In March 2022 Rosie Holden was appointed as CEO at Cake, the Havas-owned artistic company specialising in sport, leisure and tradition, following three years as managing director. Her promotion was nicely deserved, having overseen the company’s transformation from a PR and sport sponsorship company right into a full-service artistic company spanning comms, social, influencer and tradition advertising, partnerships, sponsorship technique and activation, reside and digital expertise and manufacturing. She did this whereas sustaining a 100% consumer retention charge, together with Cake’s long-term partnership with blue chip purchasers BT and EE, activating their partnerships with a few of the UK’s most iconic sport and leisure properties together with the Home Nations, BAFTA, Glastonbury and Wembley Stadium. In that point the company additionally doubled its headcount – attaining an 80%+ workers retention charge in every of these three years. And if you happen to look fastidiously on the date vary 2019-2022, you may additionally discover that it wasn’t the smoothest patch of historical past to attain this. Looking forward to her position as CEO into 2023 and past, LBB’s Alex Reeves caught up with Rosie to listen to about her journey right here, her priorities and passions in each life and enterprise.LBB> What’s most fun about Cake proper now?Rosie> The most fun factor for me is that Cake is about 23 years outdated now as an company. I’m into my fourth yr. And if you happen to communicate to anybody right here, together with longtime staffers, they’d say that now could be the time that it is producing a few of its most fun work. It has out of the blue discovered its artistic groove.When I joined, I believe there was nonetheless a little bit of “Who are we? What are we doing? Are we a PR company? Are we Havas Sport and Entertainment, a pure sponsorship, activation company with little bits of labor that did not match into both of these?” What’s most fun is now we’re an built-in advertising company. We make adverts, we create content material, we have delivered enormous sports activities partnership activations. We do all of it and for plenty of purchasers. I believe we’re in a extremely good place. It’s one thing I’m very pleased with. But it is extremely thrilling for the place we go subsequent as nicely. I believe we have hit on the fitting method and that is pleasing for me.LBB> It’s so fascinating whenever you describe Cake in the way in which that you simply simply have as a result of because the CEO it chimes so nicely together with your background. You’ve acquired that PR expertise, that sports activities and leisure expertise. You’ve been on the model aspect and company aspect.Rosie> It’s virtually like I’ve created an company within the picture of my very self, whenever you put it like that. I by no means actually thought of it that manner. But yeah, it in all probability is definitely. I’d like to say that once I acquired right here, I had a mega five-year plan. Obviously, there have been issues that wanted to be finished and also you need to get the company in the fitting form, hold ensuring you are delivering good work, all that stuff. But I really feel that once I say I believe we have hit on the fitting method, the way in which we describe ourselves now could be ‘a artistic company that specialises in sport, leisure and tradition’. But I believe that is the place we have landed, in all probability as a result of it means it might embody all of my passions in a single one company. So yeah, that is in all probability not too far off truly.When I say a artistic company for sport, leisure and tradition – I really feel it is very important say tradition as a result of we’re harnessing tradition to create good work throughout sport and leisure purchasers, however equally any manufacturers that need to be in that house. And that’s tradition, actually; sport and leisure are a part of tradition. When you take a look at all the things that we do, it is clear that the crew is aware of what issues and the fitting issues to do by way of reflecting fashionable tradition. I believe that is tremendous essential.LBB> So how did we get up to now? Where do you develop up and what have been you into as a child?Rosie> Well, it in all probability was sport and leisure. I grew up within the mighty Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. I beloved music. Huddersfield is barely about 40 minutes from Manchester, close to sufficient as quickly as folks had handed their driving assessments to get to within the early ’90s. It was an extremely thrilling time. And I absolutely embraced all of that. In truth I discovered my Spike Island ticket [a legendary Stone Roses gig] the opposite day once I moved home. That was all occurring. And you could not assist however be excited by that point, with the ability to entry that. At the identical time, I used to promote programmes on the Huddersfield Town Football Club on a Saturday as a result of I used to get 5 kilos and see the match free of charge. I assumed this was marvellous. So music and something artistic. It wasn’t a shock that I moved into artistic industries in any respect actually. It was a shock that I went to college and studied politics, which I did not do very nicely in any respect. But I had a superb time and I used to be in a ten-piece soul band for 3 years which paid my manner by it, singing. It was a Commitments tribute band, or as I like to inform my crew – the East Midlands’ premier operate band for at the very least three years.LBB> That’s superb. But was it PR that you simply first acquired into when you have been within the artistic world?Rosie> Really my first ever job was at Vans for 9 years. When I began there I used to be a PA and workplace supervisor. I acquired the job by [temp agency] Office Angels in Wimbledon in 1998. We used to distribute Vans Eastpak and Sorel, which is an out of doors model. Vans was the most