I get asked about how Australia compares with the UK all the time. Often it’s about trivial and mundane things
like we say trousers and you say pants. Yes, the weather is colder. Yes, I do miss drinking warm pints in a proper pub. But, a lot of the time it’s about something a little more considered around the world of media, marketing
and advertising. There’s a lot that’s the same, but there’s a lot that’s different. It’s fascinating to be able to compare,
contrast and reflect on that.
I’m currently in the UK, but two days before I left Sydney, AdNews held a roundtable hosted by the AANA to discuss a recent initiative that saw a group of senior Australian marketers head to the UK for a week of sessions with their high profile British peers. It was a learning expedition. One that the marketers unanimously believe was career changing but also highlighted the feeling that Australia is five years behind where marketing and marketers are in the UK. It was a bit depressing to hear that, but it is it all that surprising?
It seemed fitting to be finishing our recent Big Pic feature about the AANA’s Marketer Exchange in the departure lounge as I waited to board the 24-hour flight back to the motherland. When I first joined AdNews as marketing editor, it was my goal to bring more marketing content and marketers into its pages. To bring the debate beyond advertising and agencies, to clients and business.
Did I manage it? To an extent – but what a tough battle it was. And still is. Many marketers and their organisation were unwilling or unable to talk openly and freely about their brands, marketing and roles. A lot of the time it
seemed as though there was no comprehension of why the business should talk about the strategy or marketing or
advertising they had just rolled out.
It was frustrating coming from the UK where over the preceding five years marketing had become increasingly a core discipline within business. CEOs leaned more on CMOs, marketers were more forthcoming about what they were working on, and businesses encouraged marketers and brand directors to talk about what they were doing to drive the business. Not just ads. It was a noticeably different attitude and one that many other Brits now working in the Australian market concur with. The same is said to be true about US marketers.
On the surface, it might seem like a depressing statement, but it’s not all doom and gloom. It also means there’s something to strive for, something to demonstrate that marketing is not just the colouring-in department. Between the various organisations working to raise the profile of the marketing and advertising professions in
Australia – the AANA, ADMA, AMI, and The Marketing Academy – hopefully in another five years we can close the gap.
For the full run down of what the group learned and how they are putting it in place back on home soil to raise the profile of marketing as a profession, and within their organisations, read the Big Picture feature in the 7 August issue of AdNews in print.