February is the month of love, so what perfect timing for our next Squid Spotlight. This time, we’re heading into the brains behind the brief, the brand guardian of our clients: our Strategy team. In particular, our newly promoted Lead Strategist, Laura! 

You’re up, Laura…

Hey, nice to meet you! I’m Laura, one of Pink Squid’s Lead Strategists. Originally from New Zealand, where I graduated with a Commerce degree, I started my career as a Brand Manager for a FMCG company. After six years and another degree (Psychology this time), I was ready to make the move to the UK. That’s where I met the people of Pink Squid and discovered Strategy.

This was sort of a happy accident, but I wish I’d found Strategy earlier as it's the perfect balance between that creative space and diving into the depths of different clients and challenges. I’ve always wanted to work agency side as you get so much more variety in terms of projects and challenges  — there’s real creative freedom in that too.

I’ve always had a huge interest in people and what makes their world go round, especially after my Psychology degree where I focused on Organisational Psych, which was part of my happy accident into Strategy and employer branding. At the end of the day, it’s making sure you understand people and what motivates them to find the jobs that they’ll love doing.

Speaking to colleagues is the best way to understand authentic stories about what it's like working somewhere, which is exactly what we need to tap into in order to give candidates an accurate understanding of an organisation. In our latest work with Sanofi (shameless plug!), we were challenged to recruit and train colleagues across six global regions, showing them how they can have an impact as an advocate. We didn't want to launch a program that simply tells people to post stuff online — instead, we put our own creative spin on it to make it more engaging. I mean, we created over 400 Sanofi Influencers in just two weeks!

Strategists are there to challenge the client as well as understand them. We can be that outside view, helping to push the creative and produce bolder work to be proud of. 

For me, ​​2024 is the year of taking a step back and figuring out how to do things differently. Being nearly three years in the game, with the fundamentals down, it's about pushing the boundaries. I’ve learnt the rules, now it's time to break them.

A little bit about me

Being a classic Kiwi in London, I love to travel! I caught the travel bug really early in life - living in Canada as a one year old and my student exchanges to Denmark and China sparked this curiosity to discover new places. And what goes hand-in-hand with this is photography. You can visit new places and capture things in the unique way you’re seeing them, which I think is quite lovely.

My 2024 is also going to be about the next book. I really enjoy reading, it’s a way to put yourself in someone else's shoes and experience different tones of voices. Definitely try The Huntress by Kate Quinn – one of my favourite books of all time!