important, Eastpak was beginning to develop after which it step by step acquired purchased out by Vans, then the VF Corporation. I used to be there for thus a few years. I did unbiased gross sales. I used to be working with the snowboard crew and the skate groups. And I mentioned to Dan (*5*) who was my boss then (he went to Dr. Martens to be president now he is at Abercrombie) I used to be getting a bit bored. He mentioned, “You know what you must do? I believe you would be actually good at PR.” I used to be like, “Why is that?” He’s like, “You might simply speak for hours. You’ll find it irresistible.” I mentioned I’ll give it a go. Then I had no thought what I used to be doing. I turned a PR supervisor. Then I used to be PR and advertising. It was tiny then, Vans within the UK, so I used to be working throughout all of these disciplines. It was a lot enjoyable. Young and single working with a bunch of scorching snowboarders. Three holidays in Chamonix. That’s why nobody ever leaves Vans. The normal supervisor there was the snowboard technical man once I was there, and that is like 25 years in the past or one thing. It’s such a tremendous place to work. LBB> But you clearly did go away. What prompted that?Rosie> I did. In the tip I assumed I wanted to get a ‘correct job’. I went to M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment to work on Reebok’s skate line. That was a career-changing level for me. I’d in all probability nonetheless be at Vans if I hadn’t spied that advert searching for an account director on Reebok. Equally, I might in all probability have by no means acquired a job there had it not been particularly skate as a result of I wasn’t a typical rent for any company, not to mention M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment.Going there was completely life altering for me and I’m nonetheless very tight with Jamie [Wynne-Morgan] and Steve [Martin], the 2 CEOs there. They have been very supportive of me and I had a good time flying world wide engaged on Reebok. Thankfully, Reebok binned their skate line. I keep in mind after three months telling them to simply kill it. It was terrible. And they did. Not due to my recommendation. I believe as a result of they hadn’t offered any. Luckily, then I began working throughout all of the classes throughout ladies’s health, shifting away from the style aspect of companies that I’d been used to and dealing far more throughout sport efficiency. Then it was truly my outdated Reebok international consumer that really helpful me for the adidas job a few yr later. I used to be going to and from the HQ in Germany for a short while, which was enjoyable. So that helped me get extra expertise throughout an enormous enterprise. Vans was like an enormous household. It was superb. But that was my first style of pure company world.LBB> Were there any specific moments whenever you actually learnt loads about advertising and branding?Rosie> Yeah, truly one of many final campaigns I labored on for Reebok international was for it the twentieth anniversary of the Reebok InstaPump. They have like a pump on the tongue. Super techy, iconic sneakerheads’ sneakers. That would have been 2009. Before that I believe the stuff I used to be concerned with was pretty commonplace however this consumer was a fully good girl, Josie [Stevens]. She’s superb. She did all of the ‘This Girl Can’ stuff just a few years in the past. I like her dearly. She mentioned, “We really want to do one thing totally different. I hear there’s this new thrilling idea referred to as ‘content material’. How about we create a content material collection? Why do not we make an enormous documentary? Let’s get all types of sports activities stars, tastemakers who have been actually into InstaPumps. Let’s get this story behind the shoe. Let’s get the designers.” (They used to work at NASA and now they made sneakers – superb.) So we created that with the content material arm of Crooked Tongues which was a extremely iconic sneaker website. And we principally made this enormous content material collection.That gave me expertise of creating visible content material for the primary time – touchdown it and getting on the market not only for PR functions, however for customers to have interaction with. Although at the moment we did not have a paid social media marketing campaign to bolster it, which you’d now. It was simply purely on the energy of the sweetness, aesthetic and the way fascinating it was. I beloved it. I’d finished quite a lot of large trend shoots by then. An enormous quantity of six-page spreads for Dazed with a number of supermodels and good photographers. This was flying world wide taking pictures content material and making movies. I used to be like, “I need to do extra of that please.” That in all probability colored my view of what stuff I proceed to be keen about.I nonetheless get a buzz out of that at this time, not that I’m ever invited to any shoots lately. But I nonetheless discover that tremendously thrilling. That sort of labor is the stuff that actually makes me need to leap away from bed and get on set, proper from the primary manufacturing assembly. LBB> What different work main as much as becoming a member of Cake gave you that pleasure?Rosie> At every model or company it has been doing one thing that felt new. The Pump 20 documentary collection was extremely thrilling. I used to be very pleased with that. Then I labored at Exposure for fairly a short while nevertheless it was fairly impactful as a result of I started working with some superb manufacturers like Nike, Umbro, Rizla. We did quite a lot of Rizla music levels – that was quite a lot of enjoyable. With Umbro, we did some actually groundbreaking influencer work and that was in its nascency, actually. We weren’t even calling it that. We labored with a superb designer redesigning the England strip, considering how we have been going to make this really feel thrilling to a trend viewers versus