Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Guy Scott-Wilson: Content director at Acast ANZ
Time in current role
Coming up to eight years. I’ve been with Acast pretty much from the start in Australia, and it’s been absolutely incredible watching the podcasting industry emerge, mature and evolve over that period.
How would you describe what the company does?
Acast is a hosting, distribution and monetisation partner for 140,000 podcasts globally of all shapes and sizes. Through the Acast Creator Network, we work closely with our top creators, helping them to achieve success completely on their own terms. They remain independent with full creative and commercial control, and Acast provides strategic support and revenue through our marketplace.
What do you do day to day?
I head up our Creator Network team, meaning I get to work alongside some of the most passionate people in podcasting (shoutout Ryan Lamont, Simon McDermott and Etty Eastwood) and get to work with many of the most creative and forward-thinking creators in the world.
Define your job in one word:
A privilege. It genuinely is, and I’m still as evangelical about the work Acast does today as I was eight years ago.
I got into the industry because:
I fell in love with podcasting long before it became mainstream, and saw the opportunity in evolving the way the commercial model worked for creators and brands. As a Brit I was listening to a lot of UK podcasts back in 2015 (Adam Buxton, Distraction Pieces) who kept mentioning Acast really organically in their content, and I realised that they were the company pioneering a sustainable economy around podcasting. Having the chance to work on the launch of Acast into the Australian market two years later was an absolute dream!
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
The podcasting landscape in Australia is cluttered with traditional media companies trying to compete on a partnership model with creators. Once a creator finds their way to Acast they understand what makes us so unique and stay. But with so many options, it’s easy to make some wrong turns on their way to us.
What’s the biggest industry wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Podcasting is such a rapidly evolving, hyper-growth medium that we are facing new challenges all the time! We have come such a long way in eight years, turning a $5m industry into a $130m industry. The emergence of long form video as an incredibly powerful discovery tool is great for creators but presents challenges for brands. We need to better educate agencies around the expanding definition of a ‘podcast’ – the highly engaged communities they build now live cross-platform.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
I have to give a big shoutout to our MD Henrik Isaksson here. We’ve been working together since the very start, and he has really backed me from day one. To have that level of trust and autonomy can bring pressure in some organisations, but we’ve really built a culture that brings the best out of people.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
If you’re passionate, collaborative and commercially savvy then nothing should hold you back. These sorts of jobs didn’t exist 10 years ago, and in 10 years’ time there will be jobs in podcasting that don’t exist today.
If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I'd be:
Writing. I studied journalism at uni and always wanted to be a music journalist.
My philosophy is:
Empower people to run their work like it was their own business.
My favourite advert is:
I’m not sure how much this will mean to Australians, but British TV ads in the 90s were iconic. Do yourself a favour and search for the Tango adverts on YouTube. The word of mouth marketing they generated in school playgrounds up and down the UK was astonishing.
Music and TV streaming habits:
I lost control of the remote control to my kids years ago, but music is hugely important to me. I tend to listen to everything on Spotify these days, but I pine for the days when you could walk into someone’s house and know everything about them from the CDs on their shelves. I’m slowly rebuilding my record collection and trying to teach the kids not to scratch them all!
What do you subscribe to?
PodNews for podcast industry stuff, Unmade for media industry stuff and Disney+ to keep the kids occupied while I read those.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I don’t think there’s much they don’t know about me - conversation is free flowing in the Acast office!
In five years time I'll be:
Still in podcasting, and hopefully still with Acast. It’s an incredible business doing great things in an amazing industry. And after eight years it still feels like we’re just getting started!
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