5 Minutes with… Natasha Cholerton-Brown
In her roles as a COO across the publishing industry, Natasha Cholerton-Brown was known as an 'operational Swiss army knife'. Intriguingly, we think a literal Swiss army knife may have come in handy during the earlier days of her professional career as she began working life as global news photographer for Thomson Reuters, on the ground in conflict zones.
Natasha left behind the publishing industry and joined Hogarth, WPP's global content production company, in April as its CEO of the Americas. Her step into advertising, and specifically the multi-faceted production capabilities of Hogarth, felt like "an incredibly natural next step," she tells us.
LBB's Addison Capper chatted with her to find out more.
LBB> I am quite fascinated by your career, so let's talk about that! What tempted you to leave the publishing industry to work in advertising?
Natasha> For me it felt like an incredibly natural next step to move into this industry. Almost a ‘why not?’. I saw it as an opportunity to flex into an area of the creative content world where storytelling and creative possibilities can be boundless. I’m fascinated by the global content ecosystem, so the chance to delve deep into that world, and to understand the part of the puzzle that I had never had exposure to, was a gift. I think journalism has given me an amazing training ground. I gained true appreciation for storytelling in its rawest form, which is in part why creative production is so enticing to me. It combines a deep understanding of the technicalities of production, with the power to bring a brand’s vision and story to life in a way that has boundless limits creatively.
LBB> And more specifically, what was it about Hogarth - and the production side of advertising - that appealed to you?
Natasha> Hogarth represents the intersection of all things that I love. It brings creativity to life with a deep and long-standing commitment to innovation, and all at vast global scale. Hogarth has consistently embraced future technologies and innovation as a standard practice. I don’t think that is true of most standard production and digital production houses. Their models tend to be more reactive, and it’s clear to me that Hogarth has been very intentional about being at the forefront of industry disruptions. They have consistently encouraged clients to push boundaries. It’s incredibly impressive and very compelling.
This opportunity represented the ideal chance to blend all my current operational and executional skills with my love of content, at a company that truly underpins the agency world.
LBB> You were a news photographer before moving into more business-focused roles. How and why did that shift happen?
Natasha> After many years working as a news photographer in the UK, I came to a few realisations. Firstly, that a Pulitzer for photography was not in my future, and secondly, that I might want something a little bit different anyway. So, I pulled myself off the road and leaned into the editing side of the business, and that was an incredible training ground that gave me exposure on how the business actually works.
That led me to other organisations where I was positioned in the business side of the media organisation and found myself getting pulled into client-facing commercial discussions to talk about our work. The content world and how it ticks became my fascination. Following a stint in media sales, I realised I was heavily skewing into the land of COO’ing, and I took the opportunity to branch out and lean into many organisations as interim COO, helping to grow and gain investments. CEO for the Americas was a natural progression skill wise, and along with the incredible culture that Richard [Glasson, co-founder and CEO] and the other Hogarth leaders have nurtured, I feel incredibly lucky to have this opportunity.
LBB> Having studied music at university and started off as a photographer before developing as a business leader and operations expert, how do you feel about returning to your more creative roots and getting under the hood of production?
Natasha> It feels like it is all coming full circle! Honestly, it is quite odd but almost perfect timing. I had a conversation just two weeks ago – an emotional one at that – about getting my fingers back in shape and playing the viola more seriously. I was struck by the realisation that I spent a huge part of my life playing in symphony and chamber orchestras, playing in quartets, even performing on stage solo in front of orchestras. That was a huge part of my creative outlet that I had not tapped into for a while.
This conversation made me realise how excited I am about returning to my creative roots in this role. Getting to see creative brilliance at work, and ensuring the world sees it, values it, wants more of it, and I get to be a small part of creating it, with the world's best and most renowned talent. How cool is that?
LBB> What lessons did you learn as a photographer that you still utilise today as a CEO?
Natasha> Funnily enough, I did a speech a few years back called ‘Lesson from a War Zone’. The sections of the speech I think relate to this very question are relevant to career growth in general and translate in many ways.
- Keep your head up: meaning always keep an awareness of all that is going on around you.
- Know your surroundings: don't just waltz into an area/room full of clients and try to wing it. Prepare, prepare again, and be prepared to watch and listen.
- Don’t rely on translation: know your content, do your own research, be curious and ask questions. Never stop asking questions. Every conversation should end with ‘and what else?’
- Think on your feet: be agile and ready to change course/plan at any time.
For me that encapsulates everything I use as a CEO every day!
LBB> You've been at Hogarth for about five months. What were your main goals and tasks ahead of you when you joined?
Natasha> Five months have whizzed by! Every CEO has core responsibilities that go without saying. Continued sustainable growth is obviously key, and I think part of the reason I was excited to join Hogarth was that I have such a strong operations/execution focus and firmly believe that strategy without execution is hallucination. So, my role is to galvanise our organisation around real strategy that translates into growth.
But honestly, I really feel that my mission here is more about ensuring I help augment a vision based around our uniqueness. We don’t make craft just to be performative. We want to bring real value to experiences, and I know our craft experts are utterly consumed by this. My role is to ensure that we continue to inspire that type of culture and environment and use communication and expressions that foster and nurture this every day.
And that’s my goal. It comes down to much more than just business efficiency. You have to be inspired to inspire, right? Performance and creativity are not a machine.
LBB> In this role, how important is it to strengthen ties between Hogarth and the wider WPP holding company, and what are your thoughts about how to support that?
Natasha> Hogarth’s role within WPP is to bring the very best of what’s possible to all WPP clients. We partner with our sister agencies to make the impossible possible, and it's such a gift to have this as a basis to my role.
It’s a luxury to have such strong relationships across a vast, globally connected, organisation. We really can tackle anything, and we do it in a way that is seamless for our clients. Our clients are some of the best-known brands in the world, and that pushes us, our sister agencies, and WPP, to be the very best.
LBB> Hogarth's capabilities run the gamut from traditional advertising production to ground-breaking tech spaces like the metaverse and virtual production - where do you see the most exciting potential for growth and why?
Natasha> For us, it’s not about individual technologies and products – it’s about how it all comes together across the entire content ecosystem. It’s about how technology and innovation enable great ideas and creative. It is not the tech on its own. We build and utilise tools to enhance the experience of the content every day, and we’re laser focused on the ever-evolving landscape of innovation.
We embrace it all at the right time, for the right reasons, for the right audiences, and of course the right clients. That’s not to say we don’t experiment and push our clients creatively. We want to provoke; in fact, our clients ask us to push them. It means we must be incredibly agile to be able to predict constantly.
LBB> Do you still practise photography at all, perhaps as more of a hobby these days?
Natasha> Sadly not… or not in the same way at least! Gone are the days when I would lug around 30 to 40 kg of lenses and multiple camera bodies around the world! But, like I said, I feel like my brain is asking me to tap into my own creativity more every day and being around the world's best creative minds daily certainly inspires me.
LBB> What do you like to get up to during down time?
Natasha> Well, as a mother of two young ladies, wife, dog owner, in a busy household, as well as having a busy work schedule, ‘downtime’ is somewhat of a foreign concept. To be fair to my family, I am generally the issue here. I do find it hard to sit still and just love being outside, doing sport, hiking, whatever.
