We catch up with the Asos Australia team in our December issue. Here's a teaser. To meet the teams behind some of the most iconic brands and retailers, subscribe to our title here.
What is your previous experience in the industry?
My retail experience is actually limited to slinging sneakers at a boutique while I was a university student in Brisbane. I’ve spent the last eight years in the publishing industry as both a writer and editor.
This includes a lengthy stint at the helm of digital publication Pedestrian.tv, a not-so-lengthy-stint at fashion title Oyster Magazine, and regularly contributing to a handful of titles (when I can muster the time).
Prior to starting at ASOS, I shifted my focus from pure editorial to focusing on digital content strategy for brands and spent two years at the digital agency heading up an editorial editorial department where we worked on a range of clients.
My role at ASOS offers the best of both worlds – the more strategic, commercial side of the coin, as well as extremely high standards of what content should be; that is: not solely about conversion, but about growing brand love and consistently creating value for the audience outside the moment of purchase.
What is your day-to-day role?
No two days are the same – a terrible, clichéd answer but an honest one.
At a very top level, my role is a combination of directing the business-as-usual editorial comms platforms for Australia (including emails, the Fashion & Beauty Feed and Style Feed on the site, among others), and developing and executing content plans to support key retail moments and campaigns.
Add to that, a solid two hours of emails, a good chunk of copywriting, and the unending search for new adjectives to describe clothes (it’s nuts how quickly the well dries up).
What is the most rewarding aspect?
Working closely with a small but brilliant team of young people in the Australian office, and working closely (in spirit, not physical proximity) with an enormous team of brilliant people based in the London office and at the various ASOS outposts around the world.
The company also has a long-held passion for supporting emerging talent – whether that’s up and coming photographers and style personalities, or musicians, artists, actors, etc – and it’s a passion I share.
What is the most challenging?
Working in a satellite office with a wildly inconvenient time-zone does have its challenges. From the very beginning, you have to accept that nightly phone calls are an integral part of the job.
What is an initiative you are most proud of?
Wearing dungarees with a turtleneck during office hours without receiving an official letter of warning.
What is the biggest change in the industry?
It’s an industry that’s constantly changing so that’s a tough one.
I think consumer perceptions about ‘fast fashion’ have dramatically changed over the past five years which is really interesting.
There’s a far greater conscientiousness about waste and, therefore, about quality; about provenance and knowing where clothes are coming from.
As far as eCommerce and digital retail is concerned, it’s tough to pin point the most significant change.
By the time these words are printed, a new bombshell about the Next Big Thing will have dropped.
I think the fact we now have to reach consumers on their terms – through their social media channels, through content that they’re genuinely interested in seeing, and through a mobile-first approach to how and when we communicate with them – is a major change for the fashion industry, where a beautiful editorial campaign will no longer cut it.
What is the biggest change ahead?
Wearble tech gone mad. Hopefully those suits that fill with water to keep you in a personal spa all day will be available at an affordable price…