Q&A – Nick Baker
In a Q&A that first appeared in Encore, Nick Baker, executive general manager of consumer marketing for Tourism Australia reveals his media habits.
Who is the most powerful person in Australian media and why?
David Gyngell; his power to redesign things, lead change and speak out ensures everybody listens.
What one medium could you not live without?
Depends how you use the word medium. In a channel sense it’s now clearly online. In the broader sense it is, and hopefully will always be, face to face.
Your one guilty media pleasure?
Television – at the end of the day an hour to just be entertained and not have to think is great for driving away the nagging feeling that there is a lot more useful things I could be doing.
The next big industry trend is…
For the tourism industry as a whole it’s a toss-up between the power of big data to use the immense amount of information held by this industry and revolutionize customer segmentation and targeting. Or it’s the notion of trip echo and companies large and small finally understanding and using the power of word of mouth to influence next-time travellers.
If you weren’t doing this for a living what would you be doing?
Holidays and Australia have the power to transform lives, they are some of ourmost cherished memories, so I would need to be doing something else that I could also believe in and be part of. As to what, not sure, but I think marketing would still be at its core.
Your best piece of career advice…
Choose your boss, don’t accept a job because it looks good if you are not getting the kind of boss that’s going to create the right environment to succeed. Don’t go however good the job looks.
If you could poach any one person, who would it be?
Some actuary out there, fiercely bright, with matching curiosity and an innate ability to find trends in data.
Would you recommend working in this industry to your (hypothetical or otherwise) kids?
Yes; the ability to travel – the fact that we are living through some of the most significant changes to our industry ever brought about by technology means that marketing and travel will be redefined in the next 10 years. As has been said, ‘never again will see the pace of change happen as slowly as we have in the last decade’. How exciting is that to be part of?
What is your favourite TV program at the moment?
Yikes. It would have to be Modern Family, the writing and the production is just so spot on and intimate, never fails to make me laugh.
What is your favourite Aussie ad?
In first place would shamelessly have to be our ‘It’s like love’ version of ‘There’s nothing like Australia’, followed closely by Carlton Draught, Beer Chase.
Nick baker is the executive general manager of consumer marketing for Tourism Australia.
This feature first appeared in the tablet edition of Encore. To download click on the links below.
