Q&A with Alice Manners
In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Alice Manners, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, talks about her alternate career as a yoga teacher.
What one medium could you not live without?
You can’t ask me that question without getting the obvious answer. I have a portable wireless hotspot backup to keep me connected wherever I go and I look forward to frictionless commerce becoming a reality.
I like to shop and want a better customer experience so I want to be able to shop through ads and editorial in mobile apps.
Your one guilty media pleasure?
Qantas inflight entertainment is my catch up TV. I finally finished the first series of House of Cards.
The next big industry trend is…
Wearable technology. Wearable tech isn’t new but it hasn’t fully taken off yet. It will open the doors to a much more granular understanding of people’s behaviours for marketers. Health will continue to be a strong niche category for wearable tech but I’m most interested in watches and glasses. The Pebble Watch was a great start and the fact that it was fully crowd funded is very cool. Watch out for the new batch of watches from the big brands as they will have significant functionality improvements. I also want those glasses from Google.
If you weren’t doing this for a living what would you be doing?
Teaching yoga in Ubud. I like my extremes – going from total connectivity to no connectivity.
Your best piece of career advice…
There will always be someone who wants your job. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a reality, so don’t get caught in the politics of it all. Ultimately, competency and capability win.
If you could poach any one person, who would it be?
Megan Brownlow who is the editor of the Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook at PwC. I am fortunate enough to work with Megan and wish there were more people like her in our industry.
Would you recommend working in this industry to your kids?
I would and my kids still think I’m vaguely interesting thanks to working in this industry. It’s enabled me to live in different parts of the world, work with all types, have some fun and most importantly continue to learn. Having two tweens means they are always keeping me up to speed with what’s new online and they are more than happy to share their point of view whether I want it or not.
What is your favourite Aussie ad?
It’s an oldie but still makes me laugh. The lamb ad where a young Naomi Watts says: “I missed out on a dinner with Tom Cruise” to enjoy mum’s lamb roast.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
With the man in lycra now in ‘management’ it would be great to see Julie Bishop become a powerful role model for our daughters, particularly after Julia Gillard’s messy treatment.
This first appeared in the weekly edition of Encore available for iPad and Android tablets. Visit encore.com.au for a preview of the app or click below to download.
