Suzannah O'Brien
Head of Marketing
With a passion for results, Suzy has dedicated her career to multi-channel, response-driven marketing. Suzy cut her teeth Agency-side at EHS Brann (now part of Havas) working on Peugeot before moving to smaller, independent agencies to join and grow direct marketing functions and drive new business growth.
Direct marketing quickly became digital as the world of mobile and digital marketing took off and Suzy’s focus became integrated, multi-media campaigns for clients such as Ancestry.co.uk, HSBC, Philips, ESPN and TalkTalk.
Suzy moved client-side to News International in 2010, heading up Subscription Acquisition for The Times and The Sunday Times where Suzy gained an insight into the different pressures and challenges that clients experience. From here Suzy moved to Sky where she spent 8 years developing strategies and TTL campaigns that drove Sky TV acquisition and upgrades.
What motivates you?
As a Marketing professional I am motivated by many things: Creative… I love copywriting, design and creative concepts and I love finding the magic piece of insight that helps inspire a piece of marketing that really cuts through and makes people take action. Execution… I don’t care about the channel, whether its digital or radio or TV advertising, I love seeing and hearing the finished product and seeing the impact it has. Results… I love knowing how a piece of creative or communications has performed, I like understanding the data to learn from it and see how we could make something better next time.
How did you get into construction?
Working with K2 is my first introduction to the world of Construction and I enjoy seeing the buildings we are working on and how they leave their mark on the world, cleverly crafted with Net Zero and sustainability in mind. At the moment K2 are really focussed on improving the way construction projects are delivered through Project Leadership, Cost Management and Construction Management. I find that working with such a passionate group of people is really interesting and its exciting to be a part of the changes and transformations they are leading to improve the art of construction.
Do you have a favourite building?
I love the Eiffel Tower. We took our children to Paris this summer and we visited all the landmarks. The Eiffel Tower is really something special. From the apartment we were staying in we could see the tower out of our window and at night it was lit up and it was exquisitely beautiful. Just being in Paris makes you feel different, with all the sensational architecture, café’s, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur, this is the power of truly great buildings.
What’s your best career advice?
Dress for the job you want, not the job you’ve got. It’s all about being the best you can be and pushing yourself a little further each day. The clothes you wear change your frame of mind. They signal to other people that you’re serious about your career. The rest will follow.
What is your personal philosophy?
Kindness above all. I will always be kind and courteous to others (except those little moments of shouting at my children to get their shoes on). In order to overcome the current cyber-bullying and other nasty trends emerging in children and young peoples lives, I think its so important that we remember to be human and to be kind.
What’s your favourite book?
The Island by Victoria Hislop. This wonderful true story about the lives of families in Crete who had to send their loved ones off to Spinalonga a Leprosy colony is such a heart-breaking and heart-warming story. The children who have to leave their parents behind and are then adopted by people on the island. The doctors who visit regularly and the fisherman who delivers supplies. We visited Spinalonga in 2016 when we were in Crete for a holiday and walking around the empty streets gives you such a sense of how life was. A whole community, a whole life was lived on the island, away from the mainland but life continued with schools, churches, shops, all in the shadow of leprosy.
