Welcome to The Strategy Journal, a resource for aspiring creatives to get real advice from the most unique and experienced voices in the industry.
This week I'm chatting to Alex Elder, a Social Producer at Somethin’ Else who mainly works on the agency’s BBC Sounds contract as an external content supplier. In his varied role, he’s also had the chance to run Island Records artist marketing campaigns, crunch a lot of data to generate insights for Radio 1’s social team, and, weirdly, covered a Star Trek Leicester Square premiere with Sideman for Amazon Prime.
Over the past 3 years, Alex has developed digital strategy and created content for commercial brands like Clean & Clear, ASOS and Spotify as well as cultural institutions such as The Barbican and Mercury Prize. At the young age of 16, he interned at big advertising agencies like BBH, Wieden + Kennedy and Ralph Creative and landed himself a graduate Account Executive role at digital agency Byte, working to manage Spotify UK’s social channels. Five months later, he became a cross-client 'Creative Planner' (a half strategy/half creative role) to work with clients like COLLUSION, Just Eat and Westons Cider.
Outside of his day-job, Alex produces a podcast series (which I've posted below), manages some night-time broadcasts for NTS Radio and occasionally contributes articles to Insert or The Radical Art Review. In lockdown, he read a lot about macro-economics, diving head-first into the world of manga and adding to his hardcore and math-rock playlist.
In terms of thinking, learning and doing, what did lockdown allowed you to do?
I've been using the 2 hours I'd usually spend commuting to do more of the things I enjoy but never made time for previously (exercise or writing etc). I was supposed to be reviewing CPHDOX festival in March which had to transition to virtual screenings at the very last minute (for obvious reasons). I watched at least one documentary a day for 25 days straight and managed to write 2 longish articles on some of my festival favourites. Film criticism and long-form writing is something I've been toying with in my head for a while but never had the time to dedicate to it, so it's cool to be able to now.
Lockdown's allowed a wealth of new content to be created - how did you keep up with feeling inspired and why?
Ironically, given my job is in social-media, I've actually been on a bit of a hiatus when it comes to digital content due to how easily I'd become an angry Twitter guy who'd tweet in caps lock after watching a government briefing at the beginning of lockdown. I’m stunned by the levels of incompetence on display.
Luckily, this has meant my consumption of 'analogue content' has skyrocketed. I'm on a strict rotation of fiction books (mainly tense psychological head-f*cks a la Jack Finney, Jenny Hval, Kōbō Abe), theory (Srnicek - "Platform Capitalism" plus lots of Mark Fisher) and manga (Tsuge - "The Man Without Talent", Sakabashira - "The Box Man" and Schrauwen - "Parallel Lives"). It's been awesome to jump from analytical books looking at economics or culture (or both) on a macro level and then go straight into a gorgeously illustrated manga about a tortured cartoonist who can't find work. I kind of find these both equally inspiring to me despite what I get out of each being vastly different.
What advice would you give to young strategists looking to crack into the creative industry post lockdown?
It's not the advice that you want to hear, potentially, but my suggestion is to look for other job roles that still allow you to think like a strategist. Junior Strategy roles were like gold-dust pre-lockdown and it's only going to get worse as budgets get further squeezed post-pandemic. Why not try your hand in a media planning or accounts role that has adequate scope for insight/strategy work within it? Making the jump from a junior role in a related discipline to a middleweight strategy role is much easier than trying to land that perfect (and maybe non-existent) junior strategy role.
Which brands do you think are doing the most right now?
I don't think many brands have dealt with the challenges of the last few months effectively at all truth be told. PG Tips has been consistently on the money during a time when people are in need of lockdown comfort but also education around BLM and the Windrush Scandal.
This isn’t a brand per-se but Bob Mortimer and his 'Train Guy' series is 100% the account doing the most this lockdown if you ask me. If you aren't familiar, I beg you to go and check out his Instagram now.
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