The MFA’s NGEN Award gives media agency executives with less than five years’ experience the opportunity to create positive impact by using their core skills: strategic thinking, creativity, storytelling and media execution expertise. NGENers were this year invited to respond to a brief for youth charity Musicians Making a Difference (MMAD).
AdNews presents Meet the NGEN Award Finalists: Summer Treseder, Strategy Manager at Rufus by Initiative, and Kate O’Loughlin, Associate Strategy Director at Rufus by Initiative. Kate is a finalist for the third year running, and Summer for the second.
How long have you been in the industry?
Summer: Three and a half years.
Kate: Five years (I’ve sadly just aged out of NGEN).
What attracted you to working in a media agency? Was this always the plan?
Summer: Originally, I had no intention to work in media. I studied PR and Business until the head of Advertising at CSU persuaded me into what she described as the much better option: Advertising.
Kate: Like Sum, media wasn’t my end game. Originally, I wanted to work in creative, but landed an internship at a media agency and never left. Wouldn’t have it any other way!
What were your greatest lessons from the experience of entering the NGEN Award?
Summer: The importance of mastering storytelling, to refine, question and simplify over and over again until you are left with an entry that anyone could understand… even your parents.
Kate: If you think you could push your idea more, you definitely can. We redid our whole concept a few days before the due date after getting feedback it was missing the mark, which in our heart of hearts we knew… we just didn’t want to admit it. Just kill the concept if it doesn’t slap hard.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
Summer: The unpredictability and the pace. No day is ever the same, or dull, and it’s this organised chaos paired with diversification of thought which is what the makes the industry so interesting and what I love about it. One minute I could be deep diving into Barbiecore, the next Googling how much it costs to wrap a plane (still on the bucket list).
Kate: I love working in an industry where I be someone totally different on any given day. Taylor Swift fan? Sure. Improviser? Why not! Budget tracker and optimiser? Go for it!
What does the MFA industry purpose of ‘We Are The Changers’ mean to you?
Summer: It means to be continuously evolving and improving, to not become complacent in conformity, where the way things have been done dictates how things will be done next.
Kate: In what other industry do you have influence over hundreds of millions of dollars annually? Within media we have the power to chance culture and society by being considered in investing our client dollars, so that we can genuinely better the world.
Where do you plan to be in five years’ time?
Kate: Happy, and doing cool sh*t.
Summer: Sitting on a beach in Cannes, rosé in one hand and a Gold Lion in the other.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.