Matt Haslum is Marketing Director at Faber & Faber and is speaking at our next event: ‘Marketing vs Design, which matters more?’. Before publishing, Matt spent 8 years building an award-winning digital creative agency. Since joining Faber, he has built a list-focused consumer marketing team alongside an award-winning website and Membership programme. 

1) When did you first know that you were interested in a career in marketing?

When I saw one of my first ever copy lines (as part of my first creative agency job interview) appear on a press ad. It was a great feeling, and from that moment I have taken real pride in seeing my work in ad form, whether it’s on outdoor, radio/TV, digital or social.

2) How do you work with designers in your current role?

Faber’s marketing team works with our in-house creative team, in-house design resource and external designers and our digital agency. We are involved in the cover process, we collaborate on jacket-led creative for campaigns and work together on briefing design both in and out of house.

3) Any tips for marketers who need to communicate effectively with their designer colleagues?

Here are 3 tips that I think are important:

1. Be extremely clear during the briefing process. Don’t leave things to assumption, unless you’ve worked extensively with a designer who knows you well. This will achieve the results you want quicker and more accurately.

2. Give context – background and aims – and a don’t over-brief look and feel, as that is what you are trusting a good designer to bring to the project.

3. Don’t write lengthy feedback. Make notes on the design so it can be implemented in situ / context, rather than the designer having to read, digest and then try to figure out actually what you mean. There are loads of collaboration tools online which are used a lot for web design, but I think they are great for campaign creative feedback too.

4) What might we hear about in your talk on November 2nd (don’t share it all…)?

Hopefully lots of interesting things! Maybe a little bit on collaboration, awareness of both teams needs in terms of creative output, growing skills and knowledge. All that sort of good stuff…

You can hear Matt in London on 2nd November at Marketing vs Design: Which matters more? Grab a ticket here.