Kirsty Ostell - Managing Director, O Agency
Did you always envisage a career in the Media Industry?
I don’t think I really knew what a career in the creative industry was until I went to university. It certainly wasn’t in our career talks at school and I was the first person in my family to work in this sector, so it wasn’t really part of any discussion growing up. I was the typical person leaving school that didn’t really know what they wanted to do, I thought I wanted to do something with numbers (I’m still a data geek), so I went off and did a business degree at Northumbria. I loved uni, learned so much about so many different things, including marketing. I knew that’s what I wanted to do from the first lecture and (many) years later, here I am, still in love with marketing.
What has been your career path so far?
I was incredibly lucky to do a placement year and I enjoyed myself so much I stayed for over a decade. I found the financial services sector fascinating and challenging, if you can market accountancy, you can market anything. My role and the business evolved so much over that time, I got to build teams, support with national and international expansion, move into strategy and BD and before I knew it 10 years had passed, and I was ready for a new challenge. I had a great agency to support that role, no surprises it was O, so when the time came, there was only ever one agency I wanted to join.
What have been the biggest challenges you have faced so far?
I’m an eternal optimist, so I usually see everything as a lesson, but running a business certainly comes with challenges every day. I actually love a challenge though as I think it makes us all more creative, great ideas come in finding solutions.
What is your greatest strength?
I’d say resilience is my super power, and it certainly helps with the above.
What is your biggest weakness?
I’m sure there are plenty of examples here. But one is definitely that I talk too fast. I think that’s been written on every school report and appraisal since I was three.
Who do you respect most in your industry?
So many people, but I’m a big fan of Mary Portas. Her content is definitely on my go to list for trends, human data and creative outlook.
What has been your proudest achievement?
Honestly, it’s got to be supporting to grow the agency through the pandemic. When the world stopped, we used it as an opportunity to learn new skills, introduce new services, break into new sectors and supported our clients to recover and it was another turning point at O.
What are your future career aspirations?
Being MD at O is the most creative and rewarding role I could have imagined. I love people and so the best part of my day is seeing the successes in the team, seeing an intern promoted or a long-standing member of the team take on a mega new role. It’s what drives me to be better.
I’ve always been insanely ambitious, so learning new skills is always on my agenda – my latest obsession is AI. Now don’t get me wrong, I hate it for content, I think you can see an AI generated article or a LinkedIn post a mile off, but we’ve used it to do some very cool things with data, to drive efficiency and to drive personalisation in campaigns and I think it’s a game changer in our industry.
How do you see your industry evolving in the next 10 years?
‘Proper’ brand building never goes out of fashion. I think we’ll see a continued movement in the industry to shift back to long-term brand building, subculture creation and building real niche communities that are driven by brand loyalty. I think right across the industry there has been more and more recognition that relying solely on the quick results, performance-led marketing doesn’t deliver long-term impact or value.
I also think we’ll see another big shift in what’s possible with creative campaigns (every year, never mind in the next decade). AI and CGI will keep pushing every brand into new spaces and I think that’s really exciting, but I also think industry creative ideas will keep getting bolder and braver, they have to in order to grab attention on really noisy channels.
How do you like to unwind?
I love to cook, I find it very therapeutic, but I can’t follow a recipe to save my life. I’m most relaxed when I’m by a beach with a book, I’m a real sun worshiper and so holidays are my favourite way to spend some down time and really switch off.
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