SEDEF SENAR
“I’m a perpetual student” – look at the changes in the communications sector with the social media and Influencer Marketing. We must learn so we can stay ahead of the curve. “If you think you know everything, you’re missing something.”
“Same old, same old plays no part in my thinking. I have built my career in corporations undertaking radical changes.”
Media Madness
My professional story starts in the upheaval of the Turkish print media sector in the ‘90s. In my eight-years in this sector, I ran advertising, sales and marketing for leading national publishers in the throes of consolidation, reorganization and publication launches. In the midst of this, I took a media buying and planning internship with Young & Rubicam in San Francisco and gained a certificate in marketing and advertising from the University of California in Berkley before returning to the Turkish media cauldron.
My success at this time hung on understanding the dynamics of my prospects’ sectors. I had to positively influence their perceptions of my publications, and demonstrate a match between their advertising needs and my publications’ readership. This was a great introduction to a wide variety of sectors, to perception management and to sales.
Corporations in Change
With the new millennium I graduated to the corporate world where I spent over 10 years in the banking, petroleum, cosmetics, health and wine sectors feeding my growing passion for brand management.
As VP for advertising and PR for Interbank, then a leading private bank, I directed important aspects of that bank’s move into retail banking.
Privatization, a keystone of Turkey’s economic policy, brought wonderful career opportunities for restless souls. As corporate communications manager of one of the earliest and largest corporations to be privatized, Petrol Ofisi, a leading petroleum retailer, I directed perception and reputation as the company sought to reorient itself to a competitive, customer-oriented existence.
Swapping petroleum for perfume, I took a sales and marketing directorship at L’Occitane in Turkey, where I created a commercially successful ‘natural cosmetics’ segment that differentiated the company in the sector. From there I moved to the health sector, creating marketing strategies and raising brand awareness for Anadolu Medical Center, a Johns-Hopkins Medicine affiliate. From one kind of medicine to another, I joined Kavaklıdere wine company where I ran marketing.
A Taste for Freedom
Three years as a freelance communications and PR consultant with PR Ekstra, allowed me to share my diverse experience with clients in need of sales and marketing optimization. This introduced me to yet more sectors, from automotive side industries, to cosmetics and jewelry, to health and the Dr. Oz TV Show.
Feeding the Passion
Eager to put my signature to my work, I founded Stratejist İletişim Danışmanlık in 2010. Now, I can thrive on what I love doing best with the most creative team around me, allowing me to take pleasure in nurturing innovative ideas, especially in exploiting social media and Influencer Marketing, and giving free rein to my eye for detail.