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 Kate Crowley, global search director, iProspect.
The Drum 30 under 30 women in digital is an annual platform recognising the next generation of digital talent. Over the course of 30 days we are 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 iProspect global search director, Kate Crowley.What is your biggest professional achievement so far?Before I moved to the global team in iProspect I was a director in the UK search team, working on Carat clients. I was part of the winning pitch team for Asda's digital business. Although we performed well on the day, the big achievement came in onboarding and optimising the paid search accounts within a very short time frame. The accounts were with iProspect within weeks of the win, no balls were dropped and the quality of work that the team delivered from day one was excellent. I'm proud to look back and say that not only did we transition the accounts across as smoothly as possible, we were also almost instantly able to improve the quality of the accounts and boost performance.
What is the biggest challenge you've overcome in your career? When I first starting working in paid search the channel was normally overlooked. The biggest challenge I faced was making paid search an integral part of a plan and not merely a way to spend what's left of a display budget. The way to overcome that was to prove the value of search again and again, demonstrating that we can do so much more than just add a couple of keywords to pick up clicks after a TV ad goes live. Time and time again paid search was shown to be the most efficient and effective way to drive traffic, conversions or engagement. It's now rightfully seen as a high-performing and innovative channel (see the Converse Domination, Snickers Hunger and Fox's Google Zeitgeist partnership if you don't believe me) and we've quickly moved to front of mind in the digital media space.
What's the next game changer in digital?I'm going to selfishly stick within my own channel here and say that the next game changer will be Product Listing Ads (PLAs) for e-commerce clients. Clients who have well-optimised feeds and a strong PLA account structure will continue to reap rewards as Google improves the platform. Google Shopping as a concept is still alien to many customers but it's such an engaging and easy way to shop that I can't see how it won't be huge.
What would you like to be remembered for? I hope it'd be for delivering impressive results but never taking myself too seriously. You definitely need a good sense of humour to thrive in this industry.
Who inspires you most professionally or personally?Professionally I'm constantly inspired by various high-level people at Aegis Media. I like to watch them in action and then internalise what impressed me most, like some kind of media succubus. One example that springs to mind is how Richard Morris introduced himself to new people in a meeting when he was head of planning at Carat. He wouldn't say that he was the head of planning, only that he worked in planning. I really like the idea of not relying on your job title to impress people, instead encouraging others to listen to the quality of your words. It also catches out those people who think it's only worth their while to listen to the big dogs!
What would you be doing if you weren't doing this? I have a law degree so I'd probably be a solicitor or a barrister. I started in paid search after seeing an ad whilst casually browsing for potential jobs. I'm paraphrasing but it basically said "do you like the Internet and do you like making money?" I had an interest in both (still do!) and it sounded more fun than a training contract. I applied, was successful and, seven years later, here I am.
How do you relax?All the usual stuff – I read, watch films (documentaries are my preferred genre) and see my friends. Right now we're experiencing an unprecedented amount of new business though so my relaxation is the 10 seconds it takes to inhale a piece of pizza in the office before returning to the RFP!
Describe your career to date in five words. Where are my media parties?
This series profiling The Drum 30 under 30 women in digital will run for the duration of October. Yesterday's profiled individual was Becky Coyle, creative lead, Rufus Leonard.
