Young Gun: Alex Wollacott at Havas Media Group

By AdNews | 16 December 2021
 
Alex Wollacott.

Our Young Gun profile takes a look at some of the young talent across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.

Alex Wollacott, Performance Director at Havas Media Group

Time in current role:

1 year (at January 2022)

How long have you been in the industry?

6 years within agency land, with a stint learning SEO client side prior

How did you get here? Was this always the plan?

With a bachelor’s degree in History, not at all. I fit within the group of people who fell into the industry. After my first full time role – which started as a copywriter and morphed into SEO - I interviewed at Omnicom and Expedia. I loved the idea of staying within the travel industry and I had very limited insight as to what the role of agencies were. After chatting with a few people, I decided that the agency path would give me more opportunities to learn and really turbo charge the early days of my professional career.

Who is your right-hand person?

I have a very French trio of amazing media women, Sudhyvanne, Lauriane and Mathilde, who welcomed and have supported me in my role at Havas this year. They support and challenge their teams and have fostered a team culture of openness and helping each other out.

What is the best thing about the industry you work in?

Agency land brings together a beautiful and mixed bunch of people with interesting lives and career backgrounds. I love how many different nationalities work in the media landscape, who all just-so-happen to be incredibly smart and creative.

And the biggest challenge?

This year? Recruitment and the overall talent glut in the industry with international borders closed. Retention is important but with lots of digital growth and creativity required in our roles, fresh faces and perspectives are needed, especially from more mature markets. 

Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?

Less about the job, more about the culture. A marketer at an organisation that has a genuine community purpose would fit the bill. Failing that, my dad always says I’d make a great General Manager.

Where do you turn for inspiration?

Anyone or anything that involves passionate people doing interesting things totally different to media. The podcast Ologies is a fascinating way of diving in to subjects I never thought existed but spark curiosity.

My favourite advert is:

Call me sentimental, but before flash mobs felt overcooked I loved the T-Mobile Welcome Back ad filmed at Heathrow. 

Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
We’ve spent a lot of time revealing fun facts about us during the latest lockdown, so I think my team have experienced enough over sharing. Maybe that I unironically love Country music?

In five years I will be:

Still trying to keep up with the evolving digital landscape, reminiscing about that weird time when puzzles and picnics were the topic of conversation for everyone.

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