What are you excited about in your new role?

I have worked with and within the organization for the past four years and am truly passionate about what it does. We are motivated and excited about the opportunity to make a big impact on our clients’ businesses as our team continues to deliver work that makes a real difference.

We are a marketing investment partner and believe our organization, diverse and talented workforce and expertise are unmatched. Our focus on improving ROI is unmatched. We are committed to driving outcomes, co-creating with our customers, and being a strategic partner in solving business problems they didn’t know existed within their business, including through innovative technology solutions. Obsessed with customer success.

I am confident that over the next five years we will be able to lead the Group to unprecedented growth and extend our Marketing Investment Partner solutions to more clients in more regions.

Based on your years of experience, what do you think this position will bring?

I bring a new perspective to the position. The world of advertising is fluid. There is little room for legacy thinking. It is no longer fit for purpose. I continue to focus on both effectiveness and efficiency to provide the strongest ROI on my clients’ marketing investments.

That means doing the right thing (effective strategy) and doing the right thing (efficient execution). It’s time to bring commercial relevance to the role of advertising. Our end-to-end solutions promise extraordinary effectiveness and significant efficiencies. These are very effective in reducing costs while increasing revenue. It’s a conversation everyone should have.

What are your career highlights?

It feels like you are on the professional adventure of a lifetime. I have lived and worked in Ireland, Australia and now South Africa. Just a few years after founding Iconic Collective, the company was acquired by Point Group, of which I was recently appointed Group CEO. I am responsible for her team of over 300 talented people, serving her 250+ clients in 26 countries and growing sales to over his $100 million. .

I have proudly led the turnaround of the Group’s creative and digital businesses, creating new long-term sustainable revenue streams and increasing the value proposition for our traditional print management clients.

What have been the biggest challenges in your career?

I founded a strategic creative agency in 2014. The agency was founded with the fundamental purpose of being different, to change the nature of the industry and its marketing approach. It wasn’t easy to navigate as I had no agency experience other than contact with people I worked with in roles in Australia. Our agency ethos was created through the experience of agency frustration. I have sat in many agency boardrooms.

What I found frustrating was that they all demanded as much budget as they could afford and gave little thought to our business goals and how they could support them. I wanted to create an agency that was fundamentally different: always focused on impacting the client’s business and supporting their commercial goals.

Other advertising agencies spend your budget to get results. We invest to make an impact. And there lies the challenge. I didn’t grow up in South Africa, nor did I have an established local network, so I criticized traditional thinking in the field. However, I realized that being an outsider was helpful and valuable in overcoming these obstacles.

What inspires you every day?

There is no doubt that it is an opportunity to make a difference on a daily basis for staff and clients, both internally and commercially. Making an impact on people’s lives and businesses is a very rewarding job.

What do you think is the biggest problem facing the marketing industry today?

There is a problem with traditional thinking in the industry. Traditional methodologies in marketing strategy, deployment, channel execution, and category considerations are no longer relevant or sustainable. Agencies tend to drive their clients into metaphorical shouting and we believe that doesn’t work anymore.

A good recent example was the case of a Senior Brand Director in Africa. During our conversation, he said the brand did everything right. According to his agency, they had a beautiful and emotional campaign. He commented that as a result, everyone cried, but no one bought the product. So where’s the return on your big investment in that brand and business?

Post-pandemic consumers don’t want to be advertised. They want an authentic experience on their channel of choice that they can easily convert. Their path to purchase is no longer linear and must consider multiple channels and touchpoints.

We believe a better approach is to invest our clients’ marketing dollars to create deep impact and value through effectiveness and efficiency. Our position as a marketing investment partner is obsessed with solving clients’ problems and transforming their businesses through end-to-end solutions, and we are deeply attached to our clients’ business and brand goals, objectives and ambitions. means that

Do you have any advice for young people aspiring to a career like yours?

My advice to young people who want a career like mine is to remember the words of Steve Jobs: “Remember you can always speak back.” It means that we should not be afraid to challenge the status quo or resist obstacles that seem insurmountable.

This is a reminder that you have the resilience and determination to handle difficult situations and never give up on your goals, no matter how difficult they may seem. Never accept failure as something that happens to you, but rather as something that happens to you. It can be painful, but it is always rich in learning and necessary to navigate and redesign your journey.

Essentially, it means that no obstacles or setbacks can ever prevent you from achieving your dreams. What I have achieved today is something that should have been impossible, but I did not give up and kept moving forward. Whatever life you want, you can have it, but you have to work hard and dedicate yourself to achieve it. Your journey may change, but the destination you set for yourself should never change.