No art degree? No problem
If you’re interested in a career in animation, but don’t want work as an artist, read on! We hear from 4 women working in a range of roles across the Blue Zoo on their roles, what they love about their roles and their advice.
Sara-Laila Francis - Talent Acquisition Team Lead
Stephanie Gauld - Digital Director
Kayley Mills - Digital Marketing Apprentice
Shivani Patel - People Advisor
Stephanie Gauld - Digital Director
How would you describe your role in a sentence or two?
My role is about working with a fantastic, strategic and creative team to deliver beneficial and entertaining experiences for our audiences around our animation IPs, and launch these within joined up promotional campaigns.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
I really enjoy knowing that what we do makes a difference to our audiences - engagement metrics, heart-warming comments from parents globally on social media and user testing where you see the impact of what you’re creating on children’s faces is by far the best!
What was the draw of animation for you?
Children’s animation is fantastic to me because literally anything is possible - from the crazy creations of Phineas and Ferb and the imaginative worlds of Studio Ghibli to the brilliantly visual way of teaching phonics and maths in Alphablocks and Numberblocks.
How did you get into your role from studying?
I studied English and French as my undergraduate degree and went on to do a postgraduate in Medieval Literature (essentially fairy stories!). My first proper job was as a writer of children’s and romantic stories and as an editor within a magazine company. This was great as it taught me about project management - print schedules aren’t forgiving! I then moved to a dot com, where my role was to create a set of children’s characters and a games platform, as an offshoot of pets.com - with characters, games and embarrassingly a rap… After a friend at the BBC showed me a role within pre-school digital education, I joined this department but was quickly brought into children’s to start up CBeebies Interactive, which I led for five years and was a huge amount of fun (I remember receiving a vhs of Blue Cow from a company called Blue Zoo! We all loved it!) This was a great role as it taught me a lot about teamwork, how creativity thrives collectively and working with a very wide range of IP owners. I was then headhunted by Disney to set up their virtual worlds team in Brighton, heading up Club Penguin for EMEA and setting up an international team. I then tried to freelance/consult while my boys were tiny but was pulled into roles such as Digital Publisher for Egmont Books UK and Head of Digital for Acamar Films. I also freelanced for companies such as Liverpool FC. For these companies, I was developing creative and financially viable multi-platform strategies, pulling together the right talent to deliver them or delivering them myself - which takes me to now at Blue Zoo and Alphablocks Ltd!
What advice would you give someone looking to move into your role?
If this is a role you’re interested in, working in a creative assistant producer role would be a great step - whether this is within games, VOD platforms or social media, refining project management skills. Then it’s about getting exposure to as many different IPs as possible so you start to build up an understanding of what works or doesn’t and learning about the various digital platforms. Reading industry blogs is also important so you’re aware of the shifts in consumer behaviour.
Shivani Patel - People Advisor
How would you describe your role in a sentence or two?
As the People Advisor, I’m the first point of contact for all employees and mangers, providing comprehensive generalist HR support and advice across the business.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
I love meeting our new starters and helping employees across the business; whether that’s helping them settle in, answering questions or dealing with more complex situations, knowing I've helped someone is extremely motivating and rewarding!
What are the biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges I face in my role is having difficult conversations and/or delivering bad news. No matter how many times you’ve had to handle these situations it never becomes easier but I remind myself it’s part of the role!
What has surprised you about your role or working in animation?
The amount of incredibly talented people in this industry!
What do you think the benefits of working in a creative company are, compared to elsewhere?
The culture is amazingly supportive, fun and inclusive.
Kayley Mills - Digital Marketing Apprentice
How would you describe your role in a sentence or two?
My role focuses on B2B Marketing, which involves generating awareness of your brand to potential clients/ businesses. I spend most of my time organising and writing posts for all social media platforms, replying to enquiries and coming up with ideas for future posts which also spread the word on our mission to create animation as a force for good!
What do you most enjoy about your job?
The thing I probably enjoy most about my job is that I get to hear all of these amazing stories from other BZ'ers and their experience in the animation industry which always inspires new ideas for social media posts.
What was the draw of animation for you?
For me, the draw of animation was how it can bring people together. For example, when I saw our BZ Short 'In Shapes' for the first time, it really spoke to me and made me realise just how important art can be.
