Young Gun profiles takes a look at the young talent across the Australian advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector. Aiming to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
Felicia Charman: senior paid social specialist at Sparro
Time in current role/time at company:
I have been working in my current role for three months, but have been at Sparro for almost three years.
How long have you been in the industry?
Seven years and counting.
How did you get here? Was this always the plan?
I fell into digital marketing (like a lot of people seem to) and it wasn't an area I originally set out to work in. I originally studied Journalism & International Relations. Through one of my part-time jobs as a primary school netball coach — not my life's calling surprisingly — I was offered an internship from one of the parents who ran a media company. That internship turned into a four-year stint where I dove head first into the world of digital.
During the 2020 COVID lockdowns, I came across Sparro. What piqued my interest was that it was for a performance-focused role and would mean a long-overdue interstate move from my hometown of Adelaide. Sparro offered me the role and four weeks later I drove across the country to begin as a digital marketing executive.
At Sparro, I had the opportunity to upskill across paid channel implementation and strategy. Pretty soon I progressed from implementation to leading an internal team and a whole roster of mostly e-commerce clients. Not too shabby for an under-25 at the time.
Social has always had a strong place in my heart, so earlier this year, I was incredibly excited to move into a new role that the agency built just for me in Sparro’s first paid social specific position. Today, I focus my time on building out internal best-practice approaches for all paid social clients and working on integrating the channel into our clients’ overall digital strategies. I'm grateful that I've stayed true to my policy of saying ‘yes’ to opportunities as they come along — it's what’s brought me all the way here.
Who is your right-hand person? Who guides you day to day?
With my new role, I’m pretty lucky to get to work with people across every team in the agency on their social accounts and most closely with Sian Jamieson (retail team lead) and Lucas Palmero (account director).
Our coach Andrew Sherman deserves a massive shout out for his ongoing guidance and support. I can’t thank him enough for how much he has personally helped me grow in the last year.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
No one day is the same. The industry is fast-paced and constantly evolving — it’s what initially attracted me to the industry, and means you have to constantly adapt and accept new challenges. Social media plays a dominant role in our day-to-day lives. It means that social is an integral channel for our clients to tap into and one that I can enjoy working on too. It’s interesting work to make social work for each individual client's brand and business objective.
And what is the biggest challenge?
It's the same answer as the previous question: no one day is the same. The reality we face is that what worked last week, month, or year might not work today. The platforms that we work with are constantly changing, so we take a test-and-learn approach to stay ahead. It’s a constant challenge to balance iteration, improving performance, and keeping clients informed and happy.
Measurement is a huge challenge with paid social too, where it’s a common trap to take the same approach as you take for other conversion-focused digital channels. Focusing on conversions alone undermines the long-term, brand-building effect of social activity and is notoriously challenging to attribute ROI to.
Whose job have you set your sights on for the future?
The role I see in my future is as head of social — a role that doesn’t exist at Sparro yet. I don't see social media going away anytime soon and there’s no denying the hold it continues to have on both people’s device time, as well as almost every brand's digital strategy. I see plenty of opportunity in social and personally look forward to the future challenge of balancing authenticity and value for both brands and audiences.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Surprise, surprise. You’d think I would be so sick of it, but honestly, social media. My daily screen time for Instagram and TikTok is pretty embarrassing. However, I have (at least) spent a lot of time carefully curating the profiles I follow, so I only really spend that time looking at content I genuinely enjoy. My phone’s photo library is filled with screenshots and downloads of content from brands and creators that I call on when I need inspiration. I also like to share these regularly on Slack during the work week.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you:
I love being social and making friends at work, but I’m a secret introvert. Deep down, I’m a homebody and love quiet time.
In five years' time, I'll be:
Hopefully, head of social. I’ll lead a team of fun, intelligent, kind social enthusiasts who will be far more knowledgeable about the latest social media platforms than I am. Together, we’ll work with brands who care about creating value-driven social content. We’ll be friends.
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