Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, ad tech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
This week we speak to Accenture Interactive Fjord design and creative director Prue Jones.
Time in current role:
Three and a half years.
How would you describe what the company does?
We bring breakthrough connected products and services to life by redesigning people’s relationships with the world around them.
What do you do day-to-day?
Drink a lot of coffee. Wrangle a lot of decks. Occasionally get on the tools. Prepare the odd talk. Interact with incredible Accenture Interactive people all over the world.
Define your job in one word:
Fascinating. People are incredible creatures.
I got into design because:
What else would you do on the realisation that you can’t make any money out of fine art until after you die?
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
For all creative people it’s got to be the increasing expectation of speed, which is generally anathema to quality. From a delivery point of view, products and services are coming to market faster and faster and creative and UX software is no exception. So much to stay across.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Obviously gender equality and diversity in general. Anything Cindy Gallop has to say on the subject has it nailed.
Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
DT (now AKQA), Oglivy and Mather, Clemenger Proximity, the odd startup, freelance at DDB, Y&R Mattingly back in the day. My first real advertising job was at John Singleton Advertising. Yep. That long ago.
Notable ads/campaigns you have worked on:
Most recently, a digital-first rebrand for Westfield. Such a phenomenal client to work with.
Who is/has been a great mentor to you and why?
My career counsellor in this role who I admire very much. She’s unashamedly ambitious, opinionated and resourceful. Just the way women should be. Also, Bronwyn van der Merwe our GM in Asia-Pacific personifies aspirational leadership.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
Disappointed.
My mantra is:
Be nimble. And get it done.
My favourite advert is:
Always something by The Monkeys. I love their fabulous book “Fonzi Says: Monkeys Jumped the Shark, a Collection of Hate from Our Anonymous Friends”. Humour always gets me, which is why I’m rather partial to this classic. Achingly perfect delivery:
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
I can’t live without music so Spotify Premium is a must. Annoyingly, the 12-year-old with whom I share my account is really screwing with my algorithm. I hate Skrillex.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
Walking down my street in London sometime in the nineties I pushed Emilio Estevez in the chest and demanded to know why he hadn’t told me he was in town. As soon as he opened his mouth to protest I realised my mistake. I’ve been cringing ever since.
In five years' time I'll be:
Probably immersed in a creativity-related field that doesn’t exist yet. We’ll see the amount of change that happened in the industry over the last 10 years condensed into about the next two and a half, and then after that who knows. To paraphrase Matthew Bishop, the pace at which technology is changing our work, our lives and our world will never be as slow as it is today.
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