What do you think the benefits of working in a creative company are, compared to elsewhere?
There are so many benefits of working in a creative company. For starters, creative freedom and your own ideas and opinions are valued and welcomed. Flexible working is something that is also fantastic and doesn't come with a lot of companies outside the creative sector - for me this means that I get to have a relaxed morning and go to the gym or for a long walk in the morning to clear my head before I start work which means that I feel ready and prepared for the day ahead.
How did you get into your role from studying?
Throughout my whole education, I was always convinced I'd go to university and become an English teacher or a journalist as this always seemed the most obvious option for me as a massive reader. However, following my A-levels during the pandemic and an unconditional offer to study English Literature at university, I realised it wasn't the route I wanted to take. I realised that an apprenticeship was the way forward for me. Whilst I was looking for an apprenticeship, I stayed at the same job I'd been in since I was 15 which was a Supervisor at my local bakery. That's when I came across Blue Zoo and the Digital Marketing Apprentice role that they were advertising. I've been here for nearly a year now and wouldn't change a thing!
What advice would you give someone looking to move into your role?
The best piece of advice I could give someone wanting to go into Marketing is don't give up. It might sound cliche but I was applying for over two years when I finally secured my job and thought I'd never leave where I was. Whilst I let this completely affect my confidence, please try not to. Just because you may not have the qualities needed for one company, doesn't mean that you're not what another company is looking for.
Sara-Laila Francis - Talent Acquisition Team Lead
How would you describe your role in a sentence or two?
I head up the wonderful Talent Team here at Blue Zoo Animation. I am responsible for implementing and delivering external recruitment strategies, as well as leading on key searches for specialist roles to attract and onboard diverse talent. I also oversee internal resourcing and forecast internal suitable opportunities for our current crew.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
It's honestly such a rewarding feeling, being able to offer great talent an opportunity they may have studied, or worked hard for, specialising in their craft that they are so passionate about.
What was the draw of animation for you?
Blue Zoo and its reputation. I had only ever heard good things and fortunately, it's all true. Everything Blue Zoo works on is always so different from the last, and their inclusive shorts programme has been so successful each year - the quality of animation is beyond, and the stories the shorts tell just transport you to another world, they're incredible.
What do you think the benefits of working in a creative company are, compared to elsewhere?
Being around super-talent people, creative problem solving and the awesome company culture. There's a choice of being remote, or hybrid, flexible working etc - so there's a healthier work/life balance.
What advice would you give someone looking to move into your role?
Don't be afraid to challenge yourself! I've been able to merge my passion for film and TV with my experience in recruitment into a role I never knew was out there, when I graduated, so I am truly doing what I love to do! It's important to research what the studios or companies look for, when recruiting for Talent Acquisition. Those role descriptions can really tell you what skills and competencies are needed.
Bios
Kayley is a Digital Marketing Apprentice for Blue Zoo, working in their Marketing team, helping to implement internal and external communications. Previously, Kayley worked as an Assistant Supervisor in her local bakery and ran a well-known book club on Facebook.
Sara-Laila is a Talent Acquisition Team Lead at Blue Zoo Animation. Sara-Laila has worked in high-volume recruitment for 10 years, and across the VFX and Animation industry for 8. She has a passion for hiring creative and technical talent, building strong working relationships, and essentially working hard to offer some of the best opportunities in the industry to great talent.
Stephanie Gauld heads up digital strategy, products and services for Blue Zoo Productions and Alphablocks. Prior to this, she held a variety of consulting and contract roles developing digital strategies, tactics and digital products for companies including Liverpool FC and Acamar Films. Steph previously worked at Egmont as Digital Publisher, developing new IP and stand-alone digital products, including a no 1 app in 28 markets, and at Disney where she set up the EMEA virtual worlds team, including launching the BAFTA-winning, leading virtual world, Club Penguin, in Europe. Prior to this, Steph set up the CBeebies interactive team for the BBC, creating the strategy and overseeing digital content across 47 brands.
Shivani is a HR professional, currently working as the People Advisor for Blue Zoo. Shivani started her HR career within the Retail Industry but have since moved to the creative sector and is loving every second of it!