CC INTERVIEW
“I love what I do, and I enjoy how much the industry of content creating has changed, even within the five years I’ve been with the company.”
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t was a rather gruesome animation video of the TV show Game of Thrones that led Antonia Bonello to land her dream job at BuzzFeed. The 29-year-old is now an Associate Creative Director at the company’s London office, after working her way up to the coveted position over the past five years. But how she got the job is a little unorthodox. “BuzzFeed had commissioned me to do an animation called ‘Game of Thrones: 14 Most Brutal Deaths’ as 8-bit Gifs. It went viral and HBO, the makers of the show, contacted BuzzFeed in the US asking for my details. Our office there decided not to give HBO my number as they wanted to hire me for themselves.” After being snapped up for her talent, Antonia – whose grandfather is from Valletta – went on to win a litany of awards for her work. Most recently, she was included in a list of 30 Young Innovators within Media and Marketing on Forbes’ European ‘30 Under 30 for 2019’. She’s also worked on content campaigns for huge names such as Google, Nike, Netflix, Sky, Amazon, Diageo and Nestlé. The modest girl from East London says it’s good old-fashioned determination that has got her to where she is today. “- I worked hard and kept doing side projects and what I loved on top of my day-to-day jobs in retail and as a post-production runner. It was
my side projects that got me noticed by BuzzFeed and started off my career. They helped me turn my hobby into my job. I love what I do, and I enjoy how much the industry of content creating has changed, even within the five years I’ve been with the company. I work with businesses who want to reach their audience in a different way and bridge the gap from traditional advertising to making that real connection.” “For example, I worked with the dog and cat food company Purina last year. We did a series of posts and made-for-social media campaign which encouraged more workplaces to allow people to bring their dogs to work,” she continues. Google ‘Purina’ and ‘BuzzFeed’ and you’ll find more than a dozen articles written by BuzzFeed content creators which also advertise Purina. Titles include ‘11 Reasons Cats Are Actually The Perfect Companion’ and ‘10 Ways You Can Tell Your Dog Is Your Best Friend’. So, is this the future of advertising? Antonia believes so. Her and her team worked on another campaign for the UK car insurance company Churchill, where a stuntwoman jumps from one moving car to another. Antonia got to meet with that stuntwomen, Jessica Hooker, who’s starred in films such as Justice League and Tomb Raider. Afterwards Antonia wrote about it for BuzzFeed saying: “She took me through APRIL/MAY 2019