Inside Roblox’s Brand Strategy: Sue Anderson on Gen Z, Creativity, and UGC at Scale

Orlando Wood (00:05)

are you? I’m very well,

Sue Anderson (00:05)

I’m pretty good. How are you? You’ve been through some

Orlando Wood (00:09)

So where have you been? Because obviously, you know, you were recently

at Instagram and Meta before going to Roblox. Were you in San

Francisco then?

Sue Anderson (00:15)

When I went to work at Meta I did move to the Bay Area. We were living

in Oakland, actually. And then during the pandemic, I also did a quiet

moon walk back to LA. Because that just seemed to suit our

circumstances at the time. And then I’ve been lucky enough to be able

to stay here. And I commute up to the Bay all the time to Roblox.

Orlando Wood (00:28)

Hahaha!

we had Kate Morrison on the podcast and she said,

in tech companies, creative has to be inside to a degree because the

product moves so fast and develops so fast that if the creatives

aren’t right next to it, really understanding what the roadmap is for

the future, it’s very difficult to get a grasp as an outside What was

your learning going from

Sue Anderson (00:46)

Mm-hmm.

Orlando Wood (01:02)

agency communications and creativity to,

Sue Anderson (01:04)

I mean, I think it’s probably good to first talk about why I decided

to shift from agencies and it’s so much of it is related to what the

same conversation that you had with Kate is I found myself at agencies

always going into a room with what might be incredible creative work

that everyone had worked through the night on. within a few minutes of

the

CMO or the CEO arriving for the meeting and starting to talk about why

they were excited to see the work Realizing damn it. We don’t have the

right work because we haven’t diagnosed what the problem is correctly

and there were so many layers between You know on the brand side and

on the agency side that the telephone got broken along the way And I

found myself thinking I want to be inOrlando Wood (01:40)

Right.

Mm. Yeah.

Sue Anderson (01:57)

closer to the people who are diagnosing the problems or seeing the

problems. So that was one part of it. And then the other part of it

is, and I’m sure you’ll remember this, you would always have a deck of

work and at the back of the deck you had all of these crazy ideas

where you were proposing changes to a product or, you know, this is

not the ad you’ve asked for, but this is what we think you can do for

the And those ideas were always skipped over because

Orlando Wood (02:16)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (02:24)

A, it wasn’t your remit as an agency or because you didn’t know enough

about the product to be able to actually really work through how you

might make that idea happen. that was a lot of… Exactly, exactly.

yeah. So what I found was why I was attracted to going to the brand

side and into tech specifically,

Orlando Wood (02:35)

Yeah. are the timelines it would take to implement on the tech side or

on the product side? Yeah.

Sue Anderson (02:49)

was that I wanted to be able to get closer to where the problems were

and then to be able to go and like figure out, okay, we want to make a

change inside of this app. Who are the engineers that we need to talk

to in order to do this? Who are the product designers who can help us

make this And is it truly a crazy idea? Cause it’s actually going to

take a ton of engineers or is it an easy idea? Cause it might take

one.

Orlando Wood (03:06)

Right.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I’m what I’m hearing is a lot of wasted creative effort

when you’re when you’re when you’re a sort of outside communications

and creative consultant you end up wasting a lot of Great great ideas

and actually more that you probably waste the emotion. It’s not the

the ideas can come and go but it’s the Would it be great if? Yeah

Yeah, and it’s the constant deflation of

Sue Anderson (03:25)

Yeah.Yeah. We could do something amazing! Yeah.

Orlando Wood (03:40)

We’re not gonna, you and that you’re right. It’s the disheartening

element that sort of, that’s difficult to deal with on an

institutional level.

Sue Anderson (03:49)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Orlando Wood (03:51)

And so what do you think was the kind of biggest muscle that you had

to kind of, that you had to flex, you know, or that you had to grow

shifting from, you know, that structure into the tech structure?

Sue Anderson (04:03)

A couple of things. mean my first day at Metta when I joined the

Twistle Facebook, you you go to your onboarding and there are

thousands of people onboarding on that given day and what I realized

was that while I was walking around every time I introduced myself to

somebody they would most likely be on the…

Orlando Wood (04:18)

Alright.

Sue Anderson (04:26)

technical side, they were engineers, content designers, all of that

kind of thing. And I would be, I’m a creative director and this sort

of cloud would go over their faces like, what is that? What do you do?

that realization that I am not working inside of a creative agency

where as creative folks, you are the engine and kind of the most

important thing, you’re the thing that the agency is selling. And

suddenly I’m like, I work.

Orlando Wood (04:47)

Mm-mm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (04:54)

at an engineering company. I am at a technology company and I am one

tiny part of what this huge company is. So making that shift and

realizing that you still need to be true to yourself inside of this

big engineering company, I think that was a shift. And then honestly,

like some housekeeping things that, you know, as an agency, you’re

always like,

Orlando Wood (05:02)Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Alright.

Sue Anderson (05:22)

we could be late for this meeting or we can throw out this crazy idea

they might be really interested in it and I think sitting on the brand

side you also just realize the how much pressure brands are under the

timelines that they’re working to and you know sometimes that some of

the sort of snake I don’t want to say it’s sloppiness of agencies but

that kind of casual we can do whatever we want to like

actually makes life really difficult for marketing folks.

