In 2024, John celebrates 10 years of working with Amazon. We asked him to write some words about his Amazon journey. Here you go!
I first worked with Amazon in 2010 when I managed the UK press office at Fever PR in London. I’d worked for many huge brands before that, but nothing I’d done up to that point prepared me for Amazon.
I was instantly hooked. The pace. The excitement. The innovation. The customer obsession. The potential. The possibilities.
What started as a press office job where I’d scan through Excel sheets of bestsellers and pre-orders for stories that I’d turn into national coverage has become my career highlight.
I spent 18 months with Amazon in my first stint working with the company. In that time, I helped launch things like Kindle, created stories about Cliff Richard outselling One Direction and a meerkat outselling Katie Price. I even got the Queen’s speech on Kindle. I left my role in London with Amazon at Fever PR in 2011 to come back to Northern Ireland. A massive regret about leaving London, outside no longer living close to the Emirates, was the feeling that I’d never work for Amazon again.
Thankfully, I was wrong.
Not long after Clearbox started, my original Amazon client, the brilliant Ben Howes, contacted me about a brief he was working on. I couldn’t believe we’d been given the opportunity to pitch for the work, so you can imagine the sheer disbelief when we won it.
That was in 2015, and Clearbox’s work with Amazon has evolved ever since. Today, we support Amazon across a wide range of business lines, including the Communications team, the Community Impact team, the Devices team and more. Our work takes place in the UK, Ireland, Europe and globally.
I still get the same buzz working with Amazon now that I did back in 2010, when I first walked through the doors of head office in Slough. I’ve been luckier than I ever deserved to be to work with the company as it has gone through huge growth and change. When I started working with Amazon, the entire PR team had three people on it. It has a few more today!
Here are some of the things I’ve learned from 10 years of working with Amazon.
Two way doors are the key to success
Amazon has two sets of decisions – a one-way and two-way door. One-way door decisions cannot be easily reversed, but two-way doors can be. Being comfortable with two-way doors is essential to finding success with a company like Amazon. Things change quickly and if you don’t have the courage or flexibility of mind to change a decision on something because your information has changed, then it’s not the place for you. Two-way door thinking has been hugely beneficial for me both in working with Amazon and building Clearbox.
Always be prepared
I’m a detail orientated person and I learned this working with Amazon. As (very probably) earth’s most data-driven business, to succeed in working for Amazon, you need to master the details. Providing accurate, timely information is absolutely essential to success with Amazon. Going to a meeting? Make sure you have all the answers to the questions you might be asked. And, if you don’t know, then say you don’t know and you will quickly find out.
Talking to a journalist? Make sure you’ve read the entire story you’re pitching to them. Trust me on that one.
Planning a campaign? What are the KPIs and what do we need to achieve them? What are the barriers to success? What’s the plan to get around them?
Things at Amazon, and in life in general today, move at such a quick pace that you always need to be on top of your game when it comes to details. He/she who fails to plan, and all that…
“Have a great day.”
You can always judge a business by its people. Amazon has some of the best, nicest people you’ll ever meet. As part of my job on Clearbox’s editorial team, I interview dozens of people who work at Amazon every year to create press and social content about their careers and their jobs.
No matter who you speak to, or how senior they are, everyone always tells you to have a great day. In an age of quick, succinct and often thoughtless communications, the kindness of strangers to wish you well as you go on your way makes my day every single time I hear it.
Cut out the weasel words!
I love how Amazon writes. It’s clear and to the point. There’s little waffle in Amazon’s communications. I’ve copied a lot of that style over the years, to the point where I run an internal training programme for the Clearbox team called how to write like an Amazonian. Here’s a taste:
· Use less than 30 words per sentence.
· Replace adjectives with data.
· If you’re asked a question, start your response with the answer. The answer should be yes/no/I don’t know/I’ll get back to you when I do.
Apply those techniques to your writing and you’ll shave hours off your week. And the weeks of others.
Look after your employees.
Amazon’s employee benefits packages are unique. The flexibility the company offers is incredible, and it runs so many training programmes – like Amazon Career Choice and the Amazon Apprenticeship Programme. These programmes PAY for their employees to upskill, get degrees, retrain and more.
Something Amazon brought in recently is called Term-Time contracts – offering guaranteed time off during school holidays for parents, grandparents, guardians. I think it’s brilliant and so do the people who use it. Something I’d like to copy one day, when the time comes.
I don’t just write about these things – I talk to the people who use these benefits, and they all say they’re life changing. The hugely positive way Amazon treats its employees has had a profound impact on how Clearbox manages its benefits and ways of working and I’ll always follow Amazon’s lead when it comes to forward-thinking staff benefits.
Learn from the best when you get the chance.
On the subject of employees, Amazon is home to some of the best people I’ve ever worked with. PR, marketing, CSR, operations – they’re all brilliant. They’re sharp, smart and always on and I’ve learned so much from just watching how they work. The team at Amazon – regardless of department or team – is helpful, switched on and always searching for a better way to do things. Working with them has improved by own performance far beyond a level I ever thought I’d reach, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.
It really is still day one.
Amazon’s famous mantra – it’s still day one – adorns its buildings around the world. The company constantly innovates, pushing boundaries and trying things that most other brands wouldn’t dream of. If I’ve learned nothing else in the last 10 years, it’s this – Amazon is not the same company from one day to the next, and it’s a better place for it.
When I first started working with Amazon, the Kindle was a new device that had just launched. Prime didn’t exist. Alexa didn’t exist. The company had a small handful of UK fulfilment centres. There were no Amazon vans. Nor a head office in London. The company had operations in three or countries worldwide – that was it. Fast forward during my 10 years, and the innovation and change is off the scale.
The best is yet to come.
I’ve been really lucky to have a ringside seat to watch Amazon’s development over a ten-year period. I know a fair bit about Amazon these days, but one thing I know to be truer than anything else is that ten years from now, the company will have evolved many times for the betterment of its staff and its customers. I’m so excited to see what the next ten years hold for Clearbox’s journey with Amazon and I’m buzzing to continue watching Amazon do its thing.
Thank you to the hundreds of people I’ve worked with at Amazon in those 10 years. Here’s to the next 10!
