#WiMMeets Melanie Campbell - Marketing Director of Edward Snell & Co

Welcome to #WiMMeets - a series of short interviews with marketing leaders from across Africa and around the world. The series will present a different side to senior professionals with the aim to share the things that matter to them and inspire others. 

In this interview, we sat down with Melanie Campbell, Marketing Director of Edward Snell & Co.

 

WiM Africa: What gives you energy and drives you forward when you are not feeling at the top of your game? 

MC: A greater sense of purpose:

• (a) Through the role I play as a leader / mother / wife in building, growing and inspiring others to be the best they can be
• Through the role I play as a marketer in building brands with meaningful purpose that positively influences and shapes culture

(b) Made possible through the strength I draw from a balance of spiritual, physical and emotional wellbeing manifested through spending time with God, my loved ones and myself

 

WiM Africa: Which advertising campaign, from any brand, has been the most memorable for you and why?

MC: The most recent Glenfiddich Challengers Club campaign because 1. It had a strong purpose at its center 2. Heroed Zandile Ndlovu in Womens month. Our world’’s natural resources (like water) are at risk and this will challenge our status quo including the simple pleasures in life like the whiskey we enjoy. We partnered with 2 mavericks on a quest to raise funds in association with WWF to create more sustaible water solutions in our communities. All proceeds raised through The Challengers Club go towards the Glenfiddich Water for Life Initiative aimed at rehabilitating natural springs in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg region to provide easier water access to the surrounding communities. By improving water purity at the source, we hope to contribute to a South Africa where the furthest anyone has to walk for clean water will be just a few steps. We feature SA’s first black female diving instructor and uncommon representative for global whiskey brand.

 

WiM Africa: What three pieces of advice would you give to a woman marketer aspiring to a senior position about getting to and staying at the top of their profession?

MC:

1. Put in the hard work / effort to continuously self improve. Dreaming without doing won’t get you anywhere. Your results will speak for themselves / you.
2. Love / care about people, leadership is less about you and more about others and you are unlikely to be a good leader unless you really care for others.
3. Show others a way. When there is not position or opportunity to move to be creative in proposing ideas that show a willingness to work hard (in other words the organisation gains) and so do you.

(When I was an insights manager I committed to doing a brand manager role simultateously to prove my capability which created opportunity when there was none)

 

WiM Africa: Which one person, dead or alive, would you say inspires you the most and why?

MC: Steve Jobs exemplified the best in marketing:

• He understood human behaviour well enough to find a more intuitive operating model (consumer insight)
• He spearheaded aesthetically beautiful products (product design)
• He continued to innovate into the future (innovation)
• The communication campaigns landed both functional and emotional messages in a compelling way (marketing)
• The results (sales & financial) speak for themselves
• He did this in an audacious unique way when no one else was so would have fought many battles where others failed to see the vision but yet he inspired belief

 

WiM Africa: If you were stuck on a desert island what three things, excluding electronics, could you not do without?

MC: 

• My family: husband and children for emotional support
• Water / food: for physical support
• A boat to escape ;-)