#BrandManagerMonth [Behind the Selfie] with... Rene Rose

Rose, basking in Melbourne

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Rose: Live: I recently moved to Adelaide in South Australia. I live in Brighton, literally 100 metres from the beachfront after living in the concrete jungle of Jozi all my life.

Work: I work from home or any coffee shop with Wi-Fi in my area. My mentor and best friend, Ute Schoeman and I started Positiv as an agency to focus on multinational industrial clients. We started this up knowing full well that I was moving to Australia, but we saw the potential for international business. We work virtually and it’s our philosophy to do what we do from anywhere in the world. The SA team and myself run concurrently with clients who have offices in South Africa and Australia. We are also looking to expand into Germany.

Play: I play all over Adelaide – it reminds me of Cape Town (my favourite city) on steroids. We have various winelands literally 45 minutes from here, and then the city which is full of history, culture and art. Other than that, I am bestie to my 10-year-old daughter who has a fetish for putt putt and water slides.

2. What’s your claim to fame?

Rose: Positiv is a brand new agency. We like to call it a marketing and business consultancy. Myself and partner Ute, who was previously MD of a German multinational, have over 15 years’ of hands on experience in this field. I was the GM of communications for the same German multinational. We started up Positiv because of our love for the industry and our operational knowledge of working in a multinational subsidiary. We know how difficult it can be to fit into an international corporate ID while trying to communicate with local markets. These are all challenges that can be overcome.

We also wanted an opportunity to showcase South African designers. We realised that SA designers are amazing and that their level of creativity is world class. We use only South African designers for all our customers, no matter what country they are in.

3. Describe your career so far.

Rose: I wanted to be a researcher, but ended up being a reader at a media monitoring firm while I was studying. I discovered that I love news and the world of PR started opening up to me. I later joined an ad agency and various publishing houses. I ended up in the unglamorous world of engineering ten years ago. At the time, I didn’t even know what a gearbox looked like, but very soon I started thinking that these amazing engineering technologies were nothing short of genius innovation and discovered that I actually have a knack for grasping technical ideas and putting them into plain and simple language. I have never looked back. Engineering is my first love now. Even more than shoes.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things.

Rose: Since very recently – taking a walk along the beach or just lying in the sand watching the world go by while the sun is pelting my very white skin. I have also discovered that the very flat sea of Adelaide is a great place to think.

I love cooking. I am quite the nurturer so cooking for people makes me feel like I’m adding wholesome goodness to their lives.

I love technology, so you’ll always find me on social media.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Rose: Just how clever it is. The innovation is beyond me. The industrial sector is a bit like the Cinderella of the marketing circles, and I love adding glamour and shining a spotlight on the great stories in this industry. Another thing is the people. I find all my clients to be just the most respectful, down-to-earth people who find the world of marketing a bit mystical but are intrigued by the magic. All things that keep me fascinated and motivated for this industry.

6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists.

Rose: I work from home, with frequent trips to Sydney and Johannesburg to see clients and the team. So it is a juggling act and that is the new standard of normal for me.

The Positiv team in South Africa get to the office when I pour my first glass of wine for the evening, so the time zones are a challenge. I find I work late into the night as I would like to be online while they are working and we find we get a lot done in this way. We start each evening with a telephone call to touch base and do a handover. In the mornings I pick up any leftover tasks so that by the time they wake up, they have a good start. The upside is that clients really can expect 24-hour service!

7. What are the tools of your trade?

Rose: My smart phone and my very snazzy notebook. I also have a great VoiP system installed so that the comms are easy.

8. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Rose: SMC Pneumatics is a name that won’t mean anything to the average reader just yet, but this industrial firm recently opened offices in South Africa. Part of a network of 84 subsidiaries worldwide, the company is Japanese-owned. This makes quite a change from the usual German Engineering payoff we’re used to. So the execution of this brand is bringing home the big message of Japanese quality in crisp, clear communication.

9. What are you working on right now?

Rose: Setting up our Australian client base and getting new customers in the region. Our first port of call is to service the Australian subsidiaries of the multinationals we deal with in SA. Currently I am doing this for two major clients in Australia. We work from the clients’ offices on some days to entrench ourselves into their teams. So our idea is to be exclusive to a few clients, taking on an outsourced marketing department approach, and providing very personalised service.

We work with the decision makers and negotiate as high up as head office. We work internationally and roll out the same look and feel throughout. We also offer business consultancy services for multinationals who need BEE structured, or have operational issues which need to be sorted out. We would come in, make an assessment and help sort out what needs to be done, leaving new fresh structures and a healthier bottom line when we close the door behind us.

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

Rose: My approach for this year is that the only buzzwords that matter are ‘trust’ and ‘relationships’. Cut the fancy terms and the industry buzz words and just get on with it. We work on a trust relationship with our clients. We partner with them in their business and spend as much time with them as possible.

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

Rose: Driving in my car or floating in the ocean.

12. What’s your secret talent/party trick?

Rose: I’m a keen dancer and I have been known to bust some moves. I can pretty much set a dance floor alight… or clear it out.

13. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Rose: Technophobe with the tenacity to figure it out.

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

Rose: Photos of my family and my cats, as well as labels of bottles of wine, or clever marketing ideas I want to look up or remember.

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

Rose: The industrial marketing arena is really about relationships. Be open to people, even the weird, antisocial engineering types, be sincere and work hard. It is an industry all about deliverables and less about fancy talk.

You can read more about Positiv by clicking here, click here for more on Rose and interact with the Positiv team through the following social media accounts:

Website
Email
LinkedIn
Instagram

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews