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. Last week we spoke to Cornwell design director, Adit Wardhana.
This week we head to Sydney to speak to Adshel marketing executive and Media Thursdays founder Andrew Lowther.
How long have you been in the industry?
Three years.
Duration in current role/time at the company:
Two months.
What were you doing before this job and how did you get this gig?
I was working at ZenithOptimedia as an account executive. In need of a new challenge, I started looking for a role that required more of a marketing focus. A role that complemented my skillset and interests came up at Adshel and I jumped on the opportunity.
Define your job in one word:
Dynamic.
What were your real and cliché expectations of working in the industry?
To be honest I didn’t have too many preconceptions about what the industry was going to be like. I suppose I knew that the advertising world involved a lot of ‘celebrations’.
How does the reality match up?
Work hard, play hard. So many times I’ve been told “we’re not saving lives, we’re selling ads”. I think this comes from the fact that everyone is moving at a million miles an hour. You ride the media lifestyle and work your ass off until beer o’clock, or when the client stops sending emails.
How would you describe what the company does and what does your role involve?
Adshel is an OOH media company which is leading the charge in digitisation at scale and integrating new technologies. My role is within the marketing department, predominately looking after trade communication, events and partnerships whilst using a lot of my agency experiences.
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Best thing about the industry you work in:
The people, from a professional and personal perspective.
Any major hard learnings in the job so far?
There’s nothing more important than being organised. You can be the smartest person alive, but if you’re not organised you’ll drown.
If you had to switch over to another department, which would it be and why?
Innovation – I love to be creative, coming up with solutions to any business opportunity or problem.
What's exciting you about the industry right now?
Growth, digital diversion and the unknown. Every single day we’re presented with new tech, new offerings and new opinions. Media works at light speed and to be relevant, you realistically need a time machine to always be one step ahead of the pack.
What concerns you about the industry and its future?
This relates directly to the previous question. With speed, comes inconsistency and clutter. Amazing new tech and ideas are only impactful and relevant if they work; and by work, I mean impact consumers and their media habits. So often something will come to market with all the promise in the world, however disappear so quickly. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to have these changes in our industry, however it’s important to make sure we have a solid foundation of strong innovative ideas that don’t continually disrupt the market, rather build on the foundations that we have already created.
Who's your right hand person/who guides you day to day?
Roopa Fulivai – we’ve only worked together a short time, however in this time Roopa has already given me so much to think about, specifically in the way of how brands position themselves in market and the way to cut through the clutter. Given I’ve come across from agency land, I’m learning something new every day.
And your almighty mentor that you hope to dethrone?
Still on the lookout for this one.
Career-wise, where do you see yourself in 2020 and how do you plan on getting there?
I hope to be in an innovation role, specifically guiding brands (if my skillset is applicable at that stage). At the end of the day I love to be creative and work with people to come up with crazy ideas that ‘might’ just work.
What is the elephant in the room? The thing that no one is talking about – but they should be.
Synergy, we know that the combination of smart solutions is always going to give us the best outcome, but so often we package one option as the one and only direction, discounting competitor offerings and the value they can add to the bigger picture within media.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Travel.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
Not a lot, I tend to talk too much.
Favourite advert is:
BigPond Telstra Ad – Great Wall of China
What’s your personal motto?
Never take life too seriously.
I got into advertising/ad tech/marketing etc because:
It blends business with creativity.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
Probably a tradie.
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