“Are you enjoying what you’re doing? If not, life is too short.” How true that is. Syl Saller, global CMO of Diageo said this at the AANA Reset conference in Sydney this week and it was a common theme. Bruce McColl, global Mars CMO, also touched on it and it’s something that comes up in The Marketer profile on page 12 in this issue with Andrew Howie from Meat & Livestock Australia.
I’ve had one of those weeks when I remember all the many reasons I love what I do. And I feel re-energised and inspired because of that. It’s easy to forget. To get so wrapped up in the day to day, the deadlines, the difficulties and the opportunities that slip by because there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
At The Marketing Academy Showcase a week ago, I joined 800 others to watch 30 marketing leaders who graduated from a nine-month long mentoring program present some of the lessons they learned and demonstrate how they have improved themselves, the work they do and the way they lead their teams. The scheme’s CEO Sherilyn Shackell is a zealot for the power that great marketing and great leadership have to instil change and empower marketers. She, and the program, never fail to leave me wanting to push harder and higher.
Then there was the AANA Reset conference which saw seven phenomenal global marketers take to the stage, each with a powerful message on improving the industry, being better leaders and making marketing mean something beyond a 30-second TV spot with a formulaic pack shot.
One speaker gave one of the most powerful and bizarre presentations I’ve ever seen. James Brett, the founder of Plant for Peace, an organisation that pledges to plant one tree in Afghanistan for every one of its fruit bars sold, told the story of how his brand came to be.
It’s a story like no other I’ve heard. With a mission to replace the farming of poppies in Afghanistan that fuels the heroin trade with pomegranate farming, Brett came to Sydney via a British prison, a psychiatric unit, childhood sexual abuse, the tragic suicide of his mother, meetings wtih 14,000 tribal Taliban-led farmers in Afghanistan, with Princes Charles at Kensington Palace, and at The Pentagon.
It’s a story I haven’t done justice to here, but one that had the room of 500 top brass agency and marketing leaders in mute silence and tears as it unfolded. A visibly moved David Scribner, CEO of Virgin Mobile, pledged in the room to stock the Plant for Peace products in his stores by the end of the month to support the cause.
A story can empower a business leader to make a decision on the spot because they believe in it. A brand can change culture, impact society and improve lives. That’s the power of a brand, a message, and the impact that this industry can have. And I love being a part of it. You should too. If you don’t, maybe you’re in the wrong gig.
This article first appeared in AdNews in-print (30 October issue). Click here to subscribe to the AdNews magazine or read the iPad edition here.
Rosie Baker is editor of AdNews