Orlando Wood (05:51)

Yeah, well, I also imagine that the balance of power has shifted a

little bit because it used to be that advertising agencies were cool,

you know, and they were the place most likely to have a foosball table

and a breakout room and whatever else. And now with margins going so

small, all of those, you know, free lunch, you know, sensory

deprivation pods, all of that has moved to the tech companies. Now the

tech companies are the cool places to work.

Sue Anderson (06:12)

Yeah.

Orlando Wood (06:14)

You know, that, that sloppiness, imagine when you’re, when you have a

really cool, great creative environment, you walk into an agency

that’s looking a little bit meager and everybody’s going, we’re so

cool and creative. You’re going like, I’m not sure I want to listen to

you. We’re equally as cool over here, you know?

Sue Anderson (06:28)

I mean I still have huge love for the agency folks and you know I’ve

also been lucky in that a lot of the work that I’ve done particularly

when I was at Facebook and at Instagram still got to work a lot with

agencies because you’re frequently, there can never be enough of you

inside so you have to work with external partners as well. So I don’t

want to say that they’re not cool is what I’m saying on that. I want

to say that they’re cool.

Orlando Wood (06:52)

⁓ You’re still a creative

at the end of the day. You can’t sell out your tribe.

Sue Anderson (06:56)

I know.I know.

Yeah, I don’t want to betray my people, you know?

Orlando Wood (07:02)

Fair enough, completely fair enough. So we’ll get you to, we’ll get

you to portray them by the end of this, this interview. That’s going

to be my mission. But it does, you know, you were sort of talking

about, you know, the, ways that job has shifted. What, can you explain

your, your actual job? Cause VP of creative is at Roblox is such a,

sounds so all encompassing that it’s hard to figure out where.

Sue Anderson (07:04)

Okay.

Well, we’ll see. We’ll see about that.

Orlando Wood (07:24)

how to orient that in one’s mind, certainly from the outside. What

would you say is, how does that job work within the company?

Sue Anderson (07:34)

So what I oversee is much of the external facing things about Roblox.

in the same way, a creative director would oversee a brand. That is

much of what I’m doing. So I work with a brand creative team who, like

an agency, we have writers, art directors.

producers and we’re making things about the brand so we’re showing up

in our social channels when we do events we show up you know we create

all of the work so we’re doing it all that’s conceptual brand thinking

I work with the brand design team as well so we’re doing a lot of the

basic brand foundations where you know everything from how we look and

feel how our tone of voice shows up we’re doing all of that

and I’ve recently extended my role and I’m actually working into

products as well. So I’m working with content designers, which is a

great extension of it. I grew up as a copywriter. There is so much

writing and language and ways to use a product that content designers

are showing up and really thinking about every, are you gonna say

press a button that says play or are you gonna press a button that

says join?

Orlando Wood (08:23)

Great.

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (08:45)

things like I’m working with the engineering design team as well. So

anything that is, and it’s our 3D content team as well. anything that

is outward facing under a creative umbrella is within my remit. My

whole department works into a creative and design department.things like I’m working with the engineering design team as well. So

anything that is, and it’s our 3D content team as well. anything that

is outward facing under a creative umbrella is within my remit. My

whole department works into a creative and design department.

Orlando Wood (08:45)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (09:06)

And so

we’re working really closely with the product design team as well.

Orlando Wood (09:10)

And so, mean, because when you say external, what’s interesting to me

is because obviously, you know, typical brands have are all external,

even the purchasing thing. sort of, you know, very external. But you

guys have 85 million daily viewers. think that that’s right. As far as

my last research, it might be up.

Sue Anderson (09:25)

It’s

getting closer to 98 million and our recent earnings call Orlando.

We’re very proud of that.

Orlando Wood (09:30)

Okay, alright, so. Okay, so by

the end of this interview it will be 100 million daily users. But

that’s you know, and obviously there are so many transactions and

things happening within the the platform itself. So you’ve got your

external communications to people who haven’t yet understood the

brand. You’ve got then you know, speed people who are sort of a little

bit closer and lower down the funnel and then you’ve got the people

that.

Sue Anderson (09:38)

Exactly.

Orlando Wood (09:58)

You know, are engaging with it every day. Do you, do you cover off and

it sounds like you’re working in product as well. Do you cover off

some of that messaging as well to make sure that those interactions,

especially when it comes to, know, the, the transacting within the

program, that that’s also covered by your creative oversight.

Sue Anderson (10:18)

There’s probably three, actually three different audiences that we’ll

be talking to. The players themselves, so people coming on who just

want to play Draceturn, Price, Grow a Garden. We are then also talking

to creators because obviously Roblox is a platform where we don’t make

a single game. Everything on the platform is made.There’s probably three, actually three different audiences that we’ll

be talking to. The players themselves, so people coming on who just

want to play Draceturn, Price, Grow a Garden. We are then also talking

to creators because obviously Roblox is a platform where we don’t make

a single game. Everything on the platform is made.

Orlando Wood (10:38)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (10:41)

by all the brilliant creatives on the platform. So we’re doing a lot

of work talking to them as well. And then a huge…

Orlando Wood (10:47)

And you currently

have just, again, my data might be out, but you have 40 million

experiences on the Robox platform created by all of the crowdsourced

or created by all of the creators who use the platform every day.

