[Behind the Selfie] with... Sarah Britten

Britten in Hong Kong

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Britten: Joburg.

2. What's your claim to fame?

Britten: Tweeting, Powerpointing and painting with lipstick. I don't overshare as much as I used to.

3. Describe your career so far.

Britten: I started in adland 15 years ago and have worked in pretty much every aspect of strategy since. Now, most of my work focuses on social media and shopper strategy.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Britten: My husband, horses and horseracing, cats, science, wildlife, military aircraft (especially the SR-71 Blackbird, my favourite plane ever). I follow all of these on Twitter.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Britten: Getting to solve a different problem with creative people every single day.

6. What are a few pain points your industry can improve on?

Britten: Shopper marketing is not widely understood in South Africa and we have a big education job to do. Social shopper is even less understood. We've been in situations where clients want us to present either social media or shopper marketing solutions but not both - whereas we see them as part of the path to purchase.

7. Describe your average workday (if such a thing exists).

Britten: Read emails and check in on Twitter in bed. Drive to work, moan about being stuck on the William Nicol offramp, spend quality time with Labstore colleagues, interns and clients. Fill in timesheets before I forget what I did. In the evening, I'll either head off with my husband to an event at the Joburg theatre, which has a very good relationship with social media influencers, or tell Twitter what my husband is cooking. (He's a much better cook than I am. I can manage a salad and that's about it.)

8. What are the tools of your trade?

Britten: Powerpoint is still central to what I do. Twitter is the social network I use the most. Also good old-fashioned conversation.

9. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Britten: Cerebra is making a good impact from a thought leadership point of view.

10. What are you working on right now?

Britten: New business pitches, press releases and a content strategy for a new client launch, plus a short book on shopping to celebrate our first anniversary launch.

11. Tell us some of the buzzwords floating around in your industry at the moment, and some of the catchphrases you utter yourself.

Britten: Path to purchase, moment of truth, barriers, social shopper. Engagement (even if it is overused). Shareability (because 'viral' is a word nobody should ever utter).

12. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Britten: While driving or in the shower. And also, appropriately enough, while wandering around shopping malls.

13. What's your secret talent/party trick.

Britten: I'm pretty good at accents. My favourites are Russian and Australian.

14. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Phile.

15. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Britten: Several muted WhatsApp groups and way, way too many photos of supermarket shelves. I've deleted virtually all of the apps on my phone to free up space for photos.

16. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Britten: Start marketing yourself on social media by following people in the industry and then interacting with them. Offer to help out, and if you do get a foot in the door, don't take the opportunity for granted. Enthusiasm counts for a lot. Overdeliver. Work fast.

17. Plug your contact details, punt yourself - list all the places people can find you/your work online...

Britten: Personal Twitter
Labstore Twitter, for anything related to shopper marketing
Instagram
Facebook
Labstore news
Lipstick painting

Read more about Britten by clicking here.

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.