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In this series, AdNews takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. This time it's Social Soup head of growth and partnerships Cara Norris.
Time in current role/time at the company:
I have been at Social Soup for over six years now, with a couple of babies in between! Initially, I headed up the commercial division as sales director of Victoria and earlier this year I made the move up to Sydney as head of growth and partnerships in a national role.
How would you describe what the company does?
We are an end-to-end, full-service influencer marketing agency. We build strategic and bespoke partnerships that authentically connect brands to the right people. We build campaigns with a full funnel approach because we know that everyone has influence. Our aim is to build lasting connections between brands, creators and our community. Plus, we’re one of the oldest influencer marketing agencies in Australia and New Zealand, existing before even social media.
What do you do day-to-day?
No day is the same for me and I love it. My focus is on agency growth and building lasting partnerships with new and existing clients, with a bit of marketing mixed in to grow our agency brand and showcase our expertise. One day I might be working on an exciting new partnership pitch, the next I am out and about with our CEO, Sharyn Smith, meeting clients or jetting off interstate for leadership strategy sessions, then speaking at an industry masterclass, and of course supporting the client lead team in driving revenue – it pulls you in all different directions, but it keeps things interesting!
Define your job in one word:
Exciting.
I got into communications because:
I was meant to do something completely different, which was international business (that just sounds so boring now) but right before I was set to start my Uni course, one of my mum’s old friends asked me to work as a receptionist at her media business, Brown Orr Fletcher Burrows. I honestly never considered media and communications in high school, but once I started I knew it was the career for me. From there I worked my way up in the industry and have never looked back.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Making sure enough clients and agencies know about us and what makes us not only different in the industry, but better experienced and equipped to handle whatever campaigns come our way. There’s still a lot of education to do and lots of clients still don’t know the strategy approach behind influencer campaigns and the technology, measurement and planning we put behind them.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Many brands still see influencer marketing as an add-on to their wider marketing mix even though it plays a huge role in the consumer’s ecosystem: everyone is on social and they are seeking information and recommendations from people like them, and people they trust. Influencer marketing is rarely used to its full potential, which can be detrimental to the success the client is expecting. I think part of the problem is that some clients are still focused on individual influencers and their follower count or how they look, instead of who and how are they influencing the brand’s target audience.
The other challenge is that there is a lack of businesses who have really nailed influencer campaign measurement beyond 'vanity metrics' (reach/likes/comments), and aren’t considering things you can’t measure right away like what actions someone took from seeing a creator or their content, who they shared it with, was there a brand uplift, or if they took action to buy.
So there is a bit of work to do in the industry, but that’s ok, that’s what we are here for!
Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
Brown Orr Fletcher Burrows, ACP/Bauer Media and Pacific Magazines prior to Social Soup. For me, it really felt like the perfect transition from mag land to influencer land, as magazines after all were the OG influencers.
Notable campaigns you have worked on:
I love ones that clients first go “Wow” and then “You really impacted my business and I have seen the results, I loved it can we do that again?”. I know you aren’t meant to have favourites, but last year’s Ovaltine Sleep Creator campaign was amazing. It was a larger-scale micro influencer campaign that showcased the impact this tier of micro creators can have in connecting brands to consumers through authenticity and relevance. We created a lot of FOMO with the target audience (busy families) and the products flew off the shelves as it drove real action. I also loved seeing all the diverse content across Instagram and TikTok and how each creator gave their own spin to the brief. It was a huge campaign to manage but that’s what we do best. We had about 300 pieces of content in total across four weeks, it created hype and excitement of the product!
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
I have had a couple in my time, and they have all had a huge impact on me.
Linda Nameh got me into the industry, where she is highly connected to the Melbourne advertising market and showed me the ropes. Her advice and the relationships I made through my time with her was invaluable and it was a great foundation. I still get remembered for my time at Brown Orr Fletcher Burrows 16 years later by some in agency land, and she still is very much my media mum.
Sharyn Smith, our CEO at Social Soup, is truly inspirational and the ultimate boss lady. She is the most hands-on CEO I have seen across my career; it makes it easy to come to work every day when you know she is 100% all in, will do whatever it takes, and that she cares. That kind of energy makes you want to be your best.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Sometimes it’s ok to not have all the answers but find them out when you can. Being yourself will get you far and don’t be afraid to speak up if you have ideas. Try and talk yourself out of the imposter syndrome (it’s real) because you might have the best answer in the room, so what’s the worst that can happen?
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
Writing a book.
My philosophy is:
Be yourself and stay humble.
My favourite advert is:
I love ads that speak to current trends and make you laugh. I think Uber Eats have had some good ones over the years; the one with Andre Agassi and “the mullets are back” was really clever.
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
Anything true crime, podcasters, Netflix, YouTube documentaries, you name it. It’s my escape after a busy day at work and getting the kids off to bed. And, as a true millennial, my go-to music is anything you might hear on RnB Fridays…
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
You would be surprised (considering where I work) that I keep this quiet, but I was once slightly TikTok famous. Well, not me but my staffy called Cashy. I was an amateur creator when TikTok first took off in Australia in 2019 and I had some fun with it and was fortunate to have a few videos go “viral” – which at the time was 200,000 views. The account is still there with some 33,000 followers despite Cashy and I having not posted in a few years. Might be time to make a comeback?
In five years' time I'll be:
I’d like to still be doing something similar to what I am doing now!
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