Marketing Mavericks: La Trobe University’s Tim Skellern

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Marketing Mavericks was a supplement in the latest mag, featuring some of Australia’s most daring and bold marketers. Today, we’re bringing you La Trobe University senior director of marketing operations Tim Skellern.

Stay On The Beat

Starting his career as a senior brand manager for LYNX – Unilever, Tim has extensive experience as a marketing professional. An English Kiwi residing in Australia with his wife and three kids, Tim is the current senior director of marketing operations at La Trobe University. While he thinks he peaked in high school (he was that kid who got all As, captained the cricket team while acting the lead part in the school play), he’s undoubtedly been making waves across the marketing sector.

If I wasn’t a marketer, I would have been a sound engineer. I used to hang around recording studios with my musician dad whenever I had the chance. To be honest, I’m not sure where that dream went! As a marketing professional, I often get asked about brands I love. While I don’t personally like the product, I’m pretty sure it’s unhealthy, and the proposition is a net bad thing for society … I am so impressed with how Red Bull has created such a strong experience-led brand from a business that on face value delivers its revenue from a
single SKU!

On my greatest ‘light bulb’ moment, lots of things continuously make me stop and think and re-evaluate, rather than one big eureka moment as such. That said, my most recent light bulb was realising that marketing as a discipline has become so much more technical and complicated. It’s increasingly difficult to synthesise what we are doing. It’s also become more difficult to try and explain to non-marketing stakeholders what we do, without over-simplifying it (and then we either sound patronising or like we’re talking Martian to them and, therefore, we still sound patronising!)

When thinking about what works, and what doesn’t work as a marketer – walking around the office and being present always works. Sitting at your desk or worse still locked away in a cubicle is no way to lead or to understand the great work that your team is doing.

You’re summoned to the CEO’s office. Why?

Usually to explain why he can’t see any of our advertising when he is bombarded with competitor work every time he turns on the TV.

Any hidden talents?

So many…and yet I just haven’t found them yet.

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