Sue Anderson (10:51)

Mm.

millions and millions of experiences, yeah. And it’s just an

incredible amount of creativity that shows up on the platform every

day. Then the third bunch of people that we are talking to is also to

parents and policymakers, like people who are genuinely interested and

rightly so in making sure that this is a safe and civil platform. So I

don’t know if that helps to kind of…

Orlando Wood (11:05)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (11:29)

cement the three different audiences.

Orlando Wood (11:30)

Very much.

Yeah, well, because it seems to me that, you know, big studios have

been working on trying to get user generated content, you know,

cracked for many years. And, you know, we’ve been very lucky to work

with some studios and they often talk in our conversations as we’re

doing AI integrations and things. You know, obviously they love the

idea of user generated content. They love the idea of giving Scooby

Doo assets to people and allowing them to play around with it. But

but I think that they still have a very rigid touch with the way they

allow people to create. And your guys’ creative platform is so well-

developed and all still feels nothing can be created in there that

doesn’t feel Roblox. And yet you’re giving this incredibly rich

experience to the creators, you know, and, and…so much so that they’ve been able to make unique things 40 million

times. You know, I mean, that’s quite remarkable.

Sue Anderson (12:23)

Yeah, mean, every time I go on the platform, I am amazed by the first

of all, range that is there and that range just keeps on expanding.

You know, we’re seeing so many more driving games, so many more

sporting games, things like Dress to Impress blowing up, things like

Grow a Garden, which has just just actually become the biggest game on

the platform in a very short amount of time.

It’s crazy to see what’s happening on the platform. like you said,

it’s so unique as well. I always say, I wish we, and I think as the

folks responsible for trying to portray this brand, figuring out how

to bottle the vastness and the amount of possibilities on the platform

is actually our biggest creative challenge.

Orlando Wood (13:10)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (13:13)

In some ways Roblox is very similar to the internet itself. How do you

explain all of the things that are on the internet? How do you explain

all of the things on Roblox, some of which are beautiful? You can go

fly with dragons, but you could also be killed by a toilet or chased

by a block of cheese. You pick, which one would you like to do today?

Orlando Wood (13:13)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I

did the kill by a toilet thing last night. That was, uh, it was really

good fun. Yeah. Um, yeah. Cause I was, I mean, that was one of the

questions I had here and I’m just looking at it. And I think that

we’ve sort of, you know, um, flitted around it, but it was a good

enough question. I want to ask it sort of outright. What does brand

building look like for a virtual world? You know, you’re, you’re.

Sue Anderson (13:43)

you did? Okay great! Excellent!

Orlando Wood (14:04)

You know, how, is there work that needs to be done outside of the

platform itself for you to make people feel in the brand’s embrace

when they’re in the platform? Or have the developers kind of done that

work for you once they’re in?Sue Anderson (14:20)

You know, it’s, it is, it’s as a creative person, it’s a huge

challenge. And I, I honestly feel like we had, I have had the same

challenge when I worked on Facebook and when I worked on Instagram is

how do you make somebody who is outside of a platform feel what the

platform is really like? and I think there’s, there’s a couple of

things that I feel like have helped to do that is

First of all, to always take a step back. Nobody needs to hear the

platform’s voice loudly. You never want to be saying, we are Roblox,

we are Instagram, we are Facebook, this is what we are doing. You are

so much in this instance, the utility. You are the one who’s providing

it. And allowing the voices who are on the platform to speak for you.

Orlando Wood (14:55)

Right.

Yeah.

⁓ Yeah.

Sue Anderson (15:15)

is actually the best way that you can describe the platform to anyone

who’s not on it. Putting any artifice over the top of it or espousing

your values and philosophies. I don’t think people want to know that.

They just want to know like what’s there and like you said, how does

it feel? when you show up with… Yeah, yeah. And let the people who

are doing the things that are cool

Orlando Wood (15:19)

Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Does it work? Is it cool? Am I enjoying it? You know? Yeah.

Sue Anderson (15:44)

be the ones who are representing the brand for you. That’s sort of the

thing that I feel like has always worked the best for these kinds of

platforms.

Orlando Wood (15:52)

Yeah, and I think that, you know, what’s what’s also so unique is you

get to tell a full story there. It’s not just kind of Vox pops of

people going, and I enjoyed it. You know, it’s I actually had a game

that was monetized. I then made money off this game that was pushed

out through the platform. And so I’ve become a hot, know, the the

process of moving people from hobbyist to professional. And basically,

that’s what

Sue Anderson (16:18)

Mm-hmm.Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Orlando Wood (16:19)

they’re becoming they’re a hobbyist game developer and then the moment

the

game does well is sticky and you know and pays back your robux it is

you’re suddenly now professional game developer the developer the

moment you earn actual money off of.

Sue Anderson (16:34)

Yeah, and they are developers who are earning enormous amounts of

money. mean, they’re developers in the last year who are earning a

million bucks a year. So it’s a while. I think, yeah, it’s.

Orlando Wood (16:48)

And is that all

one-on-one? mean, is that all individualized developers or have people

come into the ecosystem that are more kind of, okay, teams of three or

four or five that are going, okay, we’re going to pump out a couple of

different ones. And we, we, know, that they’re almost creating a

business out of it. Cause you have the sole proprietor potentially

doing it. But then are you now seeing groups of teams doing it?

