Susan Brown

Susan Brown takes the intiative in Europe

By Charlyne Berens
J Alumni News editor

Susan Brown believes in taking professional risks.

  That attitude has taken her from the Chicago office of a major ad agency to the Madrid, Spain, office of the same agency to a wild ride on the Internet boom and to founding membership of a consulting firm that specializes in branding and identity projects.

  Brown flew from Madrid to Lincoln in April to receive an award of excellence from the UNL Journalism Alumni Association on April 11.

  Brown’s first job after her 1992 graduation was with J. Walter Thompson agency in Chicago. She said she owed that “very lucky break” to another Nebraska graduate, J. Steve Davis, who was general manager of the office at the time.

  At J. Walter Thompson, Brown was assigned to the Kraft General Foods account, which she says was excellent training. Nearly everyone in the office had more experience than she, Brown said, so “I had to push myself and get up to speed quickly.”

  That drive to succeed was something Brown’s teachers had seen in her when she was a student at UNL. “She had what we call that ‘fire in the belly,’ a passion for the world of advertising and public relations,” said Stacy James, advertising faculty member.

  Brown said her years in Chicago were enormously valuable, helping her learn to manage budgets, plan regional and national media, manage clients and work with “creatives,” the people who actually design the advertising.

  In the process, she met many international colleagues and clients and began to think she would like to work abroad and widen her view of the world. So she began lobbying her bosses to allow her to do an exchange program with someone from another country. The lobbying paid off in 1996 when a woman in JWT’s Madrid office was willing to swap jobs with Brown for a year.

  “The first three months were exhausting and a bit agonizing at times,” Brown said, because she spoke no Spanish and found her five years of French weren’t much help. Rather than taking formal language classes, she tried to immerse herself in the language, reading research documents and newspapers and keeping the radio and/or TV on constantly. “And I literally didn’t go anywhere without my dictionary,” she said.

  She found a person can learn quickly when she has to. “Believe me, the pure stress of having to brief, in Spanish, a huge and tough Andalusian creative director who speaks no English was motivation enough to get my Spanish-speaking skills up and running.”

  Eight months after she arrived in Madrid, J. Walter Spain underwent a complete management overhaul, Brown said. She was offered the chance to develop the agency’s account planning department and become a member of the executive committee working to turn the firm around. It had dropped from the number one agency in Spain to about 17th in the rankings.

  “It was one of those challenges that is both awful and wonderful at the same time,” Brown said. “So I took it.”

  By 1999, Brown was ready to make another move, but she wanted to remain in Madrid. “It is a very exciting time to be working in Spain and in Europe because the markets are undergoing major change. The governments are liberalizing major industries, and that offers great opportunities in business and, consequently, in branding and advertising.”

  She took her time looking around for another job and eventually signed on with a former client: a broadband cable company called ONO. She handled the firm’s initial public offering campaign and launched some of the broadband Internet services. “I have never worked so hard and so fast,” she said. “But it was worth it, and I learned a lot about how companies work from an inside point of view and that changed my view on what to expect from clients.”

  Now Brown is with Saffron Brand Consultants, a firm that develops brand strategies and identity projects for clients in telecommunications, finance and private sectors. She is a founding member and shareholder of the company, which has an international team of consultants and designers based in London and Madrid. She continues to live in Madrid but travels frequently to London.

  Brown said she still enjoyed living and working abroad. “I really believe that I’ve learned more about my country and culture being away from it,” she said.

  “On the other hand, it’s not always easy. Being an American sets up expectations, both good and bad. Also, although women are making progress in Europe, only Nordic countries like Sweden are truly progressive in offering women real choices in balancing career and family.”

  And, she said, culture affects the work environment. The Spanish are passionate, spontaneous and family-oriented, and the work environment is “emotionally charged, somewhat chaotic and very creative.”

  Brown said she was grateful for the education she received at UNL. She said she appreciated the mix of theory and pragmatism in the journalism courses and the broad liberal arts background she got. She also liked the fact that UNL encourages students to get involved. “That taught me how to take the initiative, which has been a valuable characteristic professionally.”

  James said Brown’s diligent work and her love for the advertising business have been keys to her success. “She’s had more interesting life and work experiences in her post-college years than most people will have in a lifetime,” James said.

  As she’s built her career, Brown said she has found the biggest challenge to be the number of choices available to today’s professionals. “People reinvent themselves every five to seven years. It’s exhilarating and daunting at the same time.”

  But Brown has welcomed the challenges and been willing to take the risks. “That’s the only way to make big leaps in one’s knowledge and skill base,” she said. “The most unexpected moves are often the ones that teach us the most.”