of the value chain of the advertising.
Sonja Kamper: What I call value chain is from the ID to the final report, the final numbers, the key figures. And so in every respect in every so every aspect of this value chain, I have some impact, but I'm not the only one responsible.
Sonja Kamper: So in some parts of it, I'm only managing the project, making sure everything is moving forward, even if I'm not the one editing the video. It's a good delegation. Clear. So you mentioned Canva.
Sonja Kamper: Are there any other tools you're using? Yeah, for Canva, it's about the production phases. Sometimes if I had to edit videos, I use CapCut, which is a very convenient app for social media editing.
Sonja Kamper: if In the ideation phase, I use usually a generative AI tool, such as ChatGPT, for example. On the post-production or let's say the reporting phase, usually I use some project management tools like Google Sheets, Google Drive, Google a Agenda, Gmail. I'm mostly based on Google because that's the most ubiquitous tool.
Sonja Kamper: Everybody has it. So we use we use it for meetings and emails and so on. So mostly for Creative Part, as said, Canva, ChagPT, CapCut, and then project management tools.
Sonja Kamper: So you would say that Google is like the tool your clients are using. In a sense, yes, but as you can see, we use ChatGPT. ah Whereas we can we could be using Gemini, for example, which is the AI Gen AI from Google. So Google is not ubiquitous yet, but in terms of ah project management, that's a very useful platform enabled for SME, like very small teams, because we don't have, for example, the budget to afford Microsoft 365, whereas Google is free, more or less.
Sonja Kamper: And when you say we, who do you mean by that? So we are a team of around 10 people. I have like a manager that is managing my regional parts of France, France manager.
Sonja Kamper: I work with a video editor, second video editor. I work with a media buyer and I work with the co-founder of the brand. So that's the person i I'm directly correlated with. But we also have a creative strategist in Italy as well.
Sonja Kamper: And I'm in touch with him. Maybe I'm sometimes adapting the creative to his market. And there is another co-founder, there is a guy for emailing, there is a guy for social media. And so around, we are around 10.
Sonja Kamper: so Okay, very interesting. So you mentioned you have a team behind you. So what are some jobs, some tasks you delegate to them when they come on your table?
Sonja Kamper: I said, as I said, video editing the first one, because it's very chronophage. Like it takes a lot of time and um that's not what I'm good at. i could I could delegate, for example, static development, so editing.
Sonja Kamper: But i like I like this part of my job. So even when I will have 10,000 clients, let's say, i think I will keep a part of my job ah about designing the ads because that's why I find joy in it. So I don't delegate this part. I delegate the video editing part.
Sonja Kamper: And I delegate the media buying because it takes a lot of knowledge to understand the platform when you need to buy launch the campaign social media campaigns. And as of now, I prefer to focus on getting good at like creating incentive creatives so delegating video editing media buying and that's it but on the ads so you mentioned you're good at designing ads how would you say does the job persona look like for you
Sonja Kamper: if i If someone would need to be a creative strategist? Exactly. That's that's a good question, actually. Obviously, it to he will need to have some creativity because you cannot rely only on tools. As I said, generative tools, ah you need to have the human mind creativity that will resonate with your audience, of course, because otherwise they will feel it. So you won't be a good creative strategist.
Sonja Kamper: You need to be very organized because at some point you need to know when to produce the ad, which ad corresponds to which line in the report so you can compare the right KPIs, follow along with them.
Sonja Kamper: We have a very particular way of creating the ads. Maybe we'll talk about it later, but curious, creative, organized. and I would say, in sense, you need to be able to work smoothly with people, so be like a facilitator.
Sonja Kamper: who That would be the the things. On the technical aspects, everything can be learned, so I would i wouldn't say there are some requirements, because you can delegate the video editing, you can delegate the design thing, so at least you have which is not very hard skill, but you need to be strategic. You need to have the ground of some background of psychology, let's say, and on advertising and copywriting as well. But on hard skills, everything can be learned.
Sonja Kamper: Very good outlook for those who might be the career change or who'd say like, oh yeah, maybe this is something for for me, but I don't know if I have the skills. So very refreshing to hear that it's less about the hard skills and more about like the soft skills, the people skills, how you interact with clients, with your coworkers. and Exactly.
Sonja Kamper: Very interesting. So you touched upon that to do ads differently. Can you elaborate on that? Yeah, if we if I had to to describe the process ah we'll do with the ads, so we see ads in terms of value block.
Sonja Kamper: So you have the first value block is usually the hook. like For every ad, that makes sense. You need to grab the user's attention. And then we have some value blocks. The value blocks can be our arguments. Why our product is good.
Sonja Kamper: Why you should you should buy it. So many arguments will touch many people, but not every people will be sensitive to the same argument. So we're trying different combinations of hooks.
Sonja Kamper: and we call the value blocks then. And then the last block is, of course, the call to action, the CTA. And you need to be very organized because when you try a combination of different value blocks, you need to know in which order you put them.
Sonja Kamper: And the if you need to iterate on this order, you need to follow along and know which one you will replace with with which one. And this is a very stimulating thing because When creating the ads, you already think in terms of block. So instead of writing a full script that I can only use once because if it doesn't work, i need to put it in trash.
