9:00am It’s a beautiful day in London and my trains have lined up perfectly to get me into Shepherd’s Bush from St Albans in only 50 minutes. The dream.
We come in once a week and everyone’s always excited to spend the day together. As we set up our laptops, food stylist Lucinda pops by to say hi. The photography team are squirrelled away in their studio working on a shoot for our new Pasta Pronto recipes, so the poor things will spend the day staring at fresh ravioli dripping in made-from-scratch sauces.
I get a ping that freelance copywriter Sally is waiting in the lobby. Our office is a maze, so I go to collect her and lead her through the corridors papered with food photography and bright red patterns, past food-themed meeting rooms and break-out areas.
9:30am I head to Hummus Hangout with Nic (senior designer) and Vicki (production manager). Amy (senior studio manager) is hoping to enter one of our Joe Wicks videos into some in-house creative team awards in a few weeks, as it’s one of our best-performing pieces from last year (and ever). Keen to get more of our work out there, we make a plan for getting our entry together.
10:00am Back at my desk I check in on our updates to the welcome book. It’s a beautiful little booklet full of tasty photography and finely-crafted copy, and we update it regularly with our latest ranges and newest features. I chat with designer Lucy about some of her layout changes before moving on to one of my other projects, the 2021 Sustainability Report. This is Gousto’s first ever Sustainability Report since we became a B Corp last year, and freelance designer Katy and I have been working on it with Pippa from the sustainability team.
A friendly face in a mask and a visitor’s lanyard asks for my attention. Joanne, an ergonomics consultant, eyes up my less-than-perfect sitting position and before long my screen is higher, my arm rests are cranked up a notch and my spine is grateful. I get back to my copy editing while Joanne moves on to Marina (our newest designer who just joined us from innocent).
11:00am I snag one of our sound-proof pods and start a video call interview with a new copywriter candidate. The most frequent question I get asked is what my favourite campaign has been in my 3 years as a Gousto copywriter. I’ve worked on some very cool partnerships in that time — Wagamama, Candy Kittens, Rubies in the Rubble — but my answer is still our brand partnership with Marmite, one of my favourite British brands whose tone of voice is a joy to play with. The recipe range created by our food team helped too, each one using Marmite as a key ingredient. This is how I discovered the joys of Marmite-marinated mushrooms. I would never eat mushrooms usually, but I trust our recipe developers with my life, and my taste buds.
11:30am Katy and I venture into the sunshine for a walking meeting about the sustainability report, quenching our caffeine craving by popping into the local bakery.
On my return, copywriter Michael (who joined us early this year from Pepsi) grabs me to look through some messaging for a new range of low carbon recipes. It’s a high-profile project as sustainability is such a big part of our mission at Gousto.
12:00pm Everyday at noon we have an hour blocked out in our calendars called “Time to Recharge”. This was brought in by our People Team in 2020 when they realised us Goustonians were struggling to get away from our desks, clicking out of one video call and into another without moving an inch. This hour is now sacred ground, respected by everyone throughout Gousto as a meeting no-go zone.
Today I use the time to catch up on my emails and feedback on work from the team. I especially enjoy reading the copy for this month’s newsletter, which is all about our new Southern Smokehouse range, heroing BBQ recipes from across the USA. The photography is really something else — who wouldn’t enjoy reading about pulled pork dripping in mustard sauce?
1:00pm We all meet in the lobby to get lunch. While we wait for the stragglers, Daisy on reception shows us her new onion tattoo. Did I mention everyone at Gousto is obsessed with food?
We pick up supplies and then meet on Shepherds Green to eat in the sun. Two punnets of British strawberries make their way around the group while we discuss our plans for the weekend.
2:00pm After lunch I’m summoned to Sweet Corner, where Michael and Marina show senior designer Emily (who joined us from Elemis last year) and I their ideas for the Gousto summer party. Two words — Brazilian Carnaval.
Before my next meeting I write up an email to send to the Gousto Writers Club. This is a community of writers from across different teams at Gousto — recipe developers who write recipe descriptions, product designers who write UX copy, talent acquisition managers who write job ads. Together we grow our writing skills with workshops and shared resources, building relationships across the company as we go.
3:00pm I slide into one of our padded red booths to talk to Sean from our talent acquisition team about recruitment. The creative team has grown a lot in my time at Gousto, but we’ve never done this much hiring at once, and Sean’s support is definitely appreciated. It’s especially exciting that we’ve been able to open some junior roles this year, so we can nurture fresh talent and encourage even more mentoring within the team.
3:30pm The sun still shining, all the copywriters decide to use our team meeting slot to go get mochi balls. As we walk, copywriter Mimi tells me about the concepts she’s been developing with designer Chads for our September campaign — a daring new range that will really show off our food team’s experimental side.
4:00pm We’re in Plaice Place for a team brainstorm, hosted by Marina and freelance copywriter Saxony. They take us through the different routes they’re considering for their latest project and we all chip in with feedback and fresh ideas.
5:00pm With the last hour of the day I focus on a big campaign I’m working on with Lucy. It’s going live at the end of May across almost every channel we have, so we’ve got a few different briefs with imminent deadlines. The messaging and look & feel was finalised a while ago so we’ve been executing for the last couple weeks, getting feedback from our Head of Creative Katie and a few other stakeholders. I’m polishing off some bits of copy for the UX team to use on the Gousto app and website.
6:00pm As we’re leaving, we get a group Slack from Anna (VP of Brand) sharing results from a recent awareness push and praising the team for all our hard work. Many raised hands and fire emojis ensue.
Originally posted on LinkedIn