Australia’s most successful female creative moved to US because nobody would promote her locally
One of Australia’s most senior female creative directors has revealed she felt obliged to leave the country in order to progress her career.
Sarah Barclay, now executive creative director at JWT in the US, made the comments at an Advertising Week New York panel curated by Mumbrella.
Barclay’s Australian career included nearly five years as an art director at now defunct Australian agency The Campaign Palace and more than eight years at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne.
But although Barclay made it to group creative director at Clems, she said that in 2000 she felt she had to go overseas. She moved to the US within the BBDO group as group creative director before going on to become global creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi. She moved to JWT in 2008, where her role places her as one of the most senior female Australian creatives in the world.
She told the Advertising Week audience: “For me I’d reached a level in Australia where they weren’t actually recognising women. I had to move somewhere else to get that next level up, which pissed me off back then.
“It was weird. My partner and I had been listed number 10 creative team in the world at that time and still I couldn’t get that CCO – we call it ECD back in Australia – that top job. I thought ‘bugger you – I’m off’.”
Barclay said that she was now in the US by choice. She said: “I love working in a country with 320 million people, not 23 million. I like the size of the budgets. I like being part of the international world.
“Now I get offers all the time, but I don’t want to go back yet. And I had to leave to get offered that.”
She added: “New York embraces diversity. There’s a welcoming culture.”
Fellow panellists for the panel – featuring Aussies who have made career moves to New York – included R/GA creative boss Nick Law, Mediabrands global CEO Henry Tajer and MailOnline’s Sean Walsh.
Law backed Barclay’s comments about her struggle to get a senior role, saying: “I don’t think it’s changed a great deal.”
Law, who was educated at Randwick in Sydney but has spent most of his career overseas, said of working in the US: “There’s something very open and practical about the spirt of this country. It’s hard not to do well if you come here with talent and a will to succeed.”
And Walsh added: ‘People go out of their way to make you welcome. My wife is from Brisbane. She found it easier to settle in New York than when she moved to Sydney.”
Asked about why so many Australians seem to thrive at a senior level in the US, Tajer suggested that it was partly explained by the smaller Australian operations exposing executives to a wider breadth of the business.
He said: “Most Australian people have a really good all round understanding of most aspects of an agency. In a market the size of US, we’ve had people spent 30 years as the local TV buyer for the Souther Eastern region, and that’s all. That would be equivalent of being southern New South Wales television buyer for all your career.”
Enjoying G’day, NY – How the Aussies have taken Manhattan #adweek2016 panel hosted by @mumbrella pic.twitter.com/cKDcaIgoS6
— Nicole Sheffield (@NicoleSheffiel6) September 26, 2016
Tajer, who took the global role after leading Mediabrands in Australia, said his Australian directness had initially caused ripples. He said: “Blunt is sharp here. In my first couple of months, people were shocked about how open and direct I was about what we should and shouldn’t do, and for some people that was really confronting.”
The panel was also asked a question about innovation from News Corp’s Nicole Sheffield, who was in the audience.
Tajer admitted: “The US feels a lot more innovative to be honest. There’s an openness and what I’ve found is that people lean in to innovation, and it’s on the agenda. It’s a lot harder in a market like Australia. Australians are more risk averse. We’re seeing a lot of risk being taken around innovation and that’s celebrated a lot more loudly here than at home.”
Law agreed with Tajer, saying: “A lot of clients in Australia belong to a duopoly. You don’t get that big influx of challengers from below. In Australia, friendly competition between big entities has stalled some innovation. Structurally there’s something about business culture that is just not as excited about innovation.”
The video of the session can be viewed on the Advertising Week website.
With all that diversity and innovation I still see only 1 woman among 4 men.
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Dear Tim et al.
I come to Mumbrella for the critical and balanced journalism you have been so capable of in the past. However, I’m sad to see you’ve disconnected your critical faculties when jumping on the feminist bandwagon.
I’ve tried to argue against this ideology in the comments field, but suffice it to say it is hopeless. However, if your publication would give the opposing view a fair go, I think it would have a great positive effect on the debate.
So here’s a request:
Take a day off, spend it looking at YouTube for the what the following people are saying about feminism:
Janice Fiamengo (Fiamengo Files)
Karen Straughan
Christina Hoff Sommers
Paul Elam
Janet Bloomfield
Camille Paglia
Gad Saad (The Saad Truth)
Dave Rubin (The Rubin Report)
Sargon of Akkad
These are (mostly) academics from a range of fields (many of whom are former feminists) with different approaches to the topic, but who are all highly critical of the current instalment of feminism.
Do the foundations of feminism (the things we currently take for granted, e.g. oppression, patriarchy, privilege, glass ceiling, pay gap, harassment etc) hold up to scrutiny? And if not, would you please consider writing a piece that provides some balance to what I respectfully believe to have been an extremely one-sided coverage from Mumbrella.
Sincerely,
TDA
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To be honest you need to leave Australia to further your career in advertising. period.
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There is a difference to be expected when a fisher applies the same techniques in a larger, richer and more populated pond.
Many doctors leave these shores annually, in pursuit of higher positions and greater wealth in the UK and USA, while many leave other countries to travel here for the same reasons.
Success stories always involve a journey, often literally.
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Seriously? Extremely successful creative director complains about not being more successful. Statistical representation vs equal opportunity, they’re not the same thing!
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Dear TDA,
F*ck off.
Yours sincerely,
TRW
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