Women In Media: It’s Data Creative & Visual Domain’s Renece Brewster
Today B&T’s Women In Media profile features the boss of not one BUT two companies! Yes, it’s the wonderful Renece Brewster, who’s not only CEO and Founder of Data Creative but also CEO and co-founder at Visual Domain. She reveals all here…
Describe your average day?
Our business, Data Creative is a technology platform that creates data driven personalised videos in seconds. The hours between nine to five are generally a blur of decision making, team catch ups, client meetings and getting through all the urgent things on the to do list – with lots of coffee in between!
In the short twelve months we’ve been operating, we’ve worked with some amazing brands like NAB, Coles Flybuys, Bupa and many more, but as our business is still young, a lot of my time is spent connecting with people and educating them on what we’re doing.
As a result of this, it’s not uncommon for me to have six meetings a day so the small moments I do have in between meetings, I need to fit a lot in. There are a million balls in the air at once, so I often feel like I’m just punching up balloons making sure they don’t hit the ground.
I feel like my day really starts after 5:30, as this is when I work through my bigger projects with minimum interruptions.
What’s the most challenging thing about your job?
Prioritising my time! We’re still very much in start-up mode so I wear a lot of hats in any given hour of the day. We’re currently seeking funding, chasing sales, project managing new campaigns and supporting our team. Everything is important, so making sure everything gets my time is the most challenging part of by job.
What drives you?
What we’re doing is totally new and for most clients it’s their first time using this type of technology in their communications. I’m driven by the excitement they have in what we’re creating, and then seeing our ideas come to life and exceeding expectations.
Every campaign we’ve done to date we’ve had increased engagement, which is incredibly rewarding and I know we’re just scratching the surface of what we can do!
What’s the hardest brief you’ve ever received or hardest job to execute?
Every time we start a campaign we’re challenging what the platform can do. Whether it’s a new feature, a new way of calculating the data or simple things like changing colours in a video on the fly. Creatively executing some of our clients ideas often leaves us stumped but I love that my team are always up for making the impossible possible and always take the challenge head on.
What has been your favourite job in media and why?
I love what I do now! I’ve worked in video production for the past eight years and I’m incredibly passionate about its use as a method of communication. I’m now combining video production with technology that’s so cutting edge and constantly evolving. Every day presents itself with new opportunities that generally take me out of my comfort zone, which I love, and for me it’s a good sign that I’m in the right place, doing the right thing.
What would be your ultimate role?
I love what I do now but I can’t wait to have a few more years of doing this under my belt, hopefully making it a huge global success. It’s this future potential that really excites me and I can only hope it’s with as good as a team as we have today.
What’s your proudest professional moment?
Being surrounded by a team that’s as passionate about data creative as I am. Some days can be relentless and building new technology is not without its challenges, so its nice when we all have a win and no matter how small the win may be, we all share in it together.
What’s your quirkiest attribute?
Hmm, might have to ask my team that question! I have a pretty messed up sense of humour, might just leave it at that, ha, ha!
One thing no one knows about you?
I’m actually a trained lifeguard, so at least I always have that to fall back on.
What are advertising/marketing’s biggest challenges or threats?
The biggest challenge facing marketing and advertising is its ability to cut through and connect with the right audience. The importance of businesses to talk to everyone as an individual is well known and as a result, businesses have become expect collectors of data… yet very few are actually doing anything more with it than personalising a name in an EDM.
I see the way our videos are very bold and brash in the way we include data, however I think the future will be far subtler. Individuals will be watching a video that is completely relevant to them, yet they will not even realise their video is unique.
What do you think are the most exciting things in the marketing and creative world at the moment?
We are only just scratching the surface on some amazing technologies that will change the world we live in including AR, VR, retina controlled content, 3D printing and many more, but what’s so exciting about all of these is just how accessible they are. It’s no longer just marketers with big budgets who succeed; it’s the savvy ones who are open to new ideas and creative executions.
Likewise, we’re seeing a huge rise of ideas from entrepreneurs designed to disrupt and reinvent the way we do business. It’s so exciting to watch and it’s what motivates me to constantly push myself and what’s possible.
Hardest lesson you’ve had to learn (in or out of workforce)?
My gut instinct plays such a big part of my decision making process, yet it’s taken me a long time to learn to trust it. Perhaps one of the better things of getting older is learning to trust yourself and remaining true to yourself, even if the path looks harder.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee… lots of coffee..,
Cats or dogs?
Dogs
Guilty pleasure?
A Magnum before bed… every. single. night.
What’s your favourite TV programme?
Made in Chelsea – it’s the best, trash, fashion, drama, reality all rolled into one! Maybe this is my guilty pleasure!
What turns you on, emotionally, creatively, spirituality?
Inspiring people that fuel you with their presence.
What turns you off?
Egotistical people
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Honestly, I have no idea!
What profession would you not like to do?
Anything repetitive, the thought of doing the same thing everyday would drive me spare!
Have you ever felt like giving up?
At least once a week! I sometimes wonder why they hell I’ve put my hand up for this. Being a mum also comes with a nice bag of guilt and I worry about the time I spend away from my kids. But I will never give up, I try and make the quality moments count with the kids and I know if I wasn’t doing this, I wouldn’t be me. I want them to see that chasing your dreams is possible if you’re not afraid to work.
What are the pearls of wisdom you know now, that you wish you knew when they were younger?
That failing is ok. In fact it’s a necessity, but it’s how you come back from it that counts.
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