Sue Anderson (17:09)

Yeah, we’re seeing enormous amounts of studios doing it and those

studios will often be, you know, could be like two people to six

people, you know, to two larger studios. And, you know, we hear over

and over again from some of our best creators, I started this thing,

you know, I made this because I thought it was fun or I made it

because my, you know, friends thought I couldn’t do it. And then

Orlando Wood (17:11)

Right.

Right.

Sue Anderson (17:37)

you know it becomes sticky and then suddenly they’ve you know they’ve

created something that millions of people are going to log on to every

day. Yeah.

Orlando Wood (17:45)

Yeah. Yeah.

What do you I mean, what do you think is your unique place to play?

Because obviously, like, I mean, just just putting things side by

side. mean, Roblox has over 40 million experiences. Steam has like

10000 games. You know, you guys are from a market cap perspective,

bigger than EI games by seven to ten times bigger than Ubisoft,

roughly the market cap of Nintendo. What I mean, what do you see as

your uniqueWhat do you I mean, what do you think is your unique place to play?

Because obviously, like, I mean, just just putting things side by

side. mean, Roblox has over 40 million experiences. Steam has like

10000 games. You know, you guys are from a market cap perspective,

bigger than EI games by seven to ten times bigger than Ubisoft,

roughly the market cap of Nintendo. What I mean, what do you see as

your unique

place to expand into or or or even just your you you said you you

don’t necessarily want to be constantly espousing your ethos and your

brand values and whatever else but surely is it from a growth

standpoint you kind of go yes, but this is where we feel our manifest

destiny is or this is where we kind of feel we want to grow into is is

there are those discussions happening.

Sue Anderson (18:38)

Yeah, mean, the company has a very, very clear goal of capturing 10 %

of the gaming market. We are sitting at around two, whereas now it’s

a, and the ultimate goal is to capture 10 % of the gaming market. That

is all based on, again, the original vision of the platform that David

Buzuki had that he wanted to reimagine how he brings people together.

And I think that’s one of the things that’s so special about Roblox is

it’s best enjoyed with others. This is not a solo gaming experience.

And we hear that over and over again from people who come to the

platform. Like, I can go on on my own and I can have, you know, I can

have a huge amount of fun, but it is so much more fun when I’m doing

it with my friends.

We actually recently heard that the NFL has an experience on the

platform. And they were saying, you know, they’re so rooted in like

playing a game, you know, literally on a field. So when they created

the experience on the platform, they’re like, well, people are going

to come and play football. And what they saw was that there was just a

ton of people who are just hanging out in the experience. ⁓ And that’s

what people will often do is just come and hang out.

Orlando Wood (19:39)

Yeah.

Right.

Right, yeah.

Sue Anderson (19:57)

It’s a place to meet and so on. So I think with the, like, this is,

we’re going to get to 10 % of the gaming market, but it’s always

underpinned by, how can we make sure that we’re bringing people

together? Those two things are big, big drivers. And then, you know,

there are very clear things that the platform is doing as well of

making sure that we have great performance on the platform that’s…

there is, you know, AIs helping assist creators in making the

experiences and that obviously they were keeping the platform really,

really safe and that there’s a continued expansion of genres as well,

you know, so that people are showing up and finding the things that

they really want. I feel like I forgot what your original question

was, so I’m hoping that vaguely in the neighborhood, you know.there is, you know, AIs helping assist creators in making the

experiences and that obviously they were keeping the platform really,

really safe and that there’s a continued expansion of genres as well,

you know, so that people are showing up and finding the things that

they really want. I feel like I forgot what your original question

was, so I’m hoping that vaguely in the neighborhood, you know.

Orlando Wood (20:38)

Yeah.

That’s okay. You did it perfectly. didn’t

like the premise of the question. You obfuscated perfectly and you

pivoted to your talking point. I love it. It was very political.

Sue Anderson (20:52)

Okay, bring me back, bring

me back, you know?

Orlando Wood (20:56)

No, I mean, to be honest, I was going to, but I kind of really like

like where you took that and it made me wonder how do brands come into

your ecosystem? What does that relationship look like when I mean,

NFL, one of the certainly the biggest and most valuable brands in

America coming into Roblox? How do you manage that relationship and

the expectations that come with it?

Sue Anderson (21:20)

I mean the first thing I’ll say is that there are lots of much more

qualified folks who are dealing with our brands and partnerships. But

what I will say is I think we are seeing more and more brands coming

to the platform for different reasons. are certainly some who want to

build experiences so that folks can experience their brand.

in a unique way. ⁓ But it’s not the only way for brands to come in.

There’s also advertising ways that they can show up or what we

announced just recently that you can sell products that are both

digital and virtual. So there’s a bunch of ways for brands to be able

to come and show up and decide how it is that they actually want to do

that.

Orlando Wood (21:49)

Right.

Right.

Right.

Sue Anderson (22:14)

⁓⁓

You know, a full experience isn’t the only way.

Orlando Wood (22:18)

Right, okay. so, mean, how, hmm, let me, so I’ve got a few more

questions here. I’m just looking at them, but I really like that. So.

Sue Anderson (22:25)

Yeah.

Orlando Wood (22:28)

How so how important is it for you? You you talked about. Being higher

up the product pipeline in terms of, you know your creative

engagement. How important is it for you and your creative teams to be

tapped into the tech higher up the pipeline? And what does that

creative relationship look like?

