An occasional column. Simon Hadfield In Conversation.
This time it is Russel Howcroft, the Advertising Hall of Fame inductee.
You were recently inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame, that is quite the compliment. How does it feel?
Well, the first thing I want to say is thank you to AdNews for putting me in the Hall of Fame. It was a thrill. And when I read the other names of the people that are in the Hall of Fame that is definitely humbling. Indeed, I received a phone call from Peter Clemenger the other day to congratulate me on joining him.
We had a terrific chat, and went out for lunch with Ted Horton. Pete is 95 and still all over the advertising industry. For example, we started talking about Aldi and how good their advertising was. He says, ‘Oh yes - BMF, they are a very good agency’.
So, you know, hopefully I get to 95, in 40 years’ time, and I get to call a recent inductee and do the same thing and have a great lunch and most importantly, be as lucid as Peter and be as interested in the industry, as he still remains.
You’ve accomplished a lot, is there anything on the bucket list to be ticked off?
Well, again, as Peter said, I feel like I haven't even started, which is true. And maybe I've just got that gene, you know, my 86-year-old mother, she still says that she feels like she's 21. I believe her.
And my 29-year-old daughter, she also talks about the fact that she still feels very young, that she's got a lot to do. So maybe it's just part of the make up in our family and there's always more to do. And it's not so much about achievement. It's about just pursuing things that are interesting, which hopefully can have an impact.
Do you have any observations on the current advertising industry?
I was trained in a very different era; it was simpler and wealthier. We had full-service agencies with media commission and service fee equating to 17.5% on every dollar that a client spent.
I then co-founded an agency in the mid-nineties when all things started to change. I remember my first ever meeting with a procurement manager. I'll never forget that meeting because it shocked me how aggressive he was, and how there was seemingly no desire to attribute value to what advertising agencies did. Just simply to allocate a contract based on the amount of time that you're prepared to give people based on a salary.
And frankly, from that point on, I really found the industry difficult. I always saw the relationships that I had in the advertising business as long term, and mutually beneficial and that, as an agency, we do all we possibly could to help the client succeed.
But then I look at the start-ups - I look at the great things that are occurring today in the independent sector in Australia right now, some very successful independent businesses. Special, Thinkerbell, Howatson+Co are just three that come to mind. I'm involved with a start-up called Good One. They are positioning themselves as a creative studio. Then also on the media side Hatched is a great business, Half Dome another one. And then you think about the tech companies that have been developed like Mutiny.
Any work you’ve seen recently that you admire?
I love the work for Stake who are an app targeting younger people starting off in the Bitcoin space and is now a place that people can go to invest. It's a platform for trading and the TVC they produced was just beautifully done, great writing, brilliant production.
In the end, I'm a sucker, and always have been, for great writing and brilliant production.
And, I saw an idea very recently for Virgin Airlines. A poster idea. It was ‘the oo La La without the la Di Da’. I really liked that as a nice piece of print - quite old fashioned really - based on a very simple positioning.
I liked it so much I sent a text to the CMO of Virgin saying, ‘Why don't you make that the end line?’ None of us, I imagine, can envisage a corporate having a line such as ‘it's full of oo La La without the la Di Da’, but they should because it would show great courage and great personality and I reckon it would work for them as well.
What have you learnt in the last 5 years?
Well, I've learned how relentless being a talk breakfast radio host is. I've learned the discipline needed to be on shift work.
Whether you're driving a forklift truck at 4:00 in the morning or whether you're doing radio at 5:30 in the morning, you must have really significant discipline. I don't think I was accused of being that disciplined when I worked in the ad business.
I also definitely appreciate the power of talk radio.
I've learned a lot more about the Nine Network and the Nine business and that it's a really well run, well-managed company. I enjoy working with them and I've also learned the important role the consultancies can play in the marketing services business.
They can be in a position to really help clients with unbiased growth. It takes me back to when Naked first launched. I also think that they are playing a role, which I'm learning around how technology can play its part in improving marketing.
Obviously, tech is not going to go away, and I feel like I personally need to learn more about how I can advise clients on that front.
I am grateful for my connection to The Sayers Brand Momentum team, it’s my pathway to ensure II don’t fossilize!
What advice would you give your younger self?
The advice I would give my younger self would be to go for it - even more than I did. I most definitely had opportunities to put the foot on the pedal even harder, and I should have.
Outside of business, what keeps you out of trouble?
I don't think I've ever been a troublemaker. I've never really seen business and non-business life like that. That there's a dividing line between the two. I've always seen them as being one and the same thing. Life is business. Business is life. And I think that approach, whilst exhausting, has led to lots of interesting experiences and interesting opportunities.
What are you driving, what are you listening to and what are you watching?
I don't drive anything. I had a beautiful car, but I sold it more than a decade ago and I've actually found not having a car very liberating. I do have an electric scooter, which I use to get around town or to the train station. I get from meeting to meeting via scooter or public transport, and it's way faster than any other method.
There's a number of podcasts I listen to. ‘The Rest is Politics’ which I enjoy very much, with a British slant to it. They do cover the rest of the world as well Australia. It does remind me of how much I loved living in London and the political life of London. And that does lead to a really engaged and interesting life. There's a podcast about the Ukrainian war I listen to every week. I've been listening to the AFR as well, as they have a podcast every week also.
I'm not a great consumer of television. I'll start something like Succession, and I'll never get to the end, not because I don't enjoy it, I'll just move on to something else. I enjoyed watching The Diplomat. On mainstream TV, I watch the news on SBS, Nine and on the ABC every single night.
I've been having a lot of fun in the last 24 hours on Twitch, which is such a brilliant idea where AI has sucked up the entire Bible, and created a Jesus to ask questions of! There are some funny ones, as you would imagine, we recently asked, ‘Jesus, I've got 5000 people coming for dinner tonight, but only five fish and five loaves of bread. What should I do?’ Lots of fun!
Where is your next holiday?
I'm going to miss the first three episodes of Gruen this year, because I'll be in London. I’m doing an outside broadcast for 3AW while there. We're being sponsored by Helloworld to go over and cover the Ashes, Wimbledon, Ascot and all the other great things that occur in the summer. We’ll bring that to the listeners of the station.
Finally, I do miss Cannes. I haven't been to The Festival of Creativity for some time. I’ve been very fortunate over the years, as I’ve been quite often. Mid-June, in Cannes, with like-minded people has been one of the great thrills of my life.
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