James Connelly, chief executive of mobile agency Fetch discusses how he overcame age discrimination to build up one of the most reputable global mobile agencies and how the industry has become more “scientific” and “data-led”. 

What have been the most notable changes in the industry since your career began?

Well, I’ve been in the industry for ten years. From a media perspective we’ve moved significantly away from buying audiences to buying people. Everything has become a lot more data led. Instead of being able to guess which audience is the right one because they read this magazine or visit this website, we are now able to track people through digital, assign them an ID, and say that this individual purchased this product and therefore is likely to purchase yours.

The shift has moved away from typical media planning towards a more scientific data led type of media buying. And with that it means that the people in the industry have also changed. We now need more technology efficient people with a more data and analytical approach.

What has been the biggest challenge of your career?

Well I’m now 28 and when I first started Fetch I was 23 and so I’ve experienced some age discrimination over the past few years. Some people get too hung up on how old you are and in the early days of my career and even when first starting Fetch, this sometimes cropped up. It’s not so much of a challenge these days because I’ve built up a reputable career and agency and I’m a bit older now.

More recently, a challenge for us is moving into new markets. We’re active and buying in 99 countries. We’ve got offices in Hong Kong, Berlin, London, San Francisco and soon we will be launching in New York. That kind of global expansion is definitely a challenge as we’re learning new cultures and new ways of doing business.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Our COO Greg Grimmer bought me ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli. There’s one lesson I’ve taken away from it and that is that there are two styles of leadership – either you’re going to be loved or you’re going to be feared. Ideally, you’re going to be both, but if you’re going to be one of them it should be feared.

I’m not sure which category I fall into but I’ve made a lot of friends at Fetch and I have a very much ‘open door policy’. In fact I have a no door policy, having moved out of my office after 6 months as I felt too disconnected. I would like to say I’m open, friendly and that I take an interest in everybody here but naturally, when I have to be the lion then I think I can.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given in your career?

Once I saw a talk by A. A. Gill on criticism. I think criticism is often handled wrongly by the receiver but there’s a lot of value in criticism, receiving it and acting upon it. The reality is that someone has formed that opinion of you for one reason or another so use it to turn that piece of negative feedback into a positive, regardless of whether you agree with it or not.

What advice would you give to people starting out in the industry?

I see a lot of people who don’t have a plan. Ultimately, your first few years can really shape what you’ll be doing in in the future so make sure you have a plan. I know that I had a very short term plan in my first year or two and looking back, if I had decided at that point that I would want to be running a media company, I might have been more strategic with my first few jobs and picked up some experience in a business or department which would have helped empower me to do what I’m now doing today.

What are the changes nowadays in terms of what clients are looking for in their advertising and media solutions?

There are two different types of clients: The internet savvy vs the not so internet savvy. The change is that there are more businesses coming into that internet savvy domain who are demanding a lot more accountability. The pressure for data and results becomes more granular and more robust day by day.

If you could pick one media platform that currently offers the greatest potential, which would it be and why?

If 2013 was the year everyone was talking about video and 2014 (I will not use the term ‘year of mobile’) is the year in which mobile started gaining a lot of attention than any other platform, I would say that now it’s all about mobile video.

Some people say that the big agencies out there are still lagging when it comes to mobile, is that true?

Yes, I think all big agencies are lagging. The reality is that clients haven’t really been spending much on mobile compared to other channels. This is partly because the agencies haven’t been educating them but also because the clients have been happy sticking it on TV. So the agencies have now gone and hired very smart ‘heads of mobile’.

Now these heads of mobile will be ‘show ponies’ who go around the world and say that they know about mobile and the reality is that they do but not many others in their organisation do, and so they cannot execute. We have a team of 100 mobile experts who are experienced at executing which makes it possible for us to do mobile. The big agencies just don’t have this. People have been asking me if the main agencies will catch us up for the past five years and the reality is, it just can’t be done organically.

Do you think clients fully understand how mobile fits in their marketing strategy yet?

Some do, the leaders, where mobile truly moves the needle in their business, but generally speaking, the fact that it moves so quickly is a problem for most clients. As soon as they’ve worked out what they should be doing on a tablet something new comes out like NFC in the iPhone (Near Field Communication) which is an absolute game changer. It’s really hard for brands to keep up – that’s where we come in.

What technologies do you think will shape the future of mobile marketing?

I think the attribution of advertising across different devices is interesting. What’s happening at the moment is that unless sales are occurring on a mobile device, people aren’t attributing any success back to mobile. You can’t currently track if someone looks at a hotel on a mobile and books the room on their desktop. We’re working on cracking that at the moment. Mobile payments is very exciting with NFC now in the latest apple devices.

What are your passions outside of work?

I love cooking, I play a lot of golf and I cycle. There’s this belief that if you’re in a position like mine where you’re running a company you have to be working 15 hour days, 7 days a week. That’s certainly the case in the early days but the reality is that’s not sustainable and I believe in investing time into yourself and your well-being as much as possible so that you can operate as best as you can.

What’s the most exciting thing about being in the advertising/media industry today?

I am going to be predictable and say mobile because I genuinely feel like I am at the epicenter of everything that’s exciting in business right now. All of the exciting businesses which are launching or scaling relate back to mobile, technology and applications which is the market we sit right in the middle of.