Mumbrella hangout with Yahoo!7 Digital Stars
Mumbrella held a video hangout with the winners of the Yahoo!7 Digital Stars program, where they talked about their experiences at Mumbrella360, where they got VIP access to speakers and events.
The six Stars who joined us talked about their experiences, tghe important of creating content, collaboration and the struggle with the media and creative agency divide, and their views on agency churn and work life balance.
This year the winners got VIP access to the whole of the Mumbrella360 conference in Sydney last week, as well as special sessions with keynote speakers Keith Hernandez from Buzzfeed and DDB’s Amir Kassaei.
- Isaac O’Leary from NSW at PHD
- Mark Ryan from NSW at Maxus
- Courtney Grant from NSW at MediaCom
- Cameron Law from QLD at Ikon Communications
- Sarah Forte from VIC at Mindshare
- Rory Simmance from VIC at Mitchells
- Paula Greten from WA at Carat
- Meei Chai from New Zealand at Ikon
- Will Innes from New Zealand at OMD Wellington
This afternoon from 2.30pm AEST they will be talking to Mumbrella editor Alex Hayes about their experiences at the event, what they learned, and what participating in the competition has meant to them.
The hangout will be hosted live on this page, and you can put any questions to them here, or using the hashtag #askdigitalstars on Twitter.
Question…
……given that the industry is dominated by those under 35, do you see yourselves as having the opportunity of still being in the industry in your 30’s and beyond?
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I watched the whole 28mins. You guys are going to hate this, but the bunch of y’all illustrate very well why clients don’t want people with so little experience on their accounts. I know this was “digital stars” but my advice to you is learn about advertising and marketing. See digital, or any medium in context and with balance.
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Agree with ‘Another Agency’. I just hope these guys think best marketing practices for their clients……… and don’t get caught up with agency ways that might not be best solution first. On a positive not it’s good to see representation from the WA and NZ.
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I also watched all 28 minutes and must admit there were times when I did cringe. Then I reminded myself of the views I held at the same age. Call it a mix of bravado, determination and naivety but we were all there at some stage. In many ways I think we should cut them a bit of slack and be gracious as the reality is that they are all just searching for a direction in a rapidly changing industry that unfortunately will offer them an all too short career path. For all of them, it will be tougher than ever before.
They have all already encountered the disappearing concept of work/life balance. They will find themselves working exceedingly long hours and sacrificing time with family and friends in the hope that their efforts will be worthwhile. Nigel Marsh, as an agency CEO, had some constructive advice on the issue: http://youtu.be/jdpIKXLLYYM
I thought Isaac hit the nail on the head with his statement about the change he found on moving client side: “It’s refreshing to have a bit more maturity working with an older bunch of people”. Our industry has a tendency to place a use-by date on experience and as a result removes the go-to people with a depth of current skills and valuable experience. We celebrate the youthful nature of our industry whilst failing to recognise there is true value in experience. As a result we remove the future of those we laud and applaud so early.
Paula on the other hand is already looking at the dilemma of choosing between a career and having a family as there is a choice to be made. Is it any wonder there are so few women in senior positions in agencies? Her comment that “it is easier for guys” certainly isn’t reflected in the staff photos of agencies…particularly media agencies. There is a high proportion of women of a certain age who eventually hit the cross-roads decision and leave then the cycle then starts again. There are rare exceptions to the rule but it also does make it doubly tough for men to enter agencies and sustain a career due to their complete inability to have the built-in redundancy to keep costs down.
Having seen the full service agency model dismantled with painful unbundling, silo creation and ever present revenue turf wars, I can’t help but have a silent chuckle at the notion that putting Humpty Dumpty back together again will miraculously fix it all.
I wish them all the very best in their career journeys. I hope they have an opportunity to address the issues that the industry is all too eager to discuss at length but seemingly unwilling to change.
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good on them – they are ambitious and looking to further their experience and knowledge. unfortunate we are finding points to critique here … imagine you were 25 and reading these sorts of things about you?
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“Another Agency” would love to see how you got that impression and came to your conclusion. I don’t think your points have any merit. Digital specialists in agencies work within a team and together, collabratively, service their clients with a wholistic view on marketing. And learning? Of course these guys need to continue learning about advertising and marketing – like everyone working in this ever changing and evolving industry.
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