Sonja Kamper: I now think in terms of value block, so instead of a full script, for example, the actor will only have to read three to four sentences. This is a block. And maybe it won't work in a script, but it will work in another.
Sonja Kamper: So then I can i can create a lot a lot a lot of ads because it's just about doing some recombinations, some Lego. and Lego is something that I think speaks for being like clicking things together and seeing where it fits. So we can be live our childhood dreams in our work life, which is, I think, a good thing to say.
Sonja Kamper: In a sense, yes. but it And it brings money. So you can have adult life with a child dream. and Isn't that the dream though? So what makes a good hook for you?
Sonja Kamper: A good hook is the one that will resonate for your audience. And as it it is depending on the audience, there is no magic formula. But it has to have three components. The first one is a visual component.
Sonja Kamper: you know So you need to be hooked visually. Something needs to catch your attention visually. The second part of a good hook is a sounding aspect.
Sonja Kamper: Maybe a sound that is particular, maybe a jingle. you see yeah you If you go in a SNCF station, a train station in France, will hear the same sound. and In a sense, it's a hook because they put it at the beginning of every announcement.
Sonja Kamper: That's the sound hook. so your Even in videos, there is the most important one is obviously the visual one, but the sound one is important, and the last one is psychological one.
Sonja Kamper: and the Behind psychology, there is a lot of strategies you can apply, but I would say the the it needs to intrigue. People need to ask themselves what is about to happen next.
Sonja Kamper: If you don't let your ah viewer with a question in their their mind, they're going to to you know scroll through another video because you have to realize that when you you're designing ads on social media, you are not competing with other brands and other social media. yeah You are competing with very viral content, organic content from influencers, from everybody.
Sonja Kamper: So it's harder than it seems. Yeah, definitely. Because on Instagram, for example, creators are more present than the companies. So if you want to bring your message across, you need to have a very good combination also of not only focusing on the branded content, but also knowing, okay, what language do I speak to particularly tackle...
Sonja Kamper: a specific audience and maybe a creator helps you with that but like brands are not as often on the platform so i think it's it's very key to know specifically who we're talking to and i think the better you know that the more success you can have i think the reason why some brands are not that much effective into the platforms is because usually they are afraid of adopting the codes of social media nobody cares on social media about your brands and every brand wants to do branded content our color, our police de écriture everything related to the brand image, but people don't care. They want to see content they are familiar with.
Sonja Kamper: So for example, if we if we create content for TikTok, we will use the native policy of TikTok, even if it's not the brand the the company's policy. You see the writing? ah ah I don't know how to say it in English, but you see.
Sonja Kamper: So the goal is to adapt to the platform and many companies refuse to do so. And that's why I prefer to work with SME because they're more flexible. They want results. They don't want to defend their image in their ah crystal tower. They don't care. They want results. So um it's about sometimes you need to compromise your identity for efficiency.
Sonja Kamper: And one of the brands that do it very good nowadays on the Instagram, for example, it's Ryanair. Surprisingly, they do some very, very viral content. They're good at it because they don't care.
Sonja Kamper: They're doing memes. They're using what's in the platform in terms of identity and the they make it amazing. So what do you use or how do you educate yourself? Because I think these platforms are also changing very rapidly, especially with TikTok when you have like the trends or like on Instagram when something new is coming up. So how do you stay updated? Yeah.
Sonja Kamper: Surprisingly, i don't I didn't mention trends. We avoid to follow trends because by definition, they're not going to last. And we cannot take conclusion on a trend because even if it works now, as it is trendy, it won't work in a year, let's say, a month maybe.
Sonja Kamper: So we don't we don't use trends. It's about adopting the codes of the platform. So building some strong narratives and so on. and about you need to be a consumer. To be a good producer, at some point, you need to be a consumer, but you need to be an attentive consumer, which means that when I'm scrolling on social media, I'm always asking myself what should I do with this content? content Why am I hooked?
Sonja Kamper: How can I apply it to my industry? hope but What learnings can I take from it? And sometimes, ah you know, when you're caught into scrolling, then you can lose your objective objectives ah from from perspective. So I always have tools as well to remind me that I'm not scrolling mindlessly.
Sonja Kamper: Like a time blocking, time blockers and so on. But I dedicate specific time in my agenda for scrolling, let's say. So it's a mission, it's not... you know ah spending time, wasting time.
Sonja Kamper: So I assume your algorithm rhythm is very much pointed towards bringing you you those creative ideas and innovative approaches. By definition, every ah algorithm is like that because ah ah it will push you some viral content.
Sonja Kamper: So you need to ask you why is this content viral? And so then you need to analyze the video and understand why it is. So in a sense, it is some creative things. But I don't particularly follow... Let's say I work with a perfume brand brand a perfume brand right now. I'm not following perfume brand.
Sonja Kamper: You see, because that's not interesting because they're doing their branded content and very boring. like they have They have budgets for ah putting out the ads they get views, but and they are paid views. So I just scroll in what interests me and then I ask myself, why is it performant?
