Friday ROASTing with Sarah Cowan

Each month we sit down with one of our ROASTies to find out what makes them tick, what they love about their job and our company culture here at ROAST. In the hot seat today – Sarah, Account Director at TIPi Group.

Sarah, you work as an Account Director, can you tell me what you find the most satisfying aspect of your role?

You know you’ve really cracked it when the clients treat you as an extension of their team. We want to work in partnership with brands, where we are all working towards the same goal. When the client treats you like a pal, it feels like you’ve succeeded.

Moving on to our culture/social side, your repertoire of fantastic company fun includes organising our beloved Office Manager Lily’s iconic leaving video and the nativity which featured the famous two pieces of coal. You are also part of the social committee, what is in store for 2020?

Big things in store for 2020, lots of laughs, getting together and getting people involved (*note, I am the worst member of the social committee, having only attended one meeting, I’m more of the ideas/hype man for when times are low)

Do you have any advice for junior and senior execs seeking to progress their career?

Learn as much as you can from the people around you, it sounds cheesy but in the first five years of my career I was a sponge, taking as much as I could from my colleagues, media owners, clients as I could to help me turn into a good all-rounder. Turn every challenge into an opportunity to learn something new.

Is there one thing which makes a great digital campaign, no matter the sector or client?

Make it memorable. The best ads that get people talking and incite actions are the ones that are a bit out there – I think KFC running out of chicken was a wonderful example of turning a bad situation into a great piece of advertising and PR, getting their brand out there and being memorable and humourable whilst at it.

Rumour has it that you take the afternoon DJ residency on the PPC side of things  – desert island disc style, could you tell me which three songs would make the perfect working playlist?

I rate myself as the Fatboy Slim of the office. I am able to read the room and know what beats people are in the market for (when people put their headphones on, I don’t see this as a deterrent).

My top 3 Desert Island Discs for the work playlist are:

YMCA – gets even the grumpiest of folk dancing

Love is in the air – a homage to the great TIPi romances

A classic from a great internal artist, John O Shea – Classes against the Masses

That’s it for this months ROASTing, we hope you have enjoyed our latest and greatest, if you would like to read more, take a look at last months Christmas ROASTing with Elinor and Jamie, or just to find out a bit more about us…