Our Young Guns profile takes a weekly look at some of the buzzing young talent across the advertising, ad tech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
For our last Young Gun, we spoke to Carat Sydney strategy director Danni Wright.
This time we chat to AdRoll head of account management Josh Hall.
How long have you been in the industry?
Coming up to five years.
Duration in current role/time at the company:
Two years.
What were you doing before this job and how did you get this gig?
Pre AdRoll I was working for a small SEO startup and I’d completed a General Assembly full stack digital marketing course. I heard that AdRoll had recently opened its APAC HQ in Sydney. I applied for an account strategist role and since then I’ve advanced internally a few times to end up as head of the account management team.
Define your job in one word:
Collaborative
What were your real and cliché expectations of working in the industry?
Real - to be continually challenged.
Cliche - four-hour breakfast strategy meetings and copious amounts of ping-pong.
How does the reality match up?
Certainly more challenged than I ever could have imagined. I now manage a team of nine people all with different personalities and needs. Our product evolves at a rapid rate so I’m learning everyday about the behind the scenes advances and I’m spending more time with marketers understanding their problems and how to fix them.
I’ve also had nowhere near enough time to hone my ping-pong skills and regularly have my butt kicked by other Rollers after a couple of drinks on a friday night.
How would you describe what the company does and what does your role involve?
AdRoll is a suite of high performance marketing tools that push boundaries in technology helping marketers achieve their goals. My role is to understand the wants and needs of marketers, have a deep understanding of AdRoll’s technology and guide and coach my team to ensure they are the best they can be.
Best thing about the industry you work in:
It’s continually evolving.
Any major hard learnings in the job so far?
Listen more, talk less.
If you had to switch over to another department, which would it be and why?
Business operations – I’d love to further enhance my project management skills.
What's exciting you about the industry right now?
Algorithmic attribution modelling. Anything that helps marketers measure success in a more simple way is top of my list.
What concerns you about the industry and its future?
Marketers not seeing the real value of digital marketing through a lack of quality and simplistic attribution.
Who's your right hand person/who guides you day to day?
My other-half Denise.
And your almighty mentor that you hope to dethrone?
Darragh Fitzpatrick (AdRoll head of account management North America).
Career-wise, where do you see yourself in 2020 and how do you plan on getting there?
Head of a global account management org at a pre-IPO startup.
What is the elephant in the room? The thing that no one is talking about – but they should be.
How to get the best out of the next generation of digital marketers and how to retain them in a team for longer than two years.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
I’m lucky enough to work with a team of pretty inspirational people both locally and globally. AdRoll has constantly got new and exciting projects going on across one or more of our six offices.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
At university myself and a friend hitchhiked nearly 2,500km from Sheffield to Budapest to raise money for local charities.
Favourite advert is:
Guinness – Surfers (old but gold).
What’s your personal motto?
Listen to everyone, follow no-one.
I got into the industry because:
I always had aspirations to work in marketing but creativity wasn’t my strength. Ad/mar-tech gives me the opportunity to be somewhat creative but also play to my strengths of communication, sales and teamwork.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
A football journalist.
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
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