Sue Anderson (22:48)

It’s massively important. Like I said, it’s the whole reason why I

decided to go onto the brand and the tech side. Because when you know

what is happening inside of the product, it gives you so many more

great things to talk about and so many great ways to be able to

actually show up as well. So, you know, I’m going to take something

pithy or what can often sound pithy like…

Orlando Wood (23:08)

Mm.

Sue Anderson (23:14)

We want to show that you can come and have a great time together with

friends on the platform That can be a little like lots of people are

saying you can do we’re all about together as Facebook was all about

togetherness and LinkedIn like everyone’s doing it but then you hear

like we have a great part new product called party where you can

invite friends to come and join you and it Moves you seamlessly from

one experience to the other suddenly. It’s like we’re actually really

doing this

Orlando Wood (23:19)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (23:43)

And so visually you can show that rather than just like having to say

it. And I’m using that as a very specific example because each one of

those things, like it gives you the cool things to be able to talk

about. ⁓ And then, you know, what’s happening inside of the product,

like how it looks from a product design perspective, you can use that

as creative fodder.And so visually you can show that rather than just like having to say

it. And I’m using that as a very specific example because each one of

those things, like it gives you the cool things to be able to talk

about. ⁓ And then, you know, what’s happening inside of the product,

like how it looks from a product design perspective, you can use that

as creative fodder.

Orlando Wood (23:43)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (24:09)

I think all of it at the end of the day, maybe that’s the shortest.

It’s all creative fodder. It’s all ways that you can, you can, they’re

all things that you can use for ideas. There’ve been entire ads and

great things been made around like, you know, how you, like Google did

that so well of putting into the search bar. Like that’s a product at

the end of the day. Like, and it inspired an entire, you know,

Orlando Wood (24:18)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (24:33)

creative series. So all of it is hugely helpful. And we’ll try to, as

a creative team, make sure we’re always going on the platform, we’re

actually going and playing the experiences ourselves, and then

obviously staying really close to the product design team and the

engineers as well to get all of that fodder. It’s all like, they’re

all ways to build the well, you know.

Orlando Wood (24:35)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. And if you do have ideas that you go like we actually think this

would be a really cool way to go and we see that it would have an

incredible communication benefits and and we you know if if you see

opportunities like that how what’s the process by which you know the

tail wags the dog a little bit you know can you can you influence that

way and if you can what does that look like?

Sue Anderson (25:20)

Yeah, you think of the idea and then you say, wonder if this is

actually possible in the product. And then you go and find the team

that is responsible for engineering that part of the product. ⁓Orlando Wood (25:35)

You made it sound so silly. In my head, there

were so many different, there were so many different barriers to

communication and processes and whatever else. And you were AB testing

the idea before even speaking to a product person. it’s this, I mean,

that’s, that’s, it’s, it’s exactly what you said right at the start.

It’s as simple as going, that guy I’m going to walk across, you know,

yeah.

Sue Anderson (25:55)

Yeah, it’s like, let me find the person and the team

who’s working on that. Let them first tell me that’s insane. We don’t

have the time to do that. Or that’s not on our roadmap or, and you

know, often that will happen or they’ll say, that’s insane. It’s not

on our roadmap, but it’s a really good idea. Let’s figure out how to

do that. Or it’s like, yeah, one person and then you kind of take it

from there.

Orlando Wood (26:04)

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Sue Anderson (26:21)

But yeah, that is the joy of just kind of going across the, you know,

the hallway, so to speak.

Orlando Wood (26:28)

Right.

And so what like how important is traditional media in your campaign

arsenal? You know, what are you defaulting to as your primary assets

and tools? Are you are you still doing a lot of TV or or is it is most

of it digital as a is, you know, what is the the the makeup of your

your overall communications toolkit look like?

Sue Anderson (26:50)

mean the way that Roblox has shown up over the 20 odd years of its

existence has never been on any traditional paid media. We show up in

our social channels, we use our comms channels, the platform itself is

the thing that speaks for us. yeah, people will often say,

Orlando Wood (27:00)

Right.

Sue Anderson (27:14)

me but what is it that you’re making and say go on our social channels

and you start to see much of what we’re and what we’re leading you to.me but what is it that you’re making and say go on our social channels

and you start to see much of what we’re and what we’re leading you to.

Orlando Wood (27:19)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And so, mean, with that, do you do A-B testing and things like that?

mean, a lot of the sort of tech-centric things that tech companies

tend to do with their communications and messaging, do you guys do

that?

Sue Anderson (27:43)

We don’t test the creative work that we’re doing. know, we’ll

obviously take some of the insights that we might have about, know,

when we’re talking to our users and creators, we obviously use the

data that we’re getting from the platform every minute to figure out

the things that we want to talk about. But right now we are keeping

things looser and

Orlando Wood (27:46)

Right, okay.

Sue Anderson (28:13)

going with what we think are the right things we want to do.

Orlando Wood (28:16)

Well, that’s very cool. It sounds like a great job. It sounds like you

have a lot of creative freedom. You hear a lot of people saying, I was

really frustrated here, and so I went there. And then usually the

immediate thing right after is, and it wasn’t what I thought it would

be, but it sounds like you’re getting all of the things you hoped to

be getting from that move.

Sue Anderson (28:18)

It is very old.

I mean, we’re slowly building a brand and I think that in itself is

requiring some patience from me as a creative person. You you always

want to be able to do all of the things and talk about some, there’s

so much on the platform to talk about. you want, I want to be able to

do, we should do this and we should do that and we should do that.

