CB Hot Suit Takes: Vanessa West, Client Service Director, Khemistry
CB Hot Suit Takes is our new Q&A series for extremely busy CEOs and senior leaders across the industry ~ covering careers, creativity, challenges and the song that sums it all up. Next in the hot seat is Vanessa West, Client Service Director, Khemistry.
1. What made you get into advertising?
I’ll be honest – it was completely by chance, and for fairly superficial reasons.
As a uni marketing intern at Cadbury Schweppes, I got sent over to their agency at the time, DDB Melbourne, for a couple of days. I remember seeing all these impossibly cool, glamorous people (I’m fairly sure I even spotted Queen Mary of Denmark in the hallway), and just feeling the buzz of agency life in the late 90s.
That was it. I wanted in.
I went back and reshaped my final year to focus entirely on advertising – and never really looked back.
2. Which piece of work are you most proud of, and why?
It would be “There’s nothing sweet about vapes” – Queensland Health’s youth anti-vaping campaign.
The deeper we got into the category, the more confronting it became. The level of addiction, the deliberate targeting of young people, and how effectively the industry has normalised something genuinely harmful – it’s hard to overstate.
Now that I have tweens, I still find myself quoting the campaign facts at home. That’s probably the test – that it stays with you personally.
3. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role right now?
Developing the next generation of agency talent in the age of AI.
A lot of the foundational work junior talent, especially suits, used to learn on – the repetition, the rigour, the exposure – can now be done in seconds. That’s efficient, but it also removes the apprenticeship layer that built judgement.
At the same time, smaller agencies don’t have the luxury of highly siloed roles anymore. The people who thrive will be those who can flex – a bit of account management, a bit of strategy, a bit of production – and are comfortable operating across the whole system.
4. What’s the most recent thing you’ve learned – professionally or personally?
That honesty is faster.
I’ve always had an instinct to smooth things over – avoid the friction, keep everyone comfortable. But in practice, that just slows everything down.
5. What song best sums up your career so far?
“I’m Still Standing” – which, in this industry, is saying something!
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