Curated meets: Amelia Vickery

Meet Amelia, Curated’s brand new account director who joined our team in January. Partial to a rosé and a natter, Amelia is already having a great time working with the  Curated team and clients. Outside of Curated, Amelia is a comedy and podcast producer, a keen calligrapher and seamstress, and loves to cook Italian-style and bake New York-style. We sat down to get to know her a little better.

As an account director, what are your day to day responsibilities?

My role really has two parts: looking after our clients and working with the Curated team to level up our work at every opportunity. With regards to client work, I work with our Channel and Content teams, and Neesha, our amazing Account Manager, to identify the client’s barriers to growth, which surprisingly doesn’t always link to their marketing function. I’ve spent the past two months immersing myself in the clients’ businesses to connect the dots, and we’ve already begun identifying some really exciting growth opportunities together. 

The time I spend with the team is all about supporting them. Sometimes it’s being a listening ear, sometimes it’s downloading my brain onto paper (electronically!) to bring a different perspective. It changes daily, which is why I am very happy to be back agency-side! I love the fast paced nature of what we do. 

How have you found starting a new job during a pandemic?

Honestly, the pandemic has given me a refreshed understanding of how much of an extrovert I actually am. Like everybody else, I do have days where I feel very demotivated and struggle with what seem like really basic tasks, but on those days I make a conscious effort to keep myself connected to the team. It can feel like a lot, logging in and opening Outlook, Slack, Teams, Zoom – the list could go on and on – but I remind myself how helpful these tools have been over the past 12-months. 

In terms of starting a new job, I just remind myself regularly that things don’t, and can’t, move as quickly as they do when you’re in an office environment, so I practice a lot of patience with myself and others, which has been invaluable when it comes to protecting my mental health. I do, however, ask loads of questions, jump on a video call as often as possible, and always have a pot of coffee next to me to keep me going! 

How do you stay motivated while working from home?

I’ve always had to get a bus and/or tube to work, and I never thought I’d say this, but I have found myself missing my commute (not to the extent where I’ve recreated the Central Line in the flat, but this video did make me laugh loads). I now have a few different rituals which I practice before and after work to break the day up. Things like sitting in a different room to have breakfast, going for a walk as soon as it hits 6PM and even spending 10-minutes every morning putting on makeup have all helped. 

I do tend to take a break when I need it – either physically or mentally – and encourage everyone around me to do the same thing too. It feels really basic but giving yourself that permission is very empowering and motivating. 

What are you most looking forward to in your new role?

I know this isn’t unique to me, but I’m so excited for life to regain a bit of normality so we can get back into the office and to start travelling to meet our clients face-to-face. It’s been great getting to know everybody virtually but I’m really excited to get to meet everyone properly. 

We’ve also been putting together a really exciting L&D plan for the team, working with Birdsoup and also doing lots internally to make sure education and knowledge sharing becomes a part of our regular practices. 

New business has been increasing steadily as well, and the team has really found their rhythm when it comes to pitching digitally. I’m excited to see what the long-term impact of this will be, as our client profile is far less London-centric than before. We’ve also been developing a new product, Digital Persona profiling, where the gap between social listening and content strategy is bridged nicely. We’ve launched pilots with two clients already in 2021 which has been really exciting. 

What’s your favourite part about working for Curated so far?

I’m already really enjoying working with all of our clients but for me the team has been the best part so far. Everyone is so kind and patient and I think Simon, our Founder, and the rest of the Leadership Team, has done a really good job at hiring on values and attitude. That’s not to say they’re not digital marketing experts, because they are. I’ve already learned so much from them and I’m excited for this to continue. 

Would you rather never use social media and apps again, or never watch another movie or TV show?

This is absolutely the wrong thing to say as a digital marketer, but I would give up social media and apps, no questions asked! I have been using social media since 2000 (if you can count Neopets which I think you can?!) and my relationship with it has changed so much over time which I can’t say for my love of TV – specifically old HBO series. That said, I’m a little bit obsessed with TikTok which has been my favourite boredom killer throughout lockdown!

Have you enjoyed learning about Amelia and her role at Curated? You can learn more about the Curated team here.