There’s definitely so much more that we would want to be doing, but I

think we’re in a,

you know, we’re slowly building and getting to the place that I think

the creative and design teams can really, really be adding, you know,

to adding even more to how the brand shows up. You know, the thing

that I always say with Roblox, and I say this to the teams all the

time, is there is so much creativity on the platform that it is our…duty as creative people to show up as creative as the platform is. And

in time, I hope that we’re actually showing up in ways that surprise

the community where they’re saying, damn, that’s cool. You know, what

you guys did was cool. But for now, the very least that we can be

doing is like, we’ve to be showing up as creative as the platform.

Orlando Wood (29:42)

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

That’s very cool. That’s a really good orienting message. Yeah,

because I often talk about the sort of culture of creative teams and

how it can be different. those sorts of messages to live by are often

incredibly important to make sure that everybody’s singing from the

same hymn sheet.

Sue Anderson (30:19)

Yeah, yeah. mean, our creative leader, Taghu Keita, always talks

about, we’ve got foundation, innovation and craft. Those are things

that are core to absolutely everything we do as a creative team or

creative and design team. So we have those basic anchors all of the

time for everything that we’re making. I think for very specifically

for the creative team, I’m like…

Yes, and we have to show up as creative as that platform, you know.

Orlando Wood (30:47)

Yeah,

that’s great. Now, I mean, Roblox is obviously extremely tapped into

the younger generation. I’m sort of wondering what can the rest of us

learn from the ways they’re consuming media and like what? And also

like what it’s taught you about how to create for what’s ostensibly

the most media and tech savvy generation there’s there’s ever been.

Sue Anderson (31:08)

Gosh, I feel like that’s such a big question. ⁓

Orlando Wood (31:15)

Is it

simplified by saying, you know, if you have to show up as creative as

the creators, what does that look like? Like, what do you, you know,

what do you have to do to make sure that you’re there?

Sue Anderson (31:26)

I think most important, like, observe what it is that they’re doing.

There’s so much inspiration right there. Like you said, like, we’re

going on the platform all the time and going, wow, that’s insane. We

could never have thought of that idea. I think really showing up, I

think it probably goes back to what I said earlier as well. Don’t try

to insert your own voice in the air.I think most important, like, observe what it is that they’re doing.

There’s so much inspiration right there. Like you said, like, we’re

going on the platform all the time and going, wow, that’s insane. We

could never have thought of that idea. I think really showing up, I

think it probably goes back to what I said earlier as well. Don’t try

to insert your own voice in the air.

Orlando Wood (31:30)

Be a fan.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (31:50)

I think

Orlando Wood (31:50)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (31:50)

that’s where you get sniffed out pretty quickly when you’re trying to

sound like you’re cool or like you understand. mean, I think we see

brand fails like that all of the time. You know, again, we let the

creators speak. When we are making or when we’re trying to show what

is happening on the platform, we show what’s on the platform rather

than trying to…

Orlando Wood (32:02)

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (32:16)

insert ourselves or our opinions into that. Yeah, I think those are

probably the things. I’d say one other thing that I think is really

important is having the Roblox fans inside of our teams as well. The

teams that work on our… Well, the teams that work on our social,

they’re…

Orlando Wood (32:20)

Right.

Yeah.

really?

How does that work?

Sue Anderson (32:44)

they’re like massive Roblox fans. Like they’re playing every single

day. They grew up on the platform. That’s super important. We also

have within our developer relations team, like OG Roblox players, like

people who are like some of the first players on the platform that we

use all the time that we’ll go to them and say, hey, we have this

idea.they’re like massive Roblox fans. Like they’re playing every single

day. They grew up on the platform. That’s super important. We also

have within our developer relations team, like OG Roblox players, like

people who are like some of the first players on the platform that we

use all the time that we’ll go to them and say, hey, we have this

idea.

Orlando Wood (32:51)

Right.

Sue Anderson (33:10)

does this work, is this interesting? And I think then that way we

become representative of the platform and therefore we’re showing up

to that younger generation in the way that’s authentic, you know.

Orlando Wood (33:13)

Mmm.

Yeah.

You’re going to be you’re a jury president at Cannes Lions, which for

people who don’t know is is a is probably the biggest festival of kind

of creativity in the ad world in Cannes. And I’m interested to know

you’re going to be the kind of tastemaker running the jury deciding

who’s going to be the winners.

Sue Anderson (33:27)

Mm-hmm.

Orlando Wood (33:43)

Has your new position changed the way you judge work or the way you

consume work that other people do? Do you kind of go, actually, those

are outdating story techniques. We believe that you should be in this

place. Are there things that you feel that you’ve learned, especially

in the last few years in tech companies or maybe even just being brand

side where you go, I’ve actually altered my perspective potentially on

the work I like to see, what I think is good, what I think is worth

singing about.

Sue Anderson (34:13)

Yeah, you know, in looking at all of the work, because obviously we’ve

started judging already, do still have the basic core gut instinct of

like, is that just a really great creative idea? That hasn’t changed.

And it’s actually been a really interesting experience for me to be

judging work again and going.

Orlando Wood (34:27)

Yeah. Yeah.

Sue Anderson (34:37)

God, the only thing I really care about at the end of the day is a

really great idea that has like, you know, moved or changed something.

