As part of our Women in Content series, ignited by International Women’s Day, The CMA’s Marketing and Events Manager, Natasha interviewed female leaders in content marketing to celebrate the impact of women in the industry and their success to give females a spotlight and inspire the next generation to navigate their way to the top.
Malin Käll is a Project Manager at Spoon, based in Gothenburg. Check out what we discussed when we caught up…
Malin Käll, Project Manager at Spoon
Hi Malin, we’re really pleased to get to know you as part of our Women in Content series, thank you for joining us. We know you work as a Client Director and Project Manager at Spoon in Sweden, can you tell us about yourself and what you do within these roles?
Very happy to be part of this series! I’m a 33 year old, originally from the countryside of Sweden but the last 11 years I’ve lived in Gothenburg. I really like the mix of both the country and the big city, guess it reflects my personality. I have a Master Degree in Management and Marketing, and the last years I’ve been working as a Project Manager at Spoon and today I’m also Client Director. For me, I have the perfect combination at work – a mix of strategy, economics and creativity.
What kind of campaigns do you work on? Do you have a favourite campaign that you can tell us a little bit about?
We work with all different kinds of campaigns, such as PR campaigns, product launch campaigns and social media campaigns. But we also work a lot with on-going content marketing, an effective way of building trust for your business over time. We work with a 360° approach, meaning we do film, editorial, social media and several other content formats, depending on channel, purpose and audience.
We have done many successful campaigns. The launch of Volvo Trucks’ Gas Powered trucks is one example. We were shooting this in the middle of a very hot summer in Spain. Another one was the launch of a new fuel-efficient solution – the Volvo FH with I-Save. All campaigns we do contain several content assets. These two included PR film, explainer films, press releases, social media content, articles etc, where each asset had a clear purpose.
What do you think makes a good campaign?
A combination of many things of course, such as timing, understanding the audience etcetera, but I would say the most important is to create trustworthy content. The audience must believe in your product (or service) and therefore, showing the actual benefits of what you’re offering is crucial. There should be no misunderstanding that the content you’re communicating is for real.
Will you share how you have got to where you are now in your career?
I worked in advertising earlier in my career but realised I wanted to get closer to reality-based marketing. I think there is something both challenging and grounding working with content marketing. You have to come up with interesting angles, but you cannot avoid the truth. Therefore I chose to pivot towards content marketing and I have never regretted it.
You work with one of the largest customers that Spoon has in Gothenburg – do you feel pressure in managing this account? How do you deal with that?
As long as I’m confident about doing everything I can, there is nothing to be worried about. Of course I can feel pressure but that can also be a good thing. I don’t say it’s easy, but I think I’ve found a way of balancing the pressure. I also believe one important thing to remember is the fact that there is a difference between who you are and the job you are doing, separating them makes pressure easier to handle.
How do you manage your busy work schedule so that you keep on top of all the different elements within your projects?
I surround myself with really bright colleagues and let everyone contribute with their specific expertise. No one can do everything alone, it’s always teamwork. I also think it’s important to share experiences among each other, of both successes and failures. As often as I can, I schedule sessions to share and discuss insights from different projects we’ve done.
What motivates you at work?
It’s a cliché, but the variation. One day we are producing a global PR film in Spain and the next we’re analysing the impact of our social media posts. Also, working with creativity never has a limit, there is always new potential content to be created and unexplored perspectives – that motivates me.
Do you manage a team there? If so, are there any key skills to leadership?
Yes I do. The most important with managing a team is to be present and to be a good communicator. Communication is the key to a whole lot of things ☺
How do you stay creative and go about implementing new ideas?
I really appreciate working with creativity, it’s the most fun part of the job. To stay creative, I believe it’s important to build a relaxed and fun working environment, then the creativity comes naturally. Also, mixing people with different competences and experiences will make new ideas will pop up!
Can you give us any examples when you came across difficultly, and how you overcame it?
My experience is that difficulties are often connected to expectations, whether it is a project or me as a person. I have experienced several incidents within projects where there have been misunderstandings, but as soon as you get to the bottom of the problem it is often connected to different perceptions between the parties. Expectations must be clear and communicated, both to the client and the team.
You’re actually on maternity leave at the moment aren’t you. Congratulations on the new arrival! Do you feel pressure to keep up with what is happening at work whilst you are off, or are you able to switch off from it?
Thank you! I’m rather curious to come back and see what’s happened when I’ve been away, but I’m taking this opportunity to reflect on my job which will make it easier to return with both new perspectives and new energy. And I still have contact with my colleagues who can give me the most interesting and important updates. I’m too curious to switch off completely.
Read more interviews with other female content marketing leaders by checking out our Women in Content series in the blogs and news section of our website. We also hosted Women in Content event on International Women’s Day with each of the women interviewed. You can watch the event replay on demand here for tips on navigating the content marketing industry, plus tonnes of other inspiring talks.
