The Judges’ Club: meet Penguin Random House marketing chief Sanyu Dillon

It was a very deliberate choice to get into publishing, though I didn’t necessarily set out on a path of wanting to be in marketing. I grew up loving to read and so, after graduating from college and working in PR for a couple of years in Chicago, I said ’now’s my chance to move New York and get into publishing’. I happen to know somebody else in the industry, so I called her up and asked her if she could provide any kind of introduction. She just so happened to be looking for an assistant, so it was perfect timing and that was how I got my start.

Can you give us a brief history of your career to date?

At every stage of my career, I’ve been very thankful to have great mentors and sponsors. So every job or next step has come because of the connections and relationships I’ve had with people. I started as a sales assistant and someone I interacted with regularly needed a marketing person. Having observed the way I worked, she asked me if I would like to come and work with her and I said ’yes’.

She left that publishing house and after about a year invited me to follow her, then I moved to Simon and Schuster where I stayed for about seven or eight years before moving to Penguin Random House, where I’ve been for 18 years.

My job is constantly changing. I think every marketing person will tell you that because marketing is such a dynamic discipline. We publish thousands of books a year and I work with new authors every quarter, so that’s always been exciting. But for the last four years, I’ve been running the corporate marketing team at Penguin Random House, which is about defining our marketing strategies and marketing our brand, which is a completely different challenge but also very exciting. My job looks different from moment to moment.

What career moment are you most proud of?

I’ve had a lot of highs, like when I work with talented authors and know how much effort and emphasis they have put into a body of work, then I get to collaborate with them and the other teams to see that book become successful.

If I take a long view, while nothing could have prepared us for the pandemic, I was so proud of my team’s response when we had to go from running hundreds of events to then shift to virtual and provide the infrastructure for that. So much changed so quickly, the way consumers evolved how they shopped and discovered, and it was changing from week to week sometimes.

Then we were faced with the summer of 2020 and the death of George Floyd, that racial reckoning followed by an election. The way my team was able to respond so well to consumer sentiment in those moments is something I’m very proud of.

What was the best piece of advice you ever received?

An old boss once told me, ’pick up the phone’. So much of the time, we’re all firing off emails and, I get it, it’s a comfortable medium... But for me, ’pick up the phone’ means let’s make issues less complicated. Let’s build a relationship and an understanding. It has also expanded to me to mean let’s not make assumptions and let’s extend grace.

If you could fix one problem in the industry right now, what would it be?

We are not a diverse industry at all and it’s problematic, frankly. I wonder how we are creating a path for people to come in and also rise up and elevate within the industry, so that more people of color will end up in leadership roles as well.

I know it’s something a lot of people talk about and, working in publishing, I know it’s a marathon and not a sprint, that the work is ongoing, but it is the biggest problem I see that needs fixing.

What importance do you put on awards?

Awards are essentially a celebration of hard work and creativity. They are acknowledgement from your peers, which I think that is incredibly motivating. It’s also inspiring for people to see the work that gets that sort of acknowledgement and celebration from the marketing community. I know I’m incredibly inspired by seeing the amazing work that gets submitted every year, whether it actually ends up winning or not.

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What recent work really stands out for you?

I think what Netflix does from an editorial point of view is pretty amazing. The way it has created these platforms, from Family to Strong Black Lead, and the content is so incredibly authentic. You can tell it has a deep understanding of each individual audience and what they are looking for.

However, I will also say that recently the Nike 3D billboard in Japan really blew my mind.

Where do you turn for inspiration?

I mean, it’s a cliche because I work in publishing, but reading truly is one of my favorite activities. I just am incredibly inspired by reading broadly across various categories, whether it’s self improvement or business, literary fiction or genre fiction, world building fiction or romance. I read pretty much across every different category and I’m just always incredibly inspired by that, because reading is like a moment for me to recharge but it also gives me the benefit of learning something new or helping me explore a different world.