So like that, that’s like stays core. But I do think I’m much more

aware of the ways that you can show up as a brand. you know, is that,

is that the technology or the place that you should be showing up in

that the other is the right channels? I think.God, the only thing I really care about at the end of the day is a

really great idea that has like, you know, moved or changed something.

So like that, that’s like stays core. But I do think I’m much more

aware of the ways that you can show up as a brand. you know, is that,

is that the technology or the place that you should be showing up in

that the other is the right channels? I think.

Orlando Wood (34:41)

Right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Sue Anderson (35:06)

I’m more aware of that. I’m aware of, I think, the timeliness of ideas

as well so that they feel like they are as current as they can

possibly be. And that’s both to stay close to the audience and to the

technology that exists. And I think I’m probably much more aware of

like did this make a difference to the business? Did it move the

business needle? You know, if I think about when I first started out

in advertising, probably the only thing I cared about was the idea.

And you know, I think agencies have grown up this way. I think that

the industry has grown up. know, even CAN actually makes you submit

the…

Orlando Wood (35:39)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (35:50)

what was the business impact, before it was just like, throw us your

idea and we’ll tell you whether it was great or not. But I’m much more

aware of that. And I’m aware of that, again, for the sake of

creativity itself, because creativity can actually move a business

needle. And if you don’t care about it, then I wonder whether you’re

actually solving the creative problem at hand.

Orlando Wood (35:56)

Yeah.

Yeah. And I imagine as well, feeling that the brand is intrinsic to

the idea as well. mean, I, I listen, I’ve been guilty of it. My, you

know, so many ads I’ve made have been a great ad. That’s a great

little short film. And then some tagline is put on the end and you

could have swapped in 30 different brands, you know, on the end of

that, you know, that piece of work. I’m sure you never made that

mistake, but, but certainly nothing on I ever worked on with you, but,

Sue Anderson (36:37)

No, F-Orlando Wood (36:40)

But yeah, I I do, I feel the same way a bit now. I kind of look at

things and I go, well, a lot of times the media spend is actually

doing the work now. ⁓ And I think that it’s a very 90s style of

storytelling to be like ordinary world, but with one thing changed and

then a montage of those sorts of things. And then on the end you put a

brand that is intrinsic to the, you know, and it’s, all, you know, it,

Sue Anderson (36:50)

Yeah.

Orlando Wood (37:06)

It’s good for people’s reels, but it’s not necessarily good

advertising.

Sue Anderson (37:11)

Yeah, and you know, it’s the the I can’t remember who it was, but

there was a really great creative, actually, I’m certain that widen

who said to me, you always have to be asking what problem are you

solving? And it’s so important because if you’re not solving a problem

for the people who are using your product going on your platform, then

then I start to question.

whether the idea you have is the right idea. If you’re just doing it

because you think it’s cool, should probably have a rethink. if you’re

genuinely solving a problem, then you’re likely going to come up with

a really great idea.

Orlando Wood (37:52)

Right, yeah, that’s a point. So yeah, so I just one last question,

which I’ve been asking everyone, which is, you know, the late great

Dan Wyden had a quote that you might remember from working there where

he said, you’re useless to me until you’ve failed big at least twice.

I remember him saying at the sort of, you know, the Founders Day 25,

and I was like, well, that’s good, you know, because it means I can’t

get yelled at when I fuck up.

You know, can you remember and would you be willing to admit any time

where you failed, big or small, and what you learned from it?

Sue Anderson (38:26)

You you gave me a heads up that you asked this question. And when I

started to think about it last night, was like, my God, the list of

failures is like incredibly, incredibly long. And a lot of the times

that the failures that I thought of were actually, for the most part,

pieces of creative work that I made that were just bad.

Orlando Wood (38:39)

Right.Sue Anderson (38:49)

And they were bad for so many different reasons, know, for a lot of

the reasons that we’ve already spoken about. But then, you know, I was

like, I want to get a little bit more specific. And I started to think

about why in those instances I made really bad ideas. And I’m going to

be a little philosophical for a minute. I feel like what I always did

in those moments was

Orlando Wood (39:13)

Great.

Sue Anderson (39:18)

I stopped being true to my own creative instincts. I was either trying

to make something that I felt was what the creative director at the

time, who was in charge of the work that I was doing, wanted, or the

CMO at the time, wanted. And I was trying so hard to make something

good.

And that’s when I made the biggest mistakes. And kind of always coming

back to remembering what my own creative instincts are always helped.

And then that made me remember a story actually from when I was at

Wyden where I literally lost my way there. When I first joined Wyden,

the person who hired me,

literally left three weeks after. I’d moved from Johannesburg to

Amsterdam. I was like, oh wow, like so what’s happening now? And two

new creative directors joined, Al Moseley and John Norman. And

suddenly it was like, none of us know, like are we all still gonna

work here? Are they actually gonna like any of the ideas that we have?

And I found myself in that position where I was a South African on a

visa.

Orlando Wood (40:25)

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (40:32)

who desperately wanted to stay in a job and who was showing up with

ideas that I was trying so hard to impress them, which meant I was

making, showing them really terrible And this perpetuated the problem

that I was like not looking like I was a great creative and that I

should probably take my visa and return to South Africa. And I would

try to talk to both the

Orlando Wood (40:42)

Right.

Right.

