Our Young Gun profile takes a look at some of the young talent across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
Today we speak to iProspect programmatic associate Dan Moran.
Time in current role/time at the company:
One year, three months.
How long have you been in the industry?
One year, three months. I’m super fresh.
How did you get here? Was this always the plan?
I wanted to jump into an industry I knew very little about. I graduated uni with a Bachelor of Mathematics (double major Mathematics and Computer Science) so I was built to problem solve but I wasn’t your typical media/marketing hire. I was excited to come at new challenges with my different way of thinking.
Who is your right hand person?
Sorcha Doran, my manager, is an absolute champion. I will constantly take a product or tool and try to find its strengths, its limits and its weaknesses so I can know how to get the most out of it for the client. Sorcha will patiently take a barrage of questions all day to help me get there.
Honestly, I’ve been spoiled at Dentsu. Kevin Quach, Bob Chan, James Gernon, Zac Selby and Sorcha Doran. All people who always give me the time of day if I need it, have pushed me, have encouraged and supported me when I dream big and had/have my back when I come up against big challenges.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
Everyone cares. No one is settling for good enough. Everyone is pushing to improve their campaigns, their strategies or their products so we can get the right messages in front of the right people as effectively as possible. I always want to give my best and strive to improve so its really refreshing to have an entire industry that is constantly pushing to be better and better at what we do. That and, oh boy, do we love going out for lunch in this industry. I’ve had some great lunches since working here.
And the biggest challenge?
Bringing innovation from outside the industry into the industry. There are so many intelligent people doing amazing things in the world. We just need to see it, understand where we can apply it and package it up ready to go. There’s so much more on offer if we can think outside our bubble. Rather than just looking at industry issues and figuring out how we fix them we also need to look beyond that and find things that makes us go “hey that’s actually cool, we could use that.”
Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?
My own but different, bigger, better. I’m not sure there’s a job title that easily captures where I want to be.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Sara, my partner. She always grounds me. She helps me take a step back to look at the bigger picture and figure out what is really important. Her achievements are inspiring by themselves but the way she encourages and energises me when I’m beat just reinforces to me how lucky I am to partner with her in life.
When I need more work specific inspiration that is outside of her wheelhouse I can go to literally anyone at dentsu and just ask them what they’re working on and what they care about. Its just smart people who care about what they’re trying to do.
My favourite advert is:
It's a big ad for Carlton Draught. If anyone ever answers differently its only because they didn’t want to say the same as everyone else.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I think they know I have a banjo, but I don’t think they know I also have around 12 guitars floating about my house.
In five years' time I'll be:
Solving problems, challenging old ways, packaging up change and selling it as “innovation” as to not scare people off. Also I’ll need a big dog. Preferably an Irish Wolfhound.
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