There was a big message for Australia’s next generation of marketing leaders at The Marketing Academy’s graduation ceremony last night: don’t mistake ChatGPT for a mentor, don’t be afraid to back bold creative ideas, and, perhaps most importantly, stop being so nice.
The advice came from two of the industry’s most prominent voices, The Marketing Academy founder and global CEO Sherilyn Shackell and Russell Howcroft, 3AW Breakfast host, ABC Gruen panellist and partner and brand design advisor at Tenet Advisory & Investments.
Speaking to the graduating cohort of 30 marketing, media and advertising executives at the Sydney Opera House, both offered a different take on what it takes to become a great leader.
“A truly great mentor is hard to find, difficult to part with, and impossible to forget. And ChatGPT is not a mentor,” she told the room.
While AI tools might offer answers at the click of a button, Shackell said the executive coaches supporting the Academy’s scholars throughout the nine-month program played a far more profound role in their development.
“The coaches, our executive coaches, are phenomenal, and the way in which they guide our scholars through their entire time with us is really quite profound,” she said.
She also offered a memorable endorsement of the people behind the program, borrowing a well-known saying to underline the importance of good coaching.
“A good coach can change a game; a great coach can change a life, and we’ve got great coaches.”
Shackell went on to thank the mentors, coaches and people responsible for building The Marketing Academy’s Australian chapter, including global chair Terry and his wife Cheryl, as well as alumni chair Anashiku.
The Academy’s alumni network now spans four chapters around the world, bringing together approximately 1,500 former scholars.
Using the Sydney Opera House as the ultimate example of what happens when originality is given the room to flourish, Howcroft argued that the building represented far more than an architectural achievement.
He described the Opera House as an “open and shut case” for the power of art and the commercial returns that originality can bring.
Howcroft highlighted the need for marketers to approach every brief with that same ambition. “Every single brief is your Opera House opportunity,” he said.
He pointed to Telstra’s Black Friday retail advertising as an example of a brand taking an opportunity to do something different, rather than falling into the usual conventions of promotional advertising.
“If you think about the normal crap you get on a Black Friday when it comes to advertising, and yet the effort, the time, the production, the quality in a Black Friday ad. Good on them.”
“Trust the power of ideas. Trust the power of fame, and bring something different.”
And if the idea doesn’t make you a little nervous, he suggested, it probably isn’t ambitious enough.
“If you’re not scared shitless, then don’t do it. Do not do it.”
Howcroft also took aim at what he described as an industry increasingly surrounded by “sloppery, fakery, and CFOs winning the fight”, taking a swipe at spreadsheet-led decision-making and the tendency for financial considerations to override creative ambition.
His final challenge to the marketers in the room was perhaps his most direct.
“Just stop being so nice. Demand good work, and when you see it, buy it, and then make sure you deliver it against it.”
The two addresses offered a fitting contrast for a cohort preparing to step into broader leadership roles: Shackell’s reminder that leadership is ultimately about people, and Howcroft’s insistence that those people need to have the courage to champion great work.
The graduating scholars also took the opportunity to recognise the people who had made an impact on their own development.
Maz Farrelly, keynote speaker, trainer, host and MC, and Cairns Crocodiles MC, was singled out for particular praise, with one graduate remarking that “Maz reminded us that being memorable matters, and no one is ever going to forget Maz”.
The graduate described Farrelly as “phenomenal”, crediting her with empowering so many of the cohort.
The ceremony took place in the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room, where guests enjoyed bubbles, canapés and an opera performance. The intimate, harbour-facing space was the first Opera House interior completed to the specifications of its visionary Danish architect, Jørn Utzon, and features a striking 14-metre tapestry designed by Utzon himself.
The setting was particularly fitting given Howcroft’s earlier argument about the enduring value of creative ambition.
The Class of 2026 comprises 30 executives from client-side brands, media owners, agencies and start-ups, who have spent nine months undertaking one-to-one mentoring, executive coaching, three immersive residential Bootcamps, lectures and industry masterclasses.
The program is delivered free of charge to participants, supported by sponsors including Salesforce, Google, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, NRMA Insurance, Thinkerbell, Optus and Coles.
The Academy also announced Michael Laxton, customer AI director at Woolworths Group, as the recipient of its 2026 Mentor of the Year Award, sponsored by Thinkerbell.
With the 2026 cohort now joining the Academy’s global alumni community, attention turns to the next intake.
Nominations for The Marketing Academy’s 2027 Australian Scholarship Program are now open and close on Friday 20 November.
