In her first year at the agency, McRoe contributed more than £1m in extra revenue, while providing creative counsel and support that has helped shape Grayling's direction - taking her role from UK to global. McRoe's recent campaign for dating app Badoo - 'Blood Lust', which matched daters by blood type - resulted in thousands of connections and £10,000 raised for Blood Cancer UK. McRoe developed Grayling's Creative Champions group, giving all staff the chance to tackle live briefs in pairs.
Nominator says: "In her first year at Grayling, Alice has made a huge impact, from the bottom-line up"
Take me back to the full 30 Under 30 list for 2021
What's your favourite thing about working in PR?
My absolute favourite thing about working in PR is the creative possibility. When you get a brief in there’s no limits on where it could go in terms of format. You could start with strong insight and then that could turn into an experiential activation, creating a new product, working with amazing partners or just a killer news story, that’s what keeps me excited.
What's your least favourite thing about working in PR?
Sometimes it feels like PR isn’t valued as other parts of the marketing mix. We do amazing, creative things in our industry and it’s getting better all the time, but can feel like our work isn’t viewed as as important as the big ad agencies. We need to back ourselves more!
Check out the 30 Under 30 Newcomers list here
What have you learnt about yourself during the COVID-19 crisis?
Having started a new job completely from home I’ve learned a lot about myself and how I work. In some ways it’s made me more collaborative, as reaching out to colleagues from all over the world has felt much more normal, although I still miss the face-to-face interaction. I’ve learned that the office doesn’t need to be the centre of your working world, you can think whilst walking, grabbing a coffee, getting outside etc - things that I will definitely take with me as we go back to a more normal working life.
Which social media site is most important to you and why?
I might be old fashioned, but I love YouTube. The fact you can find someone that has an interest in any topic you can think of is incredible and in our world of bitesize content, it’s nice to be able to sit down and get deep into some long form content that really explores an issue/trend/hobby.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I would love to be an established creative director, nurturing the next generation of creative talent in PR.
