Lucy Zakrzewska returns to Impact Plus with a focus upon growing UK partnerships
Our Senior Director of Publisher & Adtech Partnerships Lucy Zakrzewska returns after a year with a renewed focus upon developing and expanding partnerships in the UK, as well as other territories including the US and APAC.
Lucy Zakrzewska is back at Impact Plus, following a year of maternity leave. That marked a huge transition: as she explains, she had “never not worked” before.
That is an understatement. Over the course of her career to date Lucy has worked for some of the biggest names in media, building up a vast stock of contacts and knowledge along the way. The expertise gained in that role has allowed her to move from roles like Head of Media, through Head of Sustainability, to her current role at Impact Plus.
Lucy has returned to an expanded remit. The Environmental Sustainability Platform (ESP) was brand new when she left; it is now being used by international clients in award-winning campaigns.
She says: “That's going to definitely help me get back out there, speak to everyone and re-engage.”
She also notes that ESP was built out of a desire to answer clients’ needs for granular data about the environmental impact of their ongoing digital advertising campaigns. She believes there are further conversations to have with clients and partners about what their other priorities are for 2025 and beyond.
Expanding partnerships
To that end, Lucy will be working on further expanding existing partnerships in the UK, in addition to developing new ones, in line with Impact Plus’ own ambitions in the region.
She points out that consumer expectations are evolving, and that increasing proportions of the public are demanding transparency from brands about their environmental activities. As a result, the region is fertile ground for new sustaintech partnerships that allow brands and agencies to demonstrate their environmental priorities.
New stories
Lucy notes that not working for the first time was a strange experience: “The first three months were wild. As time went on, it got a little bit easier, but it was very weird not working. I had to adapt to it.”
Lucy says that one of the biggest adjustments she has had to make is to re-evaluate what ‘productive’ means on a day-to-day basis.
London can be a hectic place to work, particularly for those in the media and marketing ecosystems. There are expectations regarding optimal use of time, in both work and social situations. Lucy says: “You know, constantly trying to be productive, and having a list, and going to the gym or going here and going there… So even though you're doing quite a lot just by looking after the baby it doesn't feel as productive as when you're at work.”
Part of that adaptation, she explains, was having to switch off the section of her mind that was used to work building schedules and expectations primarily around work.
And she will be applying those lessons as she adjusts to yet another new set of circumstances - being a working mum: “It’s just about adjusting back slowly, and doing it in a way which works for you. That felt like a nice transition back [for Kai] as well, which again Impact Plus is really supportive of.”
Staying up to speed
She notes that it was difficult to switch off entirely due to that investment in Impact Plus’ ongoing activities and the relationships she had built with people in the industry.
She says “I was definitely curious to just see how things had been doing. And I was guilty of checking on Slack every now and again just to see, ‘oh, what's happening?’”
She found that approach ultimately worked for her: as she adjusted to the vastly different nature of maternity leave, Lucy found that the touchpoints of LinkedIn and conversations with team members provided a way to stay abreast of news from our industry. She says: “I thought ‘When I had some free time I thought I will have a quick scroll through LinkedIn to see what’s going’. So I think that was really good at keeping me a little bit involved.”
“It kind of kept my brain going a little bit.”
Connect with Lucy on her LinkedIn page!
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