An occasional column with Simon Hadfield, Executive Partner at DMCG Global, an executive search and recruitment business.
This time it is Brent Smart – CMO @ Telstra, ex CMO @ IAG and ex CEO @ Saatchi & Saatchi NYC.
You’ve got arguably the largest profile CMO gig in the country at Telstra now and you’ve had an agency line-up change also. Any observations, learnings or surprises after 18 months?
I’ve had to learn two new languages. First telco. Then agile.
I’ve had to work at a different scale. With 300 marketers and 500 briefs a year, I realised that you have to systematise creativity, without strangling it. To do that, we’ve built a Creative Excellence capability and program that is, well, excellent.
I’ve found myself in the trenches of a hyper competitive retail battle that needs results today. Whilst trying to find the space to develop a brand strategy and core creative idea that will build the brand over the next five years.
And as the major NRL sponsor I’ve had to pretend to like rugby league.
It’s been a lot.
In some ways you’re not a traditional CMO having come from senior agency positions. Personally, I think that helps with the creative product, do you agree and what areas have you struggled with or had to ‘upskill’ in the last 7 years?
Getting creative is one thing. Getting creative through an organisation is what really counts. To do that, you need to be great at influencing. That’s the secret power that you learn in agencies, especially if you’re any good at account handling.
The biggest thing I’ve had to learn is patience. Things take longer. Things are more complicated. More meetings. More coaching. But most of all, brand-building requires patience; you can’t be seduced by performance tactics this quarter, you need to build things today knowing you won’t see their true value to the business until next year.
Do you miss agency life at all?
Every single day.
I miss the creative culture. The energy, the pace. I miss the variety of different brands and different categories, all in the same day. I miss the characters (I think these days the industry misses them too).
Having said that, I don’t miss handing an idea over to a client and hoping they buy it and protect it.
Do you have any observations on the current advertising industry?
It seems to me that the most original and interesting work is coming from independent agencies that were started by great creatives who wanted to do things their way with less bullshit getting in the way of the work.
That’s why we’ve got an independent agency, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, at the heart of our new +61 agency model, setting the creative vision and craft standards. And to ensure that they don’t get crushed by our scale and complexity, we’ve supported them with the strategic capabilities and resources of TBWA and the integrated media smarts of OMD. It’s an equal partnership and a shared culture. And it feels like nothing else in the advertising industry here in Australia.
Any work you’ve seen recently that you admire?
Apple “The Lost Voice” directed by Taika Waititi. Magical storytelling, beautiful craft and the ending really punches you in the gut. I wish I made it.
If you hadn’t ended up in creative/marketing, what alternative career route may you have fancied?
In my university graduation year book, I said my career ambition was to be a late-night television host.
Anyone who has been to one of my team meetings will understand.
What advice would you give your younger self?
“Follow the work”
Work for the people, agencies and companies that have made things you love and admire.
Lots of people talk about doing great work, but very few actually do it. They’re the ones that mean what they say, you need to seek them out and learn first-hand how to create the conditions for great work to happen.
Outside of business, what keeps you out of trouble?
I used to have interests. Then I had three kids.
What are you driving, what are you listening to and what are you watching?
Driving: Nothing. We are a one car family and I take the train.
Listening: The podcast “60 Songs That Explain the 90s”. Hosted by Rob Harvilla, a highly intellectual music critic who has the uncanny ability to tap into all the awkward teenage feelings that are caught up with 90s music for him. And for me.
Watching: Liverpool chase glory in the final season under the great man Jurgen Klopp.
Favourite band?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The older I get and the older Nick Cave gets, the more his music speaks to me. He is the greatest living Australian storyteller and the only email that I’m ever excited to see in my inbox is one of his Red Hand Files.
Where is your next holiday?
It’s not really a holiday, but my next trip is to Tokyo for the third and final residential in The Marketing Academy Fellowship. I’m privileged to be one of 20 CMOs from the region chosen for the inaugural APAC Fellowship program, it’s been a rare learning experience. The Marketing Academy deserves much more recognition and gratitude for the brilliant work they do to make us better marketers. But most of all, I’ve made 19 great new mates. And the sushi.
Simon Hadfield is Executive Partner at DMCG Global, an Executive Search & Recruitment business for the Creative, Media, Marketing and Tech industry.
0414 45 20 30
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