It’s another round of our wonderful Women in Media winners’ profiles, and today we chat to Sophie Price, chief strategy officer at UM Australia, the esteemed winner of our Strategy category.
It’s safe to say that modernising Australia’s Strategic Planning industry is close to Sophie’s heart. In 2006 she was the National Strategy Director of UM – a time when the industry was suffering from the negative aftermath of the media/creative agency divorce.
Sophie left UM, becoming the first strategist to ‘re-introduce’ media thinking into a creative agency. She extended her focus to the wider industry where she was, and continues to be, a vocal advocate for collaboration.
This philosophy has unlocked great success: Sophie’s won more media awards for creative agencies than any Australian planner. She’s the only planner to win multiple Grand Prix media and creative strategy awards and sit on both industry committees consecutively.
Since UM’s launch in 2015, Sophie’s nurtured an outstanding team of 15 ‘hybrid’ strategists with zero churn, and together they’ve received a stack of accolades, including multiple Cannes Lions in collaboration with creative partners, and the WARC Grand Prix for Connections Strategy.
Sophie’s team has attracted significant new business as well, acquiring Optus, Virgin Mobile, J&J, Tourism Australia, Fitbit and GoPro. She’s achieved all this as a leader, whilst also being a mum to three beautiful girls.
