Every week, we talk to a member of Team Nation to find out how they are bringing this “All in, all together” ad campaign to life. This week 10 questions with… meets Anne Shooter, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Mail Metro Media
1. To me, the rainbow symbolises
Unity and hope – and it reminds me of my favourite jumper my grandma knitted me when I was eight.
2. What is your role at Team Nation?
I run the sponsored content side of things with my wonderful NBF Jo Bacon. Sixty per cent of this campaign is content and it’s going across 600 titles so it’s quite a task. When we do the briefings on Zoom to around 50 people, I do sometimes feel we should have wooden lecterns like Boris et al! Andy Ravan, who is in charge of digital marketing and comms in the Cabinet Office’s Covid 19 hub, is absolutely fantastic and makes our job so much easier than it could be. But we come up with ideas, help him shape the briefs and along with the brilliant project managers, try to ensure everyone knows what they are doing.
3. Have you ever worked on an advertising campaign of this scale before?
I have worked on some huge content campaigns with global clients but what makes this unique is that it’s actually a comms campaign for a breaking news story. I haven’t worked on something like this since I was a journalist – I did that for 20 years before I moved to the commercial side of the business.
4. What is it like working on a cross-industry team?
I feel truly privileged to be working with the crème de la crème of our industry – who would usually be considered rivals – and who also all happen to be brilliantly good-humoured, lovely, like-minded people, in such a collaborative way, on such an exciting project.
5. What has been the highlight so far?
Seeing the content come to life, hearing the results from the insight team as to how effective it has been – and, crucially, hearing how delighted the clients are.
6. And any challenges you can share?
Along with the excitement of working on a breaking news story, there are obvious challenges and frustrations – shifting objectives, changing briefs, 3am panic attacks… But hey, none of our jobs would be nearly as rewarding if they were too straightforward!
7. Think of three words that come to mind when you think of the campaign?
Exciting, effective and gin.
8. What have you learnt?
That the whole genuinely is greater than the sum of its parts. And that Jo Bacon is really not a good morning person but is most definitely going to be my new drinking partner as soon as this is over.
9. What can we expect to see next?
Truly native content that will encourage people all over the country to enjoy summer safely. The government wants them to feel confident that they can go out and have fun – they just need to do it in the right way. So we have briefed the publishers to come up with an array of content that will inspire and encourage their readers to do just that.
10. Finish this sentence…
All in, all together for a socially distant glass of fizz in the sunshine, just as soon as we can.
