30 Under 30 A Decade On: Craig Somerville

ICYMI: B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards are back for its 11th year, and we’re officially open for entry. If you haven’t entered yet… seriously, get cracking. Time’s a wastin!

For those who don’t know, B&T‘s 30 Under 30 Awards are widely regarded as the leading showcase for the best and brightest young talent working across marketing communications.

In honour of our upcoming awards, we’re taking a look back (10 years to be exact), to see where our 2011 winners are now.

Today, we’re chatting with Craig Somerville.

Back in 2011, Craig was as a few years into his role at Reload, where he was a director of the business and day-to-day and was primarily responsible for running the Australian arm of the agency business.

Now, he’s still at Reload! He’s been there for 12 years, and has been MD of the global group for the last four. In between, he’s spent two years heading up the UK agency arm based in London, before returning back to Brisbane to take on the MD role in 2016

Craig somerville

How did you feel winning a B&T 30 Under 30?

It was a massively humbling experience that what we’d begun to achieve at Reload was being recognised and the role I’d played in that.

Do you think you winning has affected your career at all?

Any recognition like the B&T 30 Under 30 is hugely helpful. It gives a level of credibility to all the work you’re doing across clients and definitely helps to back up the recommendations you’re making to clients on what they should be doing with their marketing activities.

What’s your favourite part about the industry?

The variety. No two days are the same, and the pace of change is frantic, which keeps things fresh. Working with different industries constantly challenges you to keep coming up with new and innovative ways of approaching what you do.

What do you think needs changing?

Continuing the push for greater transparency. Having come from a digital and performance background, Reload’s always been a huge believer in transparency (it’s one of our company values), and whilst there has been big strides in this area, the industry as a whole has a long way to go.

What’s been your biggest achievement?

I think growing an agency that’s now 70 strong across the world, with clients in 20 countries served from our three offices is really satisfying. But the biggest achievement for me are the careers we’ve created along the way and the 25 personalised “Five Year Beers” that sit on a shelf in our office that represents all those who have been at Reload for five years or more. In an industry known for high turnover, that’s immensely satisfying. The fact we topped that off by winning B&T’s agency of the year for ‘digital services’ in 2019 was a massive recognition of that work and culture.

If you weren’t in adland, what would you be doing?

It’s hard to imagine a career outside of marketing, but I’m most passionate about the business side of running an agency, so it’d probably be some variation of that.

What keeps you awake at night?

Normally my daughter. I’m still making that adjustment to parenthood!

Ultimate bucket list item?

I’d love to do an Antarctic photography expedition. I enjoy my hobby photography and doing that in Antarctica is definitely a bucket list item.

What’s a hidden talent you have?

Probably knowing pointless trivia items. I had an (unsuccessful) appearance on the Millionaire Hot Seat TV show many years ago, but can always be roped in for a pub trivia night.

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30 under 30 a decade on