Hey Rose! What’s for lunch today?

Leftovers! This sticky-sweet-fried eggplant dish, a Dan Hong recipe, with the best ever sauce. The sauce contains 14 ingredients and takes up to an hour to make, but you can jar it for up to 2 months. It’s become a fridge staple.

Tell us a little about your career, and current role as Head of Content at Buffet.

I started out in beauty as a writer and editor, and then freelanced as a features writer for a few years for Broadsheet before fully making the jump over to the thing I thought about (and still think about) most — food. Through most of that, I spent years front-of-house, behind bars and on restaurant floors, and in a way that ‘work experience’ is what really prepped me for a life at Buffet. 

As Head of Content, I oversee the studio’s entire creative output, which means I read every line of copy – whether it’s for social, a website or a campaign tagline. I lead the creative on all content strategies and campaigns, and am also fortunate to manage a forever hungry content team of three. I also look after Buffet’s own marketing and content strategy, including the publishing calendar of our own in-house content platform, Lazy Susan.

We’re here to pick your campaign brain. For those looking to learn, can you explain what a campaign is, and what’s it used for?

People get thrown by the word ‘campaign’ but it’s really just your brand’s moment to break from regular programming and cut through the noise in a short, loud burst. To boil it down into four parts, you start with an objective (i.e. brand awareness or a seasonal push), come up with a concept, bring that to life with content, and then execute a roll out plan across the relevant platforms. More on that here. 

How much budget you have at your disposable will determine whether you’re telling the story of a 90-year legacy brand in the homes of four Melbourne creatives or a suite of punchy social-first videos with viral legs (see our work for Nonna’s Grocer).

So…how should a brand gain a better understanding of what gets their customer out of bed in the morning? 

Use your data and customer insights. Look at what’s worked in the past and what hasn’t. Read social media comments, DMs and reviews about your brand, and then look outside your bubble to the wider cultural conversation. 

This part entails being *chronically online*. Dive down TikTok rabbit holes and into Reddit threads. Read widely and watch the shows everyone’s talking about. Notice what’s happening in your city, in your own niche, adjacent industries, as well as what like-minded brands are doing around the world. Remain open and curious, and use all of this insight to stay true to your brand and break out of the mould.

What’s your secret sauce to unlocking new ideas in your own brain, and the collective brain of the Buffet creative team?

There’s time for the mind to wander and time to employ laser focus. Both of these ways of being are critical to unlocking new ideas. My version of ‘shower thoughts’ is morning meditation — that’s where my most intractable creative problems are worked out. 

On the Buffet front, our creative team is constantly sharing references and ideas, and when we get stuck we’ll pull someone aside for a quick 5-minute pitch session, which helps you figure out where the holes are and if the concept has legs. 

How would you describe the Buffet approach to creative campaigns?

Equal parts being in tune with the latest food/drink/content trends, while coming up with ideas and stories that feel timeless. We always push ourselves to come at each campaign concept with fresh eyes, and that means avoiding rehashing the same ideas (and references) over and over. We also put a big emphasis on the strategy behind the cool idea. It’s the essential ingredient — there’s no point producing stunning content if it’s going to disappear into the void.

What are some examples of campaigns you’ve worked on at Buffet, and why were they successful? What did you love most about them?

Big Mood was one of the first launch campaigns I worked on for Buffet, which we produced over two shoots — a suite of launch videos and a fashion-meets-food photoshoot. The concept came off the back of Sydney’s second, significantly longer lockdown and tapped into things we were all ~feeling~ at the time: to be buzzed, young and free with friends. The bottled cocktails no longer exist, but clients still reference it to this day. 

More recently, we flew down to Melbourne with Squarespace to tell the story of Lasagne impresario, Joey Kellock. This one was a little different — Squarespace engaged us as a partner and collaborator, as opposed to an agency. An exciting first for Buffet.

What are some big mistakes you see brands make when briefing in campaigns to creative agencies?

Failing to set clear — but loose! — guardrails and razor clear outcomes. I think both of the above campaigns were successful largely because the brief was clear but open, the clients were collaborative, but they were also prepared to hand over the keys to the car (read: creative trust).

Burning advice for someone looking to build a career in creative content?

Start making stuff as soon as you can. Pitch articles to editors, start your own TikTok account, or passion-related finsta that shows you can write a caption and produce a voiceover on a video. Also team up with other budding creatives. The images and films you produce can be used to get more work, and really, there is nothing more beautiful than a creative partnership that spans years as you come up together. This is, in fact, how Sophie and Nikki ended up founding Buffet.

If you had to choose between unlimited budget, or unlimited creative freedom when working with a client, which would you choose and why? 

Unlimited creative freedom…but then the client wins the Lotto.