Media Mavens: In conversation with Raya

A master of her marketing and client relations craft, Raya landed at Quietly in Vancouver after her wide ranging experience in London and New York. She continues to be a force in her work for all her clients - arranging projects and partners to perfection to ensure the best result each time. 

Raya shares more about her personal journey, her best advice for all brands, and what it’s like working with some of the best in the industry (and taking their knowledge with her).

Cleo: How did you land in your current role at Quietly? What led your career here?

Raya: Ultimately, love! My fiance and I met in New York when I worked for WPP, leading brand strategy and design initiatives for global corporate and consumer clients. He eventually convinced me to move to his home turf – Vancouver – right before the pandemic.

I kept my role and decided to try this “new remote-working thing”. But two years later, I found myself craving local connections and started the hunt for a new role.

It wasn’t easy to find a Vancouver equivalent to the high-performing, fast-paced world of New York agencies. I eventually discovered Quietly, where they thought similarly about the importance of strategic client service, had global brands on their roster and a team of inspiring people to collaborate with.

I’d also touched content through the brands I worked with. And because I see content as the purest activation of a brand, it made perfect sense to step a little deeper into it. 

Cleo: You’ve worked with many different brands on unique content strategies, what would you say is the core of their communications planning that unites them all?

Raya: Knowing your audience. It may be an obvious answer, but only because it's so integral. Both my client teams and internal teams are smart and ambitious, but we really don’t know anything unless we know what the audience’s needs and wants are. Why scream into an echo chamber?

Cleo: What excites you about the current state of digital? What challenges do you see coming up for us in the space?

Raya: Because our clients are forever competing for consumers’ attention, we maintain that brands need to behave more and more like publishers. With the rise and rise of short-form video, we’re also seeing the need to compete like broadcasters, providing entertaining content and championing creativity and joyfulness in the world. That gets me super excited! On the flipside, the challenge that surfaces is for brands to maintain authenticity and trust whilst doing so. 

Cleo: What would (or do!) you tell brands that know they need to give more attention to digital marketing and advertising but don’t know where to start?

Raya: It’s never too late. Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking you have to do it all. Start with one thing, and do that one thing really well. Make sure it’s well thought out and built on a strong foundation so you know you’ll succeed. And then build on that foundation. Also – call me.

Cleo: What advice would you give to someone coming up in the marketing and communications industry?

Raya: Surround yourself with people who you want to steal from. I’ve collected the best tactics, traits and approaches from some of the best people in the industry. I still hear their voices when I’m negotiating a contract on certain terms, planning a project against a certain framework or presenting a concept in a certain way. It all eventually becomes your core personal style, but you have immense confidence and pride in it because you trust where it came from. 

Cleo: And a fun one to finish off, what’s your favourite way to take a break from work?! 

Raya: I love to cook something special on a weeknight. It gives me a chance to take a break from screens, to get creative with my senses and to eventually enjoy the fruits of my labour. It’s so rewarding that I rarely opt for the quick and easy fix these days!

For a longer break, there really is nothing like travelling – not just to take a break and sit on a sunbed, but to chance on adventure, experience different cultures, expose yourself to different art and architecture, and eat everything.