The Drum 30 under 30 women in digital 2013 highlights the top 30 women under the age of 30 making an impact in digital. Here, we catch up with Emma Townley, digital creative, Ogilvy One.
The Drum 30 under 30 women in digital is an annual platform recognising the next generation of digital talent. Over the course of the next 30 days we will be running interviews with each of the women profiled, to give more insight into their careers so far, professional achievements, and what they see as the next big game changers in digital.Today's profiled individual is Emma Townley, digital creative, Ogilvy One.What is your biggest professional achievement so far? This is a tough question! I love pitching for work, not massive achievements I know, but in terms of learning how advertising works and pushing yourself, you can't beat a pitch. You get a huge buzz from nearly killing yourself on pitches and finding out you've won it. I love being in the thick of a pitch more than the bigger achievements (although you might have to remind me of this next time I'm moaning about a pitch!).
What is the biggest challenge you've overcome in your career?I don't think there have been too many dramas to date, there's probably some in the pipeline! I used to find networking really tough, talking to people at events and talking through my work at crits used to send me into a panic. I hope I've overcome it, you'd have to ask people who talk to me at events to find out! My advice is to be confident in your work and know what you want to say about each piece in your folio when you go for crits.
What's the next game changer in digital? I'm a total geek when it comes to this kind of thing. I read recently that over in Portland, Nike is running a competition with an open API on their fuel bands. This is something that I would love to see over here, it would mean developers can use the fuel band API and run it with whatever app they build, making it accessible and useable for everyone! I think potentially if Apple brings out an ‘iWatch’ then we will see a boom in smart digital wrist devices.
What would you like to be remembered for?In terms of my profession, I'd like to be remembered for doing great work. But in personal terms I would love all the talks, workshops and portfolio nights we put on as the Young Creative Council to reach as many young people and industry professionals as possible. Advertising is a hard thing to get into and we are trying as a group to make it a bit easier to make those first few contacts, get some feedback on portfolio work, adjust working conditions for people on placements and provide young people with reliable sources of information and inspiration.
Who inspires you most professionally or personally?I have a lot of time for the gals over at SheSays; they are a great organisation, run by some awe-inspiring women. I've been to some really interesting talks and events run by them. Any women in advertising should check them out and go along to some of their events as we are a mostly male dominated industry and giving female creatives a voice and a port of call for inspiration is a fantastic thing.
What would you be doing if you weren't doing this? I'd probably own a pub. Quiz night would be a Thursday.
How do you relax? I find it hard to truly switch off if I'm honest. I cycle quite a lot and I find that good for a bit of thinking time. I'm learning how to code at the moment and I find that strangely therapeutic too.
Describe your career to date in five words.Hectic, non-stop, worth it.
This series will run for the duration of October. Yesterday's featured individual was Sarah Oliver, account director, We Are Social.
