I knew that I wanted to be somewhere that was always changing and challenging. I don’t think I ever mapped what those steps would look like, but I knew if I could keep finding experiences that kept my curiosity alive and enabled me to deploy my optimism, I would stay and try to do what’s next.
Success in the era of earned
When I think about Weber and who we are in the industry, we have these incredible roots in PR, but we’ve evolved so much to be about earned ideas. I believe that we are firmly in the era of earned, and that means there needs to be new solutions for what marketing delivers.
Susan will characterize herself as optimistic—but I think you don’t get to be optimistic unless you have the intellect, strength, resilience, and strategic acumen to lead through change and complexity, which she has done and will continue to do. I am thrilled for her—and I will be excited to watch TWSC continue to soar under her leadership.
—Gail Heimann, former CEO, The Weber Shandwick Collective
This is a moment [when] what we do in communications is all the more important. When you think about all of the seismic changes that are happening in society—in terms of media fragmentation, politicized conversations, complexity of delivering a message—being the team, the agency, the partner that is able to tap into culture and help a story move into the zeitgeist is incredibly powerful. Earned is needed on both sides of the coin more than ever: We have to protect the reputation because of all that complexity, but we also have to promote the reputation, and that is equally complex. You need optimism and resilience to get through both of those.
The edible mascot at the Pop-Tarts Bowl, that’s communications—knowing what’s happening in culture, knowing what people are going to find joyful and take on [to] tell the story themselves. That is just such a brave client. I remember when we talked about the idea, before we presented it, how we had to gear ourselves up for that conversation. We’re like, “Do we really want to take this to the client? We’re going to eat the mascot.” And they said, “You scared us. Let’s go.” That’s the kind of partnership that really is just precious.
Building the agency of the future
I am so lucky to be born with this sense of optimism. In many ways, it’s a gift, not a skill. I wake up most days this way, seeing the potential. That’s me as a person. But also, I think [about] our role in the industry—how do we continue to make communications better? And for our clients, how do we help them solve some of the most challenging, business-critical issues in the world? All of that is energizing, which becomes the cycle of goodness to fuel more optimism. My side hustle is that I’m a yoga teacher, so [I have] that desire to embrace a beginner’s mindset and just take it back down to the human form.