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.
Uno De Waal: Head of retail media at Australian Venue Co.
Time in current role
1 year and a bit.
How would you describe what the company does?
AVC is one of Australia's largest hospitality groups, owning over 250 of Australia's most loved and iconic pubs, bars and restaurants where people love to come and hang out with their friends over a pint and parma. We have some really high-end cocktail bars that push the boundaries of drinks and then also some more family friendly places.
What do you do day to day?
I lead the retail media team at AVC, which means I help brands connect with our patrons through a range of different channels - it might be through facilitating a series of DJ nights brought to you by Smirnoff, or a beautiful experience for mum's over Mother's Day with St Germain. Being one of the largest on-prem players, we also sit on a treasure trove of data - like how and when people drink a Martini. It's dirty and dry, with Gin around 7:30 if you're making one.
Define your job in one word:
Hospitality.
I got into my the industry because:
I've always been in media - I ran my own media business back in South Africa and worked with many alcohol and culture brands back there. Coming here, I found myself in the media and agency hospitality space again and when this role came up it was the perfect spot in an overlapping Venn Diagram for me of Media and Hospitality.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Communication is always a big issue - we need to evangelise and promote our campaigns across essentially 250+ different businesses. While we have systems and processes that help with it, it's getting everyone to buy into the vision and the journey. Everyone also has their own objectives, lives and inboxes and while something is massive in our world, it's only a small thing for a venue that needs to deal with 400 customers and a broken ice machine right now.
What’s the biggest industry wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
My particular industry of retail media in hospitality is quite niche, so it's also a good question to ask that of the retail media industry, or of the hospitality industry. Both of those world's have very smart people working on those problems that I can only catch a whiff of every now and again. But I would say that in my world it's probably brand budgets and how to bring brands along the journey with us, outside trade marketing along. There's so much more value that we can create that sits outside of pallets moved.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
I had a great ex-boss from Isobar that I tapped for advice when I started my own thing, then I was fortunate enough to be part of Entrepreneurs Organisation where I had a great group of peers I could learn from who were going through the same troubles of running your own business. In my current role, we have so many smart people I can lean on for advice in particular areas that I'm never without an answer.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Package up your transferrable skills. Retail media is a very new industry and has a bit of a talent shortage, but only because people don't know about it. It's a super fun industry where you get to play a lot, and lots of room for experimentation. We need cross-functional skills too, so don't think what you know is irrelevant.
If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I'd be:
A professional adventurer.
My philosophy is:
Never take yourself too seriously.
My favourite advert is:
Anything from Nando's (in South Africa). There are a few agencies back home that just know how to tap into popular culture really well. I don't watch enough TV to know local ads, although Gruen keeps a bit updated.
Music and TV streaming habits:
Generally lots of marketing podcasts while I'm running. I'm also a huge fan of listening to DJ sets while working and have found Youtube to be the best platform for this. I love that it's a human that has actively curated that playlist rather than an algorithm.
What do you subscribe to?
I've been thinking of getting a few magazine subs again to have that tactile feel of content, otherwise it's just a bunch of industry newsletters and the standard streaming platforms. I do quite like James Clear's weekly newsletter.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I like to think I'm a pretty open book and people know most things about me!
In five years time I'll be:
Hopefully still here, doing bigger and better campaigns!
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