Lauren Downie. The life and soul of Paramount Melbourne and soon to be Sydney!
Lauren has just started a new role as Social Media Manager for Paramount+, stepping up from her previous role as Marketing Manager. (Not to mention her time before that as the glitter glue of the Publicity department).
Lauren has farewelled Melbourne with a bang, having project managed the Paramount marquee at the Melbourne Cup Festival, and will soon be making the move to Sydney where she will be heard saying: “You call this coffee?”
What is your role and what does it entail?
For the past couple of years, I’ve been in the network marketing team as the Melbourne lead which meant I was part of the campaigns for some of your favourite shows such as Have You Been Paying Attention?, The Cheap Seats, Football, Hunted and MasterChef Australia, ensuring they stay top of mind when you turn the TV on each night.
Melbourne is such an incredible hub for production and events which has allowed me to be on the ground and involved in so many of our shows.
However, I’m excited to be moving across to Paramount+ in a secondment role to dive into the wonderful world of Social Media, working with the brilliant (and award-winning!) team out of Sydney.
What do you love most about working for Paramount?
I’ve always been enamored by the magic of television and how no two days are the same!
We have so many shows, products and brands that allow us to be creative and always find a new way to excite our audiences.
One day you could be organising a reptile meet and greet to promote the new season of I’m A Celeb, the next day you’re working on a competition for the international VMAs.
Just ask any of the marketing team and they’ll all have some crazy stories of the lengths they’ve gone to for the promotion of a show!
You were an integral part of the hugely successful Melbourne Cup Carnival. Tell us about your involvement.
This year was the first time since 2019 that crowds have been able to go back to normal for the Melbourne Cup Carnival so we had a big task ahead of us to ensure everything was perfect for not only those experiencing the carnival on ground, but those tuning in to watch live or catching the action on socials.
I was lucky enough to be project managing the incredible Paramount marquee which sat in prime position in the Birdcage and I think this quote from The Age does a much better job describing it than I ever could: “If the words ‘Eddie McGuire dancing on a couch’ aren’t enough to wrangle the title of party central from Mumm, perhaps the Los Angeles-inspired space with tropical-themed cocktails will do the trick.”
As you can imagine, hours and hours of work from so many different departments went into ensuring the design, entertainment and vibe of the Paramount marquee was perfect for all of our clients and guests attending. Everything was meticulously considered from the perfect shade of sparkly blue carpet, to the fake 10 News First desk set up in the window to make it look like you’d juuust missed some live TV in action!
The marquee wasn’t the only showstopper of the week though, I was also involved in the social media content planning and delivery of our biggest Melbourne Cup Carnival ever.
This was an all-hands-on deck situation that involved every single member of the social team dropping what they were doing to be focused on delivering over 20 million impressions on Twitter and over 700 minutes streamed across our social platforms of Melbourne Cup Carnival content.
What are the biggest challenges when working on such a large scale event? And what was your highlight?
Where to start! Melbourne Cup Carnival is a mammoth event, and a maze to get around for those who aren’t familiar with it.
The logistics of getting people actually in and out the track was a task in itself eg. to just walk from the front gates to the entrance of the marquee is about 20 minutes so nothing is simple (or quick), every choice we made had to be perfectly timed and considered.
Behind hundreds of champagne bottles and door lists that seem to be never ending, is months of planning. No person can do anything like this alone though, so a big shout out to the Events and Publicity teams for their help to ensure it ran smoothly.
A highlight of each day is of course when you see everyone dancing and enjoying themselves after the big race has finished.
It’s the perfect moment to look around at the team and all take a breather knowing all our hard work has paid off… and that everyone will be heading off soon!
Who is Lauren Downie outside of work? What do you love to do?
Anyone who has had to endure one of my passionate rants about the latest Real Housewives drama, will know that I’m a HUGE reality TV lover and by the end of my speech, I’ll have forced you to give at least one episode of Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills a try. From Housewives, to Drag Race to really anything that screams reality trash – you’ll find me watching that each night on the couch with my cats.
If I’m not there, I’ll be on my never-ending hunt for the perfect oat latte. If you have a tip for where to go in Sydney, let me know!
