Ashutosh Matai and Joe Douglas.
The MFA’s NGEN Award gives media executives with less than five years’ experience the opportunity to create positive impact by flexing their creative and strategic muscles – and gaining career-defining experience along the way.
NGENers were this year invited to respond to a brief for Share the Dignity, a charity dedicated to helping women, girls and people who menstruate who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, domestic violence or poverty.
AdNews presents Meet the NGEN Award Finalists: Joe Douglas is Comms Design Manager and Ashutosh Matai is Investment Manager at Initiative:
How long have you been in the industry?
Joe: Coming up to three years.
Ashu: Same, almost three years now.
What were your greatest lessons from the experience of entering the NGEN Award?
Joe: Less is always more. It’s tempting to come up with a million executions once you’ve nailed your idea but stripping it back to its core allows the thinking to come through clearest.
Ashu: The importance of a good insight. Once you land on the right insight, everything else just starts clicking into place.
What’s one myth about working in media you’d love to bust?
Joe: I’d like people to know that the work can be just as creative as creative agencies. They just stole the naming rights.
Ashu: Media planning is so much more than just “booking ads”. Most of our day is spent strategising, negotiating, and figuring out smart ways to reach people. It’s a lot more interesting than it sounds!
If you could describe the future of media in one word, what would it be and why?
Joe: Uniform. As planning and buying becomes increasingly automated, the risk is that every brand in a category starts showing up in the same way. The agencies of the future that can produce media as distinctive as the creative it distributes will win.
Ashu: I’d say collaborative. More and more, it feels like the future of media is about partnerships – whether that’s brands teaming up with creators, platforms working together, or even agencies and clients co-creating – no one’s doing it just by themselves anymore.
From your experience of the industry so far, which skills do you think are most valuable for now and for the future?
Joe: Telling a good story. As planners, we’re drowning in data. The ability to filter signal from noise, connect the right dots, and turn them into a clear, compelling narrative will only become more relevant as the volume of information grows.
Ashu: Adaptability. In media, things are always shifting. Whether it’s new platforms popping up or clients changing direction last minute, being able to roll with it and adjust quickly is what makes the difference.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.