Sue Anderson (40:59)John and Elle about it and they were sort of skirting the issue and I

was getting more and more nervous and showing up with more and more

crappy ideas. Until the one day I like I have to fit and like I have

to sort this. So I sent a mail to them where I attached the Clash song

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? Because I felt like I first needed

to know if

Orlando Wood (41:19)

Hahaha

both. You just wanted

an answer at that point. ⁓

Sue Anderson (41:25)

Is there a place for

me here? Because I need to get rid of all of this extraneous stuff so

that I can focus on making good ideas. for all of the other mails that

I had sent them and all of the other conversations I had with they’d

skirted around, John actually replied going, this is the most

hilarious mail that I’ve received. Like, you should definitely stay.

And I think the moral of that for me was I trusted my creative

instinct. Like, this is a dumb mail.

Orlando Wood (41:44)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (41:52)

and a song that I love that best expresses what I’m saying and get rid

of it’s going to help me get rid of the noise show up the way that I

want to and then show up with the ideas that I want to.

Orlando Wood (42:03)

How do you find it again? know, if you’ve been kind of lost, because

it always amazes me, I think to myself, well, how do I know what’s my

instinct and what’s my lack of experience that’s leading to fear?

know, like those feelings can feel quite similar a lot of the time.

How do you do you have a reorienting strategy that that you can kind

of go like, how do I get back to my creative instinct or you?

Sue Anderson (42:16)

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think I put myself in a creative time out sometimes.

like go, like step away from like, it’s so easy to want to carry on

going to the meetings and showing up with all of the work. And

sometimes the biggest thing you need to do is actually just like some

time away. And it’s, know, you can block an hour, you can block a day,

just like walk away and like not hear.Yeah, I mean, I think I put myself in a creative time out sometimes.

like go, like step away from like, it’s so easy to want to carry on

going to the meetings and showing up with all of the work. And

sometimes the biggest thing you need to do is actually just like some

time away. And it’s, know, you can block an hour, you can block a day,

just like walk away and like not hear.

all of the noise and look at all of the calendars and think about all

of the things that you’re supposed to be doing and find and just take

that moment to go, is this the right thing for the work or is this

the, am I doing this thing because I think I’m supposed to be doing

it? And it, for me, it’s actually, separate those two things out

pretty when you cancel out all of the other noise. So that’s

Orlando Wood (43:15)

Mm.

Yeah.

Sue Anderson (43:24)

For me, it’s always been that, just like step away, make it quiet for

a minute and give yourself the opportunity to listen to your own

voice.

Orlando Wood (43:34)

Yeah, I guess you can’t work harder at inspiration. You can work

harder at craft and you can work harder once the idea is there, but

you you can’t work your way to inspiration, I guess.

Sue Anderson (43:41)

Yeah.

Yeah, and asking yourself like, why am I doing this? I think is super

important. And if your answer is because I think that person will like

it or because I think this is what we’re supposed to be doing rather

than this is the problem that I’m actually solving, I think you

separate those things out quickly.

Orlando Wood (44:07)

Yeah. Well, that’s amazing. Sue, thank you so much for chatting with

us. I so appreciate it. And you’re charming as ever. It’s just so nice

to see you and you are incredibly charming.

Sue Anderson (44:13)

Of course.

I am very charming, right? think I find my hair incredibly

still. Yeah, okay, good. It’s been many years. I just wanted to check,

you know, see if I’m both incredibly humble and incredibly charming

all at the same time.

Orlando Wood (44:28)

That is true. Youof those things. So you text me all the time. But I think, you know, I

will just embarrass you for a second. You got maybe the greatest

compliment I ever heard from anyone. it was, I swear I’d never say who

it was, but then, you know, I’ll just tell you, was a lovely guy named

Guy who we both knew. And he said to me one time,

We were chatting at the pub and maybe at the brand and down in

Amsterdam. it was, he was there, you were there, you were just being

incredibly funny. You have a really dark sense of humor sometimes and

you were being very, very funny. And you then left and I was with Guy,

maybe Bob and maybe Rich Walker or somebody like that. And Guy turned

around and he said, Sue Anderson.

She’s the type of woman you meet on your wedding day and go, shit.

Sue Anderson (45:22)

That is. First

of all, somebody told me that story once and I was like no, no one

ever said that but they never told me who it was. It warms my heart so

much to hear that it was Guy. That is the sweetest, sweetest and

loveliest thing and I’m, like, I was so embarrassed to hear it then

because it does make me uncomfortable and I’m equally uncomfortable,

feel myself.

Orlando Wood (45:32)

Right. Yeah.

You

Sue Anderson (45:48)

Thank you, that’s so lovely. More than anything, I love to… Thank

you for doing this. It’s what I needed on a Friday morning.

Orlando Wood (45:49)

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you publicly.

well, good.

Well, it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you so much. I’m fascinated by

what you’re doing and watching very keenly. And I think it’s just very

cool. And I think that, you you’ve you’ve always been somebody I I was

there, I think, during all of that, that creative route maybe that you

experienced. But certainly, I always thought you were hysterical and

doing really.

fun stuff and I always thought you were a great creative. time now.

Sue Anderson (46:23)it’s been great

to see everything that you have done and that you are in the world

that you are in now. It’s been awesome to reconnect and follow the

rise and rise of Orlando Woods.

Orlando Wood (46:36)

thanks, Sue. We really appreciate it.