Our Young Guns profile takes a weekly look at some of the 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 SoundCloud senior account manager for brand partnerships Marta Bonzanini.
This time we chat to Pacific Magazines head of network innovation and social Joanne Jenkinson.
How long have you been in the industry?
Five years in Australia and a couple of years in Ireland before that.
Duration in current role/time at the company:
I’ve been at Pacific for four and a half years and started my current role in December.
What were you doing before this job and how did you get this gig?
I was working as Pacific’s Social Media Director prior to my current role for about a year and a half. Then as part of our commercial restructure in November, I was given the opportunity to expand my remit to new digital products as well as social.
Define your job in one word:
Caffeinated
What were your real and cliché expectations of working in the industry?
I didn’t know much about the magazine industry at all to be honest. The only thing I had to go off was The Devil Wears Prada.
How does the reality match up?
Well nobody has given me a fabulous makeover yet and the editors are way less scary than Miranda Priestly.
How would you describe what the company does and what does your role involve?
Pacific Magazines’ core business has focused on magazines but we’re now in a time of transformation, which is really exciting. The whole business is evolving from a traditional print model to an audience-focused approach. We create content to engage with our consumers via print, digital, social and video.
My role is two-fold. I look after commercial social media which we’ve been doing for about 3 years now and I also look after network innovation which is essentially the roll out of new products across the Pacific network – this could include anything from content, ad tech, video, data or mobile.
Best thing about the industry you work in:
It sounds cliché but the people. There are so many talented, hard-working and fun people in this industry.
Any major hard learnings in the job so far?
You can’t please everyone.
If you had to switch over to another department, which would it be and why?
Probably Beauty Crew editorial – I have a new appreciation of beauty products since working with them.
What's exciting you about the industry right now?
The pace of change.
What concerns you about the industry and its future?
Seeing first-hand how crazy-engaged our online and social audiences are, it concerns me that clients and media agencies still think of magazine brands as just ink on paper instead of the wide-reaching ecosystems they actually are.
Who's your almighty mentor that you hope to dethrone?
Our now-CEO Gereurd Roberts has been a great mentor to me. He was my manager when I started on my social media journey at Pacific. At that time, the social team was one person – me! And without his initial guidance and support (and fighting a few battles for me), it would probably still be a team of one. Although I definitely wouldn’t want to dethrone him – he works about 17 hours a day.
Career-wise, where do you see yourself in 2020 and how do you plan on getting there?
Hopefully by 2020, I’ll finally come up with my big idea and be a billionaire entrepreneur.
What is the elephant in the room? The thing that no one is talking about – but they should be.
Not so much the elephant in the room but certainly something I want to focus on more is innovative ways to integrate frictionless ecommerce into content.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
My colleagues mostly – we have a pretty inspiring leadership team full of strong, smart and progressive women. I also love hearing about innovators and thought leaders – Harvard Business Review’s podcast is awesome for this. I listen to it on the way to work and try to start the day off inspired and motivated.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I represented my state in competitive golf when I was a teenager.
Favourite advert is:
I love ads that are more about telling a story and less about selling product. Burberry’s recent ad was amazing and really portrayed the heritage and history of the brand in an engaging way:
What’s your personal motto?
Less stress, more success (admittedly, I don’t always stick to it)
I got into advertising because:
…of a graduate placement. I hadn’t considered it until I landed a six month placement at Vodafone Ireland in their social media department.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
I was actually supposed to be an accountant…so probably that. I studied finance at uni and accepted a job at EY. Thankfully I had a change of heart.
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