Caroline Moffat is Digital Director at Starcom. We find out who her digital hero is.
Who is your digital hero?
Katy Eckersley, Industry Manager at Google.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
I met Katy years ago when we both worked at a previous agency and admired her impressive digital planning knowledge and straight-talking approach. Katy is brave enough to tell it how it is and, as a result, gains people’s trust. She continued to apply this when she moved media owner side to Rezonence before joining Google.
Katy is generous with her time and is involved in mentoring schemes to get a more diverse workforce into digital, such as Google’s apprenticeship scheme and through Bloom. She also helped businesses apply for free digital help and consultancy as part of Google’s COVID response.
Finally, Katy is well-liked within the industry and has such a great contact list she could start up her own digital recruitment agency!
How has her heroism helped drive digital?
Katy always wants to deliver the best digital work and isn’t afraid to challenge clients to really get to the bottom of what they trying to achieve. As a result, she has helped clients think beyond last click, instead moving their focus to the lifetime value of a customer. This goes a long way to showing the true value that digital can bring.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
A challenge close to my heart is protecting children online. I became a mum at the start of the pandemic and my son already likes looking at photos of himself on my phone (no matter how many times I hide it behind cushions!).
This isn’t an easy problem to solve and will take a collective effort, but bodies such as Internet Matters, which has Kay Martin spearheading the marketing for, are doing amazing work by advising parents on how they can keep their children safe online.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
Not an achievement per se, but I always make sure I embrace the changeable nature of the digital advertising industry, seeking out new opportunities that emerge as a result. I love matching these to client challenges with a view of them becoming an integral part of their activity, rather than just testing something just because it’s new.
Early on in my career this included running a car brand’s first mobile campaign, using tap to call functionality, which was ground breaking at the time and most definitely before the ‘year of the mobile’.
Now, this can include working with Publicis’s Next Tech Now team, who act as an impartial connector between brands and the AdTech entrepreneur community.
