INDUSTRY PROFILES

Sophia Berry-Smith - PR

Sophia Berry-Smith - PR
Q. Describe your journey in a nutshell (where you started, when you started, how many staff, and your role)
I graduated with a Bachelor of Communications in 2011. I traded in my last year of school to do the Certificate course first for a taster. My first role in Comms was while studying interning (unpaid) as Communications Assistant to the Communications Manager at a healthcare company. I then moved into a smaller marketing agency role as my first job out of Uni. It was tough trying to get into PR agency-side but I landed a role at Mango Communications (one of NZ’s biggest PR agencies) about a year later. It was a great place to start and I got to work on some massive brands like Specsavers, Skechers and Qantas. About three or four years after agency-life, I moved in-house to Vocus Group (Orcon, Slingshot, Flip) and most-recently, have joined Stuff to lead the Comms team. I think agency experience is incredibly important for any PR/Comms person starting out, but now in-house I don't think I'd ever look back.
Q. What do you think your business and your team excel at (areas of expertise)?
Award-winning journalism! Plus, awesome new digital products and ventures that help fund and sustain that journalism. Staying on top as NZ’s biggest news website is a shared effort that involves a lot of work and input from different teams right across the business.
Q. What brands are you currently working with?
We support all teams across the business internally - from the People & Culture team to Editorial, to Product, to our joint ventures. It’s events season for us at the moment with Night Noodle Markets kicking-off in Christchurch this week, Round the Bays in under a month, our NZ House & Garden House Tours (which have sold out!), and Central Districts Field Days coming in hot - so that’s certainly keeping us on our toes.
Q. What are the greatest challenges the industry is currently facing?
It’s a saturated world out there with people consuming news and interacting with brands in more ways than ever. I think all businesses need to continuously get more savvy and think twice about how they do things.
Q. What do you love about the industry and your business?
It’s super fast-paced and such a variety of work. No one day is the same which keeps it interesting and enjoyable. I can’t remember ever feeling bored in this role.
Q. What do you tear your hair out about?!
Because of the pace and having our hands in all the pies, it’s certainly a challenge trying to keep ahead of the curve and fit it all in the 9-5. Most Comms people would say the same!
Q. What’s your greatest career achievement to date?
Head of my department before 30.
Q. And your worst disaster!
The way we communicate (to who and when) is so important. There’s a fine line between over and under communicating. If we don’t get the planning right, disasters are always waiting to happen.
Q. What’s next for you & the business?
This year we’re super focused on telling Stuff’s story externally. We just ticked over one year as Stuff (we re-branded this time last year to better reflect who we are) and there’s still a big job to do showcasing all the cool stuff going on - there’s so much more to this business than what most people typically know us for (our news website). We've also newly formed the Customer Office (which Comms sits under) which carries the mission to champion the customer in everything we do.
Q. If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
Travelling the world, making new friends and memories along the way!
Q. Your Socials: (Email/Linkedin)