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Lindsey Cook explains why – having already racked up eight years in marketing at mac birmingham – she couldn’t resist returning.

Head of Marketing and Communications, mac birmingham (2009 – present)

I had to go back. Having spent seven years talking about what mac could be after a £15.2m redevelopment, the opportunity to finish the journey was too alluring. Particularly with that ridiculous part of my ego which believed that no other candidate understood the old mac in the way I did, or understood the imperative to transform it into a new, more fluid organisation. In hindsight, I knew nothing, but I have learned everything.

I did worry how it would look on my already mac–heavy CV. It’s hard to explain to someone how much the ‘then’ and ‘now’ differ: different people, different strategies, different procedures and policies. The best thing about this role is that you simply can’t exist in a silo. I have a pretty good idea about every other role here, and how they interact and impact on each other. The skill is to keep the helicopter view so you can pull together different people to achieve different aims. I also get to work on different coalitions both in the arts and with other industries, and I realise that I’m blessed with a degree of autonomy and trust that I don’t always see in my fellow senior marketers.

Freelance Marketing Consultant, Warwick Arts Centre (2008 – 2009)

When mac closed for redevelopment I was conveniently on maternity leave. I’d always feared the instability of a freelancer’s life, particularly as I am quite a creative (read chaotic) worker. But when I was offered work with Warwick Arts Centre it seemed churlish to refuse. The differences were enlightening and the similarities were comforting. The team there would often talk with real critical skill and knowledge about the art, and I realised that was something I’d lost when leading my team previously. Now, I still like a healthy debate about art with my team. It keeps us focussed on the ongoing conversations with our audiences.

Marketing and Development Manager, mac (2005 – 2008)

Buoyed by a desire to make things better, balanced with tentative steps into a digital world, I moved into management. People are a huge shock when you become a manager. They don’t do either a) what you would expect b) what you tell them to through telekinesis. It’s taken me years to realise the power of sharing a vision with clarity and passion. About the only worthwhile quote I’ve ever remembered is Einstein’s: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Marketing Officer, mac (2001 – 2005)

I wouldn’t have given me a job. Particularly compared to the industry-specific qualifications and unpaid work experience presented by arts marketing candidates these days. I came equipped with little more than a good education, a bit of commercial nous and the skills to turn a good phrase. It was the days when every marketing department was constructed around a huge table for stuffing thousands of direct mail letters, one computer with an internet connection that had to be booked in advance, and mailing lists which had to be extracted from the ticketing system overnight. But working in a multi-artform environment was educational and inspiring. I’d studied film and drama, but the worlds of visual arts, world music and the richness of mac’s unrivalled learning offer unfolded before me. And at the heart of it, that fantastic tension between the artist and the audience, with the marketer as a conduit between the two.

Tutor in Youth Theatre at mac (2000 – 2004)

The opportunity to spend a couple of hours a week converting things I’d learned at degree level into digestible experiences for talented young people was a huge turning point in my life. For me it was never about teaching, or directing pet projects, but more about suggesting possibilities and challenging myself. I focussed on being able to communicate my passion for the benefit of others: the chameleon skills of any good marketer.

Training Co-ordinator for Zurich Financial Services (1998 – 2001)

It is the plight of too many arts graduates who realise they aren’t quite good enough as artists, to end up temping and then as a permanent employee somewhere they didn’t want to be. In hindsight, this role provided an essential grounding in basic commercial acumen. It also gave me that ‘big business’ vision, which I would argue many who have worked purely in the arts industry simply don’t have. That being said, leaving to work in the arts was a party-popper moment.

Lindsey Cook is Head of Marketing and Communications at mac birmingham.
macbirmingham.co.uk

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