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 Knott: GM, ANZ at InfoSum
Time in current role/time at the company:
One year.
How would you describe what the company does?
InfoSum enables the privacy-safe collaboration of multiple datasets, without the collaborating companies having to share or give access to that data.
What do you do day-to-day?
I'm responsible for launching, growing and leading the business in the ANZ region. Which ultimately means I design, build out and execute on our growth plans (lots of whiteboards, prospecting and general spruiking) find new customers (even more PowerPoints and RFPs) and ensure the success of our current ones (many meetings, use case design briefings and so forth).
Define your job in one word:
Collaborative.
I got into advertising/ad tech/marketing etc because:
It was initially a great temp job, that I'm still doing twenty years later.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
The tyranny of time zones between Australia, the US & the UK.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Covid was a real catalyst for unlocking flexible working which in turn provides real opportunity to reduce the inequity in the framing of our working day. However, we're yet to really codify this into anything universally accepted. We all still seem to still be in either a "let's see what happens" phase three years later, or worse, arbitrarily picking three or four days in the office.
This is a problem because without an accepted codification, as soon as there are any tougher times, the natural impetus will be to slowly revert to the old way of working and all the old inequity for working parents (particularly new mums), care-givers and similar, will return.
Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
Quantcast, Celtra, InMobi, Optus and Telstra.
Who is/has been a great mentor to you and why?
I’ve never really had a mentor as such, but I count myself lucky enough to have met an array of great advisors like Venessa Hunt (ARN), Jeremy Pell (Adobe), Kerry Cusack (Alquemie) and Nik Kontoulas (JustEggs), all of whom have helped me along the way. I’ve also tried to learn something from every manager I’ve ever had, even the ones that were more…. challenging!
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
There are no shortcuts that beat hard work. Occasionally people can be exceptionally gifted, or can get an 'inside lane' of some kind or be simply 'lucky' and fall upwards, but assume you are not that person and put the work in.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
A script writer.
My mantra / philosophy is:
Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.
My favourite advert is (and why):
Anything targeted, based upon consent and where my data has been managed with respect by those I gave consent to, and not shared with companies I've never heard of.
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to? (Spotify/Netflix etc)
Spotify because it has reached utility status and will never be cancelled, Disney+ and Netflix because the kids watch them, Prime because of the free delivery, Binge because it has the best shows and Optus Sport because I'm a Spurs supporter and it seems I must be punished for that at least once a week.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I was once told by Prince (now King) Charles to "bugger off" when I (unintentionally) took a photo of him blowing his nose.
In five years’ time I'll be:
Like everyone else when AI eats us, I'll be making paperclips for the paperclip maximiser.
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