Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Richard Clarke: Chief Growth and Client Officer at HAVAS.
Time in current role
Three months (at time of writing) in this role. Almost five years with HAVAS.
How would you describe what the company does?
We’re a family-owned company and probably the most entrepreneurial creative network, comprising of a team of 23,000+ people in 74 Villages who go to work every day with a single shared mission: to create meaningful ideas for brands and businesses. Our unique operating system, Converged, means we are built to create a better way to deliver impactful ideas locally and globally. Think of us as a creatively potent, all-in-one product that counters inefficiency, duplicity and conflict.
What do you do day to day?
I’m still relatively new in role and to Australia, having recently relocated from HAVAS in London. Therefore, it feels even more like “every day is a school day” right now. If I’m not thinking about the client experience, then I’m playing pitch doctor, coaching or mentoring, connecting with teams around the world, or just getting inspired by living in a new country. What I especially love about my day to day is how broad it is and how I get the chance to work with practically every single aspect of the business and level to get to the right idea, or right way of working.
Define your job in one word:
Misunderstood! (often, not always in a bad way).
I got into the industry because:
I sort of fell into PR originally about 20 years ago. I was attracted to being able to flex my creative muscle and how every day was going to be different. That certainly rings true, and I’ve also been lucky enough to have roles that have stretched the marketing funnel.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Instilling a growth mindset in every single team member at every single level. That’s a fabulous, exciting opportunity too!
What’s the biggest industry wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
The obvious thing to say here, in addition to a plethora of ethical issues and responsibilities, is the challenge every agency faces with the pitch process and pitch etiquette. There are still too many instances of bad practice, and I think agencies - Holdco’s and Indies – should hold the tension. However, there’s also a job to be done with proving ROI, getting boards to stop perceiving marketing as a cost and instead seeing it as an essential investment in brand building that will deliver long-term returns.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
Too many amazing women both personally and professionally to name. If only women ruled the world.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Find your people and surround yourself with them. Also, make sure you treat every call, meeting or interaction with clients, agency partners, colleagues, etc. like you are going to be the best part of their day – be the best part!
If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I'd be:
A dermatologist. I’m a frustrated derm at heart.
My philosophy is:
Philosophy or not I live by a lead with empathy mindset. Your EQ is your superpower.
My favourite advert is:
A relative oldie but a goodie. When KFC’s "#ChickenCrisis" became international news in 2018, after the almost total collapse of its UK operations, customers were less than impressed. Yet its response, in the form of an apology ad rearranging the letters of its name to spell out "FCK" on a chicken bucket, was a stroke of genius. It transformed mayhem into a brand breakthrough and - with my PR hat on - reimagined the manual for corporate crisis management.
Music and TV streaming habits: what do you subscribe to?
Having been a loyal Tidal subscriber since it launched, I’ve transitioned to Spotify to satiate my music needs here in Australia. I like my playlists to be arranged by the decades as it feels like you get the ultimate breadth and depth of choice. The 90s has become a recent obsession following the news of the Oasis reunion. TV streaming wise I oscillate between Apple TV, Paramount and Prime.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I may or may not have qualified for the Commonwealth Games in 1998.
In five years time I'll be...
This is the hardest question to answer. In five years time I’ll be...well read and well versed in Aussie culture…and I’ll hopefully have acclimatised to the heat of the Aussie summer!
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