a sports activities sports activities viewers. adidas simply gave me the legs to work on so many good campaigns, you could not even depend it. Not essentially those with enormous footballers in, far more the work that we did on Originals, refreshing and reinventing that franchise for adidas was superb.I believe the commonality between all of them might be feeling such as you’re doing one thing that hasn’t been finished earlier than. There’s that pleasure about being concerned in one thing that has regularly advanced to the purpose that you simply’re getting concerned in it. I’m fairly a high-energy particular person naturally. My husband says to me I’m at all times like “what’s subsequent?” I’ll be on the aircraft on the way in which again from vacation making an attempt to e-book one other one. I take that to my work and I anticipate that of my folks. I believe that is the artistic power that you might want to drive you to do thrilling work.LBB> What work at Cake has felt like that?Rosie> Some latest work for Cake that was clearly enormous was the JD Sports Christmas TV advert. That was an absolute blast, filming in Manchester over 4 nights. Just being on set and seeing your imaginative and prescient come to actuality, I believe is probably the most thrilling factor for anybody. I’m not the artistic on it in any respect, clearly, however to have been on the pitch after which out of the blue filming it after which seeing it on TV is a reasonably good buzz, as we used to say.That’s enormous. And it is an important, tangible piece of labor that explains what Cake is now, what we will do and what we will make. But I believe there’s loads of different work that we’re concerned with that I really feel notably pleased with as a result of it is actually significant. One of our greatest purchasers is BT and the Home Nations partnership. That’s all about driving engagement by ladies’s grassroots and para soccer. I can not even let you know how humbling and really shifting quite a lot of the content material we have made round that has been. We labored with the FA on a incapacity soccer marketing campaign. The JD Sports stuff is large, it is on telly and on the Piccadilly Lights and also you noticed it in every single place. And I believe it was a real reflection of what road tradition is, and is definitely the very best Christmas TV advert ever made (sorry John Lewis). But then the opposite sort of labor that we do is really significant and it is actually making adjustments for communities that have not beforehand had a voice. So I can not assist however be immensely pleased with such a stuff as nicely, after all.LBB> How did the pandemic have an effect on the way in which you labored as an company?Rosie> At the tip of 2019 I used to be being tremendous smug like, “2020 is gonna be superb!” And then clearly needed to take care of purchasers pulling again or pausing and getting by that. Like everybody else, we needed to make adjustments to adapt. But that mentioned, we got here by it extremely nicely. It was additionally a second the place folks internally and externally out of the blue realised Cake wasn’t nearly reside occasions and sport. That could not be additional than the reality. And it truly gave us the chance to speak to our longer-term purchasers like BT. The Home Nations partnership was actually simply launching. And we would had this enormous quantity of exercise deliberate by way of reside occasions or client expertise. We needed to pivot straightaway to digital and content material. That’s why all of the work that we’re doing for them now could be really built-in. LBB> As CEO you should be considering loads in regards to the folks in your corporation. And because you joined, you’ve got massively expanded the variety of folks on the company. What’s been key to that, when it isn’t been the best time for holding onto and discovering expertise?Then I believe it is on the again of good work. We’ve acquired a superb, passionate crew and the work that they ship is so good – purchasers actually consider in it. Last yr we had an exceptional new enterprise yr – six out of six consecutive pitches all within the sport house. That drives your fortune. It’s all the way down to the folks. They all love Cake. They’re actual ‘Cakers’, as they name themselves. I’ve acquired quite a lot of long-term workers and an important retention charge. And I’ve acquired people who used to work for me in my previous which have come again to work for me once more, which I at all times love. It’s just like the Blues Brothers getting the band again collectively. It’s about them and their passions. They simply find it irresistible. Who would not? You’ve seen that consumer roster. From EE, we glance after the partnerships with BAFTA, Glastonbury and Wembley. And all of the soccer stuff. Equally MLB – Major League Baseball – the stuff we’re doing for them is unimaginable. There’s simply no shit purchasers and no shit work. People find it irresistible.LBB> It makes whole sense. Sports, tradition, leisure – these are the issues that we reside for as people. So working round that’s has acquired to be enjoyable.Rosie> Completely. I at all times say to them, that is what it is all about. And if it is not, inform me and I’ll both advise you the place you must go subsequent or I’ll try to make one thing thrilling for you right here. I’m very real looking about that. The factor I’m most pleased with is all of the people who I’ve labored with and the way brilliantly they’ve finished. One of the ladies that used to work for me at John Doe, who now works for me once more, once I take a look at who she was once I employed her when she was about 22 to now, it is unimaginable. And it is life altering. It permits folks to get mortgages, have infants, do all the things they’ve ever wished to do, study and develop. I take that very significantly.
https://www.lbbonline.com/news/5-minutes-with-rosie-holden
5 Minutes with… Rosie Holden
