How the pandemic actually increased awareness for sustainability – Rosie McLeod, Rakuten

Rosie McLeod

Senior Account Manager

Rakuten Advertising

What are you going to do with your PMW 30 Under 30 Award trophy?

I will keep it on my desk at home next to my few surviving desk plants. I am a terrible plant Mum despite my best efforts, so hopefully the trophy will distract everyone’s attention from the poor yellowing crinkly leaves.

What piece of advice would you share with young professionals looking to work in the PM industry?

Find a company, manager and team that are supportive. I believe it is the people that play the largest part in individuals success and therefore the company’s success. Being surrounded by good people will make the job enjoyable and provide an easy platform to learn lots.

What is your favourite statistic?

My favourite recent statistic is that over 80% of people say sustainability is more top of mind now than before the pandemic. Turning to Search trends, last year there was a 30% increase YoY in searches containing ’sustainability’ globally.

I think if there is any silver lining to come out of the difficult few years we have all been through during the pandemic, it has been to take a break and focus a little more on what’s important. Clearly for many of us (including myself) this has included reflecting on the impact that we are having on our environment, the choices we are making and businesses we are buying from.

What do you listen to on your commute to work?

I love to either listen to a podcast (true crime ones are a favourite) or read a book. Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl is also first on my playlist – a great wake up song when walking to the bus stop (not to be confused with Harlem Shake)!

What is the one data or tech trend to watch out for in PM in 2022/23?

Unfortunately I couldn’t list just one, but have three trends that come to mind.

1. I’m interested to see the impact of the industry continuing to move towards more automation and less manual intervention and control. A notable example of this is the mass rollout of Performance Max campaigns this year, and how it will change the Google advertising space over the next 12 months.
2. Ever increasing CPCs / CPMs within the dominant marketing channels may mean spillover to other platforms such as Bing or TikTok, where reaching users and driving traffic is more affordable.
3. Increased consumer privacy and the sunsetting of third-party cookies also remains a hot topic and one that will be interesting to watch evolve over the next 12+ months.