Interview with Janie Sircey, Associate Director of Social Media by Tina Jones
I have had the pleasure of interviewing Janie Sircey. Thank you for being willing to conduct this interview. I am currently in a master’s class entitled Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategies. This class is designed to have us learn the processes to discover who our customers are and how many prospective customers are out there for our business or product. I am so pleased to be sharing your interview on EnterpreneurInteriews.org.
Tina: I have been reading about the Clio Awards and this prestigious award was founded in 1959. What are The Clio Awards? I noticed that on the website there is a deadline of March 20th. Do you give out awards once a year or is it more than once? How are the winners chosen?
Janie: The Clio Awards is an international awards program that celebrates creativity in advertising across multiple verticals. We have multiple programs with separate awards ceremonies and entry deadlines. The programs include the main Clio Awards, Clio Music, Clio Sports, Clio Entertainment, Clio Health, Clio Fashion & Beauty and Clio Cannabis.
Each program has their own set of criteria for entrants and awards creative marketing and advertising work based on that criteria. Clio Awards, Clio Music, Clio Sports, Clio Entertainment and Clio Cannabis all have their own separate award shows, which take place in New York City and Los Angeles at different times of the year. The remaining programs announce their winners online.
Each program has esteemed juries that select the winning work. Juries are made up of C-Suite level executives and experienced professionals from brands and agencies.
Tina: What led you to this position with The Clio Awards?
Janie: When I was an advertising student at UNC-Chapel Hill, I learned about the Clio Awards in one of my classes, and the prestige of winning a Clio Award stuck with me. The Clios are called the “Oscars of Advertising” because winning the award means something not just within the advertising industry, but outside of it as well. The Clio has been featured in pop culture since the 60s, and I still get excited whenever I come across it in a movie or TV show. Some places it’s been featured: Mad Men, Friends, Picture Perfect, First Wives Club, The Holiday to name a few.
After graduating, I went on to work as a copywriter for Belk’s corporate office, in social marketing for AMC Networks and then I moved on to work in social media at the Clio Awards, where I’ve been for the past 3 years.
Tina: What does the Associate Director of Social Media do?
Janie: At the Clios, I run all of our social media handles for the Clio Awards and for our editorial arm, Muse by Clio, across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Giphy. I do everything from creating the organic and paid social strategies to hiring and working with social designers on assets to writing the copy for all posts to scheduling and posting all of the content.
I work closely with all of our program teams (Clio Entertainment, Clio Sports, etc.) to create a social strategy that achieves every team’s goals while also achieving the overall brand goals.
The content I post on social ranges from announcements for our juries, entry deadlines and winners to live posting during all of our award ceremonies. Our main focus on social, however, is tying our winners to social holidays based on our cultural calendar. The best example of this is my tweets on Friday the 13th where I posted 13 threads about scary movies and TV shows that had won Clio Entertainment Awards in the past. For example, check out the Stranger Things thread.
I work with the talent at the award shows (host, performers, presenters, honorees) to capture real-time social content. Some of our past talent include Whoopi Goldberg, Heidi Klum, Joan Jett, Sarah Jessica Parker, Sheryl Crow, Katie Couric, Tony Hawk, Michael Che, Andy Cohen and Nick Offerman to name a few.
Tina: What do you like the most about what you do?
Janie: I love that my job lets me celebrate creativity every day. It keeps my work fun and challenging.
I also come from an entertainment marketing background, so the Clio Entertainment program is very close to my heart. The program celebrates creativity in marketing for television, movies, gaming and live entertainment. Each year, the award show is held at the Dolby Theatre in LA, which is the same place where the Oscars are held each year. Being able to work in that theatre where so many inspiring people have accepted awards is an incredible perk to my job.
Tina: Do you travel much with this position?
Janie: I travel to our award shows in Los Angeles every year and to Clio Awards judging, which takes place in a different country each year and brings together jurors from all over the world for about two weeks.
As part of my job, I travel to festivals and conventions to cover experiential marketing on our social handles and on Muse by Clio. Some of the ones I’ve gone to are SXSW, New York Comic Con and Social Media Week.
Tina: What do you like the most about New York City?
Janie: I love the feeling of opportunity. Major companies, dream companies are here in the city, and I walk by them every day. Living and working here makes it seem like anything is possible.
Tina: What do you like the least about New York City?
Janie: The commute. Whether you’re going to work in Manhattan from Brooklyn or Queens or Long Island or Jersey, rush hour is a mess. The mass amount of people trying to cram onto the subway is insane, but we make it work.
Tina: If you think there is something great about The Clio Awards or your job that I have not asked please include. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I hope you have an amazing day. I hope to see you soon.
Janie: Be sure to follow @ClioAwards on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
