What are clients looking for in their advertising and media solutions in 2015?

Ideas that convert into sales and transform how people engage with and choose brands.

Understanding customers better. How to be in the right place, at the right time along the decision journey with a strong integrated brand story that drives conversion and action.

How to future–proof their portfolio within changing regulatory, demographic and economic circumstances. This has been a key driver in the launch of our strategic consultancy across product innovation and NPD, to help our clients sharpen how we look at consumers, their behaviour and how we will best connect with them in the future.

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

Increased regulation – how we live, what we consume, the government’s role in all of this.
It goes without saying – media consumption habits and fragmentation and the growing number of channels available to our audiences.

Test and learn approach from clients – less fear of failure than before.

Recently, a reversal back to agencies working more holistically with clients to help them upstream strategically and give guidance on portfolio, channel and mix strategy, and, link insights and strategy into the creative solution. This is the most powerful way for us to deliver campaigns that have a transformative effect on a client’s business.

Diversity of talent – technologist, psychologists, data analysts, trade experts, retail architects, packaging experts. The talent we have under one roof to create the best solutions is more exciting than ever.

What has been the biggest challenge of your career?

Hiring great people.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Ambitious, energetic, collaborative, hands-on, down to earth, competitive.

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

Trust your instincts. Apply your own standards of excellence.

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

Mobile has come a long way but there’s much more to come in relation to payments, location awareness, tracking and rewards beyond the norm.

If you could pick a single industry buzzword you could ban, what would it be and why?

Omni-channel – it implies uniformity rather than relevancy and completely misses the human element.

What are your passions outside of work?

Sports, tennis, running. Body combat is my un-missable weekly sports fix. Theatre/film. Asian food and white wine.

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

We have to work harder than ever to convert intent into action in today’s market place.