Meet our Associate Director
We sat down with Becca Sawyer, Associate Director in our Entertainment team, to discuss career highlights and what the future holds for the world of music, entertainment and brand experiences.
Describe your career in 5 words.
A Happy Accident. Great Soundtrack.
You joined CSM just over a year ago, as part of our dedicated entertainment team in London, and your primary focus has been on activations and partnerships that sit within culture, music and entertainment. Could you give us a bit of insight into what you’ve been working on, and your aspirations for the entertainment team?
Since I joined in March 2021, the industry has been coming out of Covid so I feel like this year is the first time I’ll be seeing activations for client’s like Unilever and Molson Coors take physical shape! I know the team are looking forward to getting back on the ground and making some magic happen on these projects we’ve been working on virtually for so long.
Entertainment partnerships offer incredible opportunities for brands to associate with cultural icons and properties that people love in a potent way. We want people to recognize CSM for our entertainment work in the same way we are associated with sport – as experts living and breathing it.
Throughout your career, you’ve worked in a number of creative marketing and content roles at a range of organisations, including The Guardian. You’re also a part-time radio presenter/ DJ with your own weekend show. It’s an eclectic mix! Have there been any standout highlights along the way?
Getting involved in Aaja Music in Deptford– the radio station I present on – is a huge highlight as it gave me a platform to share my love of music and dig deeper to find fresh sounds for the show. It’s also opened doors for me playing music to people in other settings – such as at The Queens Yard Summer Party in Hackney Wick!
Day job wise, it’s hard for any campaign or moment to top working for The Guardian. As a life-long reader, creating partnerships for Guardian Labs was an incredible privilege as the work we did directly supported the journalism and reporting of the news which is key for people’s understanding of the world.
But working with Vice Magazine and Sony when I was at Mindshare – on a month long residency with band called the Swiss Lips (on a warehouse off Brick Lane) was probably the most chaotic campaign I’ve ever worked on. Hedonistic madness from beginning to end.
Turning to the future. It’s clearly been a tough time for the entertainment industry, but there are real signs of recovery now. Festivals are returning, brand experiences are back, and new-tech continues to alter the way we consume music, tv and film. Both exciting and a bit daunting at the same time!
Where do you think the industry is headed, and what opportunities are on offer for brands and partners wanting to get involved in this space?
It’s really exciting and we’ve only just scratched the surface of what these converging disciplines of live music, gaming, virtual reality, events and ecommerce bring to the table. The digital future of entertainment and music is only really limited by people’s imaginations – and brands can tap into this creative freedom and reinvent how they show up within virtual reality entertainment spaces. At the moment brands are mostly replicating IRL in the virtual world. I’m looking forward to seeing which brands really push the envelope and do something brave in the virtual that doesn’t mimic or update how we’ve always historically consumed entertainment.
That said I also think brands behavior within entertainment is going to increasingly dictated by fans and audience communities. In the virtual world – perhaps even more so than in the real world – fans call the shots. Brands need to listen to what fan communities want and how they want a brand to show up in these spaces. If you don’t – audiences won’t engage and you’ll not get the outcome for the brand that you’re looking for.
When not at work, what would we find you doing?
Record shopping. Warrior 2 or dead-lifting. Working on my backwards bubbles. Hanging out with my cat.
