Inside View: DigitasLBi

 

DigitasLBi is a thoroughbred new-age digital marketing and tech agency. A relaxed but innovative office culture, some of the hottest MBA Jobs going and even an annual office rave - what's not to love?

 

They pride themselves on transforming businesses (working with top brands like Virgin, American Express and eBay) with all things digital; from social media to product development.

 

The firm is a combination of marketing agency and business consultancy and what's more, they plan to hire up to 50 MBAs globally this year. 

 

When Sophie Ling, DigitasLBi's Chief People Officer, joined the company around two years ago, she left behind a career with blue-chip consultancy's Deloitte and KPMG. 

 

She tells BusinessBecause that MBAs who get hired at DigitasLBi will have the freedom to create and innovate; the company couldn't be more different in its approach than traditional consultancies.

 

How can you ace the interview process? What roles are available for MBAs? Where can you apply? How can you join the office rave (their biggest recruitment drive)? Sophie shares all...

 

 

We are a global marketing and technology agency. We work with brands such as Virgin to help them transform their business and be prepared for the digital age.

 

We bring creative and technological together to build solutions that mean our clients are fully digital. We help them design "stuff" from product and service development to organization change, to design and management of their service distribution (digital channels)  through to media and social planning and management. 

 

Innovation and change is everything to us. You could compare us to an advertising/marketing agency and a business consultancy. It's a new breed of organization.

 

 

I started here in marketing after working for Deloitte and KPMG. My role (for about 1.5 years) now is about making sure we are everything we say we are: Provocative/Expert/Collaborative. 

 

But what I really love about my job is that I need to lead the way as an employer. My job is to make sure we are a place like no other! From our building, to our relaxed dress-code, to different and new careers paths, the food we provide, the way we support people when their lives change, to our famous #RAVECAVE…

 

 

Our biggest recruitment drive is a rave. About 1,800 people come to our office. It’s a big part of my personal story. It was soul destroying to me that there was an expectation that I dressed and behaved like a man in previous jobs. 

 

As an individual I would constantly get feedback that I was "very different". But I'm just me. And I love this job because that’s what we want; different. We don’t mind people being themselves and its massively important for this generation. 

 

How can you ask employees to be innovative and then put them at a desk, ask them to shut up, conform and not challenge the status quo? How can you be an MBA that’s not allowed to express yourself? 

 

For us, it's OK to have a laugh at work. It' OK to wear jeans, or dye your hair pink. We don't mind as long as you're performing. We call ourselves a place like no other; a place where you can be yourself. And that's all we ask of MBAs.

 

 

Business transformation through to marketing/branding, and technology transformation. There are many roles for analysts, business consultants, data scientists, sector specialists (e.g. healthcare), technologists and journalists.

 

 

We like to say that we pride ourselves on embracing the creative tension between the left and right side of the brain. These are analytical, strategy-heavy, data-driven times, which is all the more reason why we need powerful storytelling to make sense of all the jargon and cleverness.

 

The way we work and the tools and approaches we use are constantly in flux, so applicants should be comfortable with every changing day.

 

And being able to work through complexity and change is vital; they must be willing to learn, they must be obsessed with quality and they must be constantly wanting the world to be a better and more interesting place. 

 

 

Tell us your story. We get 100’s of CV’s a week. We’d rather have a great (short!) introduction with a bullet-point CV. We don’t expect you to have led the world, but think about the skills we are looking for in the job description.

 

Build your understanding of our clients’ businesses - their brand, customers, issues they face, markets they operate in and key developments. 

 

What we really want to see is a succinct and clear story of yourself. If you can't present yourself in a clear and succinct way, how can you present ideas to our clients?

 

But most importantly, be yourself. 

 

 

We see digital marketing changing the organizational structure of brands and clients, and creating a new breed of Chief Marketing Officer. We see geo-targeting for people like retailers and service providers, who have to think about not country services but regional services/local providers. 

 

Mobile is being used more as a loyalty channel. We have already seen mobile apps like Apple’s Passport begin to replace physical loyalty cards. And of course another wave of new economies' money, clever data things, and gadgets… you've always got to have new gadgets!