Work hard play hard: Belinda Rowe on 30 years in media

Diversity advocate, attentive boss and a founding force of creative media, Belinda Rowe was inducted into the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) Hall of Fame last week after a career spanning 30 years. 

Rowe is a "genuine changer" who helped build many ad agencies such as Mojo, Zenith, Publicis and client-side at the Telefonica O2 (now UK’s Virgin Media O2).

But her time as CEO of Optimedia (which became ZenithOptimedia to now Zenith) cemented her as a founding member of a unique creatively driven media communications and digital business.  

“We came up with a new way of strategic thinking to understand consumers better than anyone else, allowing us to create fantastic solutions for clients,” Rowe told AdNews.

"We won a lot of incredible clients off of that idea - such as Qantas, Telstra, Lion Nathan, L’Oreal and Nestle.” 

This reputation ignited Rowe’s 10 year career stint in London, working with different cultures as global managing partner at ZenithOptimedia gave her the most learnings in her career. 

Another big highlight was being the chair of the Advertising Federation of Australia which Rowe helped rebrand to its current form the Advertising Council of Australia, ensuring more inclusion. 

“It's very rewarding to contribute to the growth of the industry,” Rowe said. 

Rowe giving a presentation - on developing a ‘365’ concept of customer engagement at ZenithOptimedia - in 2014.

Despite these inspirational feats, between hard work and long hours Rowe always put staff wellbeing and moments of fun at top of mind. 

“We spend a lot of life at work so it should be as enjoyable as much as audacious and driven around performance,” Rowe said. 

“But you've got to balance the performance driven and the joy of it - so I always had a really big belief of yes we're going to work hard but we’ve got to find moments to have some fun becuase people come back more energised.  

“In those really tough, challenging moments, you can't keep drilling down, you've got to break it open and put new energy in.”

“Coming together is really important, I always used to make sure we would have mini get-togethers, making sure people move away from their desks and have a bit of social time.”  

Throughout her career Rowe was known for being an activist for women in the industry. However, there is still so much work to be done, she says. 

Diversity is a big challenge but put simply, the advertising and media industry needs to put funds behind developing programs and use data to understand the context to set the goals. 

“Particularly there needs to be more mentoring programs across the industry, because it's really valuable to meet and work with people outside your own sort of agency bubble,” Rowe said. 

“The other thing is development programs, because a lot of companies are struggling to provide development in particular around leadership definitely for women in helping them get to that next stage.” 

Rowe giving her acceptance speech on stage at MFA Awards.

Across all the boards Rowe currently sits on -- ARN Media, Sydney Swans, 3P Learning, Temple & Webster, Sky New Zealand -- there is a focus on equality. Diversity is just good for business, she say. There is a lot of evidence that investing in diversity leads to outperformance for business.  

“According to a recent Chief Executive Women survey of top asx 300 companies, it's going to take 50 years at the rate we're going to get that change, so we do need to accelerate it and it is about investing in diverse talent, proactive succession planning as well as flexible, inclusive workplaces,” Rowe said. 

“It's also about having leadership programs to give women the opportunity to get to that next level and building pipelines into that CEO position.  

“And it's also important that the data is done across the industry. Getting really granular about the data of the current situation, then you can start to build an action plan and design initiatives to accelerate change. 

“Certainly a lot of company boards are working with management teams in setting targets of 40/40/20 - 40% women, 40% men and then 20% either gender. 

“In addition to gender diversity, it's also broader diversity, whether that's sexual, cultural or ethnic diversity. The industry needs to think about how it represents how Australia looks and feels. 

“Because we're the people who are designing solutions for companies it's really important that we have that real mix and diversity.”

Rowe helping out at SecondBite and Coles at Parramatta Mission launching a nationwide campaign Christmas Appeal to help provide meals for a growing number of people facing hardship this Christmas.

Looking forward, Rowe will continue to help companies and leaders grow to be successful. 

“So I'm doing that through my non-executive roles, I’m working with companies that inspire me about their growth journey and to help contribute to that journey,” Rowe said.  

“I'm very passionate about helping people unlock their opportunities, so I also do a lot of mentoring with diverse women leaders, and also helping some men too.” 

Rowe is also a member of Minerva Network supporting women in sport, Mentor Walks, the Marketing Academy, Chief Executive Women in Australia and Women in Advertising and Communications London.  

“I'm enjoying the real mix of these roles because it gives me great joy to be able to help people grow and develop and unlock opportunities for them.”  

Working overseas and getting involved in the wider industry - by joining industry bodies and working together on change programs - is Rowe’s top career advice because the more experiences and connections builds a better media professional.   

Building the breath of a person's career capability and experiences - something that most media people get distracted by. 

“Everyone sometimes gets in their lane a bit but it's really important to make sure you're going deep on your specialism and going wider to build relationships, leadership and the ability to work with different people,” Rowe said. 

Rowe on stage at the MFA Awards with friend Peter Horgan.