[NewsMaker] Monica van der Spuy

Gauteng Bureau Head of marcusbrewster, Monica van der Spuy, has been promoted to Business Director, taking on a larger strategic management and development role across the business, while also concentrating on finding opportunities to grow the business's communications offering for both new and existing clients like SAP Africa, Edge Growth, takealot.com, and so on. She joined marcusbrewster two years ago after senior stints at Cerebra and Ogilvy PR.

Q: What is at the top of your to do list?
A: To reach out and get in front of the clients we want to work with.

Q: What is your business focus right now?
A: To grow the business by finding the best brands and clients to work with; and to build the best team to work on these brands and with these clients.

Q: What is your main business challenge?
A: To find the best talent. Our industry is flooded with CVs, but it has not been an easy exercise to find those individuals that stand out with the right soft skills needed for our line of work, experience, work ethics and even to just show a bit of passion for public relations.

Q: What is the most significant change in communications impacting on your business?
A: People and businesses are finding new niches within the communications industry, and have started establishing themselves as experts within those specialised areas. Very few industry practitioners are trying to grasp every aspect of PR or communications today, but they are looking to provide clients and even other agencies with a new level of expertise.

Q: Most important attribute needed to do your job?
A: Attention to detail and a high level of responsibility is crucial, especially in our line of work as clients entrust us with their brand and reputation. I think creativity is extremely important as well - consistently finding new ways to deliver great work for our existing clients and new ways to grow and evolve the business as well.

Q: The biggest trend to note in your industry?
A: Outsourcing of specialised services is very topical in our industry right now. We have found that more and more of our clients are moving away from agencies who claim to be 'jack of all trades' and would rather work with an agency that has a strong network and is themselves able to pull together the best of breed to create a 'super team'.

Q: How will you make an impact?
A: I want to make an impact by having built up a golden network of industry professionals and contacts, and to be able to work on creative and successful campaigns with these professionals. I want to also continue challenging the industry, so that collectively we are driving up the quality of PR and services that we offer clients.

Q: What are you currently reading for work?
A: 'The Marketing Agency Blueprint' by Paul Roetzer.

Q: Tell us something about yourself not generally known?
A: I love admin. Admin is what allows me to check my boxes and make sure I am doing what I need to do and following the processes required. I think it might potentially be a bit of an A type personality trait coming through, but I am all for Excel spreadsheets and documents that ensure we do not drop any balls and deliver the high standard of work that marcusbrewster is known for.

Q: At the top of my 'bucket list' is...
A: I love to snowboard so I have two places that share the top of my bucket list; to hit the slopes of Whistler in Canada and La Vialattea in Italy.