Can you tell us about your job?
I am Digital Manager at the Voodoo communications agency. My job mainly involves supervising and leading all of our clients' online communications.
What are your main responsibilities?
My main responsibilities involve devising our clients' digital strategy for the year, developing activations and one-off operations, and monitoring and producing content for all of the digital platforms of the various brands we work with, in line with their positioning.
What skills do you need to develop for this job?
In my opinion, the key skills for success in this job are, first and foremost, an interest in the digital environment. It's a rapidly changing environment, so it's important to observe and analyze it in order to keep up.
Secondly, I think this job requires the same prerequisites as any other job in the world of communication, namely: curiosity, a good general knowledge, and the ability to come up with new ideas.
What academic or non-academic path did you follow to get there?
Initially, I fell into digital a little by chance. I originally wanted to become a journalist. To do this, I studied at university and then joined the ICM in Grenoble. I then shifted my focus to the world of communications and agencies. I gradually specialized in digital technology. I worked at Sanofi, developing an international social network for the group.
Do you work with a team? Do you collaborate with other departments?
Today, I oversee a team of 10 people. In the digital department, we try to be 360°, meaning we work on all skills related to digital issues. This includes technical aspects, such as website and application development. We also work on content creation, amplification (SEO, SEM), acquisition (Google Ad), and the overall strategy for each brand and platform used.
We work in a communications group that aims to offer its clients a true communications "experience" that encompasses all areas of communication, from advertising in the most traditional sense of the term. We therefore work with other departments, collaborating together to best meet our clients' needs.
What are the best aspects of your job? The main difficulties?
The best aspects are related to the diversity of my work: every day is different, with different issues to deal with. As for the difficulties, it's a very energy-intensive job, but the real difficulty we encounter on a daily basis is the lack of digital knowledge among the majority of clients. We have to educate them about digital technology and help them understand its importance and relevance. There is sometimes a gap between the younger operational generation, who understand the challenges of digital technology, and top management, who are often older and more reluctant to embrace these issues and invest in 2.0 channels.
See also: The role of Digital Manager – Interview with Patrick Hervé Atse