CB Hot Suit Takes: Kate Lines, Managing Director, Crave
CB Hot Suit Takes is our new Q&A series for extremely busy CEOs and senior leaders across the industry ~ covering careers, creativity, challenges and the song that sums it all up. Next in the hot seat is Kate Lines, Managing Director, Crave.
1. What made you get into advertising?
A party (those who know me won’t be surprised by this!).
I was doing a summer internship in the Marketing team at Westpac in Wellington when I ended up at the Saatchi & Saatchi Xmas party. Within about five minutes I remember thinking, these are my people!
At that point I’d just come out of uni with a Bachelor of Physical Education (random) and a BA in Psychology, and absolutely no clue what I wanted to do. I met James Hall and Andrea Hammond that night and somehow convinced them to give me a job, purely because I thought it looked like fun.
A week in, I was thinking, why did no one tell me this was a job?
I loved everything about it.
Something I reflect on often is that, as a teenager, I never thought I was a creative person. I grew up around artists and journalists, they were the creative ones. Finding advertising made me realise it was there all along, just in a different form. Hearing a great idea for the first time is intoxicating, and I love the obsessiveness that comes with needing to make it happen.
2. Which piece of work are you most proud of, and why?
This is a really hard one to pin down. The obvious answer would be the five Lotto Powerball ‘Imagine’ campaigns I was lucky enough to be involved in (my favourite being Armoured Truck – simply beautiful storytelling).
But ultimately, it probably has to be the AA Insurance ‘Live a Little Freer’ brand platform. Leading that project, developing and embedding a new platform across the business, and seeing it drive such strong results for the brand over 7+ years was incredibly satisfying. Coupled with the achievement of getting a dinosaur and a unicorn over the line for an insurance company.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role right now?
Keeping pace with the speed of change while carving out something genuinely distinctive and valuable in an incredibly competitive market. At the same time, it’s about continually championing bravery, optimism and positivity, especially in a tough economic climate where the default is to play it safe.
What’s changed most for me personally is the proximity to everything that’s going on. Being closer to the work, the decisions and the results, there’s nowhere to hide. It makes you more accountable, but also a lot more invested in getting it right.
4. What’s the most recent thing you’ve learned – professionally or personally?
It’s actually an old lesson that’s come back around: “If it’s not your job, you don’t have one.” A boss said that to me early in my career and it’s stuck, but it feels more real now than ever.
In a smaller indie, you can’t sit in neat lanes, you’re across more, you see more, and you take ownership beyond your role. It’s reinforced a mindset of not waiting for permission or assuming someone else will pick it up. If something needs to happen, you just get on with it, and that’s been really rewarding.
5. What song best sums up your career so far?
I’m a survivor
I’m not gon’ give up
I’m not gon’ stop
I’m gon work harder
I’m a survivor
I’m gonna make it
I will survive
Keep on survivin’
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