London, October 7th, 2020

Andrea Lennon is an executive leader in customer experience, digital transformation and innovating client brand ecosystems.

After a successful career all over the world, from Singapore to North America, she is now in London, working as a Managing Director at the digital marketing and experience design agency Critical Mass, where she provides leadership in key accounts and looks after the agency’s growth strategy.

In an interview with TIA, Lennon described her personal journey so far and looked at the differentiating features behind Critical Mass, an agency with 11 office locations around the world.

She explained the challenges brought in by the pandemic and gave some advice for professionals aspiring to be in leadership positions.

What makes your city an attractive place to work and live?

Critical Mass has a robust portfolio of global clients, so London is a great hub for not only for servicing UK companies but also perfectly positioned for our relationships that span EMEA, Asia, and the US.

We have access to the incredible talent here and have significantly grown our team and capabilities in the last few years, from social media specialists and next-generation user experience designers to future-thinking data analysts and content producers. There’s also a great community surrounding us here that celebrates and supports work, diversity, culture, and learning that we can readily tap into.

Having spent most of my life in NYC, I appreciate living in London for all the things NYC is not. It’s on par with NY in food, culture, and diversity, but it’s next level when it comes to parks, green spaces, and quality of life. London has more diverse environments – a different vibe from urban chic to rural quiet, all right in the city’s centre. It feels like endless nooks and crannies awaiting discovery. And, importantly, I think I read somewhere that you are never more than seven minutes from a pub!

Tell us about your personal journey. How did you find yourself doing your role?

I started working in start-ups during the first internet bubble—first, the client-side, and eventually, the agency side in account management. I wouldn’t say I had a lot of focus at that time; I just fell into it and had a knack for building relationships and delivering high-quality work. I took a break in my career about 10 years in to get my culinary degree and spent a few years working as a chef. It was back-breaking work but not all that far off from my advertising gig! It’s about strong relationships, building a great team, having a vision, and delivering at the highest caliber. Following that experience, I returned to advertising with focus – no longer just a job, it became about building a career. From that point on, every decision I’ve made and every day that I show up is in the spirit of advancing – advancing myself, my team, my clients’ businesses, and my agency’s purpose. And I’ve never lost sight of the entrepreneurial spirit from those early start-up days and running my own business—I’ve found a lot of like-minded kindred spirits at Critical Mass.

How does communication flow through the organisation these days?

For Critical Mass, I’ve been based in NY, Singapore and London and been managing director for Hong Kong and Japan. Our work has always been global in nature – we pull the best talent from across our offices to ensure we have the right skills and casting for the job. So, working remotely, at odd hours, and collaborating via digital channels is really nothing new. The usual collaboration suspects are in play – Slack, Teams, Miro, etc. Of course, nothing beats an in-person stand up, seeing a client face to face or blowing off steam over a few pints—so we’ve augmented our communications to help foster a feeling of togetherness.

I pen a daily email out to the agency with a rundown on people, work, and culture; we convene weekly via video for an All Hands meeting; we run virtual quizzes and cocktail events and do a deeper dive monthly in Town Hall meetings. Our Global Executive team also complements these initiatives with Global Company Meetings and random Spirit Weeks to unite the entire agency. And the HR team is on overdrive, launching mental health and work/life balance support services so no one anywhere should feel alone or isolated. We’re also successfully running remote collaborative workshops with clients leveraging some of these tools as well. It’s not perfect, but I’m proud of how seamlessly the team and the agency have made this shift.

In your opinion, what makes Critical Mass stand out?

One key area where Critical Mass stands out is doing great and effective work. Our positioning is a digital marketing and experience design agency with a relentless focus on the customer. We provide end to end experience design services from strategic consulting through to implementation, all grounded in data-driven creativity. Because of the depth in our capabilities, and our ability to use data to validate our thinking, we really own the entire customer ecosystem. This makes our work not just beautiful to look at but also effective in delivering business value.

A great example is a recent COVID response social campaign we executed for INFINITI. “Carigami” was crafted as a response to trending DIY projects in social media. We created bespoke paper models that could be cut out and built at home. A really simple idea that helped INFINITI achieve some of its highest organic reach and audience engagement rates to date.

I would add our work environment is also noteworthy – it’s a great place to work. Last year we were AdAge’s Best Place to Work, Creativepool’s Best Agency to Work For, and Digiday’s Employer of the year. There are many reasons – consistent leadership, long-term client relationships, committed employees, top talent, a values-based and purpose-driven culture and some fun along the way.

Name a challenge your team is currently facing.

One challenge right now is trying to strike the right balance between cranking up the intensity we bring to our work every day and also supporting our teams. We’re in at a moment when remote working is wearing thin and personal circumstances can add to the stress and hardship people feel.

Given COVID’s impact on consumer behaviours, we’ve had to quickly pivot in many ways – ramping up regular insight reports to clients, doubling down on digitised journeys, and doing more with less. The economic environment is challenging, and our clients need to respond differently – and we need to work differently. Now, more than ever, internal teams need the motivation and inspiration to bring their best selves to work every day. We’re more proactive than ever with our clients, using data in creative ways to help navigate and anticipate their customers’ rapidly evolving behaviours.

We’re also doing our best to lead with empathy within the agency. We’re making sure people are getting the space they need throughout the day to combat back-to-back meetings, reduce screen fatigue, deal with their personal lives, and simply feel like a human.

What advice do you have for women aiming for leadership positions?

Find someone you admire, study their behaviour, learn from and emulate them as much as possible. I’ve had a handful of these people in my career – both men and women – that I’ve learned important lessons from, e.g., ambition, humility, collaboration, humour and perseverance. I’m fortunate to have a team I work with that I am still learning from every day.

Do you think there are particular personality traits of women in business that should be applauded?

Resilience, poise, and composure are some words that come to mind but bravery also stands out. It’s not easy to go against the grain. The data on female-lead countries having a better coronavirus handle has been pretty inspiring. I also really admire Christine Lagarde, who committed to not attending meetings where no other woman is present.

Is there any lesson you’ve had to learn multiple times?

The sum is often more important than the parts.

Where do you go if you want to get inspired?

I find inspiration in the off hours, when I can get my head out of the day-to-day busyness and have a look around, reconnect with friends and family, catch up on reading, and really slow down enough to take it in. I recently read an article about resilience being more about success at recharging than success from enduring – I wholly agree.

Can you name a fun fact people would be surprised to learn about you?

I’ve run the NYC marathon three times.

If there’s a playlist that helps you get inspired please share the link

Missing the ambient office sounds so have taken to this brilliant Sounds of Colleagues playlist https://open.spotify.com/album/6libmSiLbdQ4GsSeLe8xZz

Thanks Andrea!

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