Sonja Kamper: But I don't have any... I'm not that much into... Staying in my world in my small bubble and small universe because sometimes you get very good ideas from other industry It's just about you as a creative strategist.
Sonja Kamper: How can I apply it to mine? So How let's narrow it down a little bit. So how would your job value proposition look like? So I'm giving you now a little fill in the gaps exercise and you just tell me what fits best for the gap.
Sonja Kamper: All right So A creative strategy helps businesses of all sizes who want to sell more online or develop their brand by capitalizing on social media assets, creative assets and developing a compelling narrative and arguments.
Sonja Kamper: Very clear. Thanks. So we talked a lot about staying relevant for the brands or building a good strategy, but what would you say for your job specifically? What are some golden nuggets? What are some skills you have, some maybe sources you use that you can do your job as well as, we're even better tomorrow as well.
Sonja Kamper: That's an interesting question. Maybe i can summarize what are the points we've mentioned so far because there were some golden nuggets and yes in case you've missed it, I'm going to make it make a summary of it. But at some point, you've mentioned the platforms are evolving. The people on the platforms are evolving.
Sonja Kamper: So the first thing is you need to be a lifelong learner. You need to always stay up to date, always learn. And it's not just about ah and understanding the platform, but learning about the psychology, learning about selling.
Sonja Kamper: Because an advertisement man is a salesman at scale. So be a lifelong learner. The second one would be to... I think we've we've mentioned it before, but it's it's just about being being organized doesn't... in that is like In a sense, being organized is compatible with being creative, but you need to do both.
Sonja Kamper: And usually, creative people are not organized. And my golden nuggets would be ah well to develop both these sides of your personality. And I had a third one, but I think I forgot it.
Sonja Kamper: if it if it comes back to my mind, I i will happily share it with you. Definitely. Maybe the next question will help you to find your lost nuggets.
Sonja Kamper: Because I always have a question from the previous guest. So my previous guest was Darija. And she came up with a question that she was keen on asking you without knowing that you are my next guest.
Sonja Kamper: So the question is, why did you choose marketing as a career path?
Sonja Kamper: I think i've I've chosen marketing as a career path because it was at the exact intersection of different fields I'm mean interested in. And I wouldn't say marketing because that's not exactly what I'm doing. I'm doing advertising. So I'm going to answer for advertising because marketing is very broad. Exactly.
Sonja Kamper: But the first axis I was interested in is people. I like to learn about people. I like to understand them. So it's about psychology. And i read a ton of books on it. So this is the first axis.
Sonja Kamper: And the second one is selling. I like at some point to you know make money or convert my understanding of a situation of a person or context into money. You see, not not because I'm greedy, but because to me, money is measurable.
Sonja Kamper: So you can evaluate the impact you have and if if you're going in the right way. It's like a game. That's just numbers. Money doesn't exist. So it's between psychology and selling. That's why chose it.
Sonja Kamper: And it allows me to exploit creativity, which is, I think, one of my strengths to be creative. Definitely very interesting. So do you anything more you would like to share with our listeners here today about your job?
Sonja Kamper: I would say if I had to add something is like Advertising is a tool. With it, you can do bad, you can do good. You see? And usually people tend to and demonize advertising, mean make it always alwaysing seeing it as a bad thing.
Sonja Kamper: But you can usually you can actually advertise very good causes, very good company, very good products. And it's you into your ah advertising ethics that needs to choose which path you want to go on.
Sonja Kamper: But we give you this tool that is called advertising. Choose what if you want to do good or do bad with it. Very clear and very interesting angle to explore.
Sonja Kamper: mind.
Sonja Kamper: Then i think the last thing that's left for me to ask you is question for the next guest.
Sonja Kamper: So I have no idea who it is So the question the question in a sense has to be a bit general.
Sonja Kamper: I would ask, if you have to to give an advice to your 18 years old self, what would it be? That's a good one. And I feel like with this projection and this shows like how far you've come also. Because when you take a step back,
Sonja Kamper: and look at some different through some different eyes through different lens. I think it can unveil a lot because I feel like in this fast moving world we're in, we're constantly making our bar go higher and higher. so I think it's a very good question to see what, how much you've grown and to give a little ref reflection exercise, but also I think a good gold nugget, a good learning. so Maybe the third one will be found through that question. Maybe I will look at the next podcast and say, that's what I wanted to say.
Sonja Kamper: I don't know. I hope so. So thank you so much for for taking the time today. It was really interesting because before... learning all these things about you, I had no really an idea what a creative strategist does.
Sonja Kamper: So thank you for shedding some light into my creative mind and lightening this part of my brain up. So now I have a little better understanding of what you do. and You're welcome, Sonja. Thank you for welcoming me on the podcast.
Sonja Kamper: And I hope that you, looking at it, will find it interesting and maybe ah ah have have questions. So if you have it, feel free to to contact me. Definitely. I will write your LinkedIn. I will link to it so people can get connected with you. And yeah, without further ado, thank you also for you, to you listeners, for tuning in to this third episode of the Word of Marketing Jobs podcast.
Sonja Kamper: So without further ado thank you and Bussi, Baba.
