Christmas chat with Camilla Halleraker in Starcom

Camilla Halleraker is managing director of the award-winning media agency Starcom. She is impressed by how much creativity they have actually managed to create, despite a year of communicating through screens and home offices.

What has inspired you the most in 2021?

- The past year has been demanding, inspiring and educational. Like most people, we have been a brand working from home for much of the year. Most of us have probably experienced that it is more difficult to build culture and cohesion through the screen. Most of us prefer to unfold creatively and conduct workshops in person. So what has inspired me the most this year here is the internal interaction. Seeing the whole team in action, across Starcom and Publicis, across seniority, matrices and disciplines. How we play off each other and develop completely new solutions to our customers' challenges. Seeing people who dare to take on bigger shoes than they thought they had, and fill them with brilliance. It has inspired me this past year.

The loss and enjoyment of physical space.

- Physical meetings, seminars and festivities have been in short supply this year here. We've had a taste of it lately, how it can and should be. For many in our industry, this is where the energy is generated and inspiration is drawn. Omikron was not on anyone's wish list for this year's Christmas calendar. It's hard to know how long this round of restrictions will last, but we've done it before and we'll do it again. Even behind our own screens and with number restrictions, we have created work that means something to people and that has had an impact on our customers, even behind our own screens we have won tough competitions, even behind our own screens we have been good at seeing and recognizing each other. This is what inspires me, what we have achieved, individually and together, through the screen and despite Covid.

What do you think about the collaboration with Aller Media?

- The media houses are part of our team. I know Aller Media well and it is a media house with many exciting opportunities. We encourage media collaboration and I hope to see great work for our customers on Aller's sites. Just as I expect from my employees, I expect media houses to be proactive, innovative and engaged with our customers. That you understand and are curious about their business and their challenges, and together with us, come up with innovative solutions that respond to this.

How do you celebrate Christmas?

- I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers, partners, competitors and future customers a Merry Christmas. Now is the time to be generous, on a human level. As far as I'm concerned, Christmas Eve will be celebrated at Løkka, but a short visit to Stavanger is necessary during the Christmas holidays.