Lucy Formosa Morgan has over 20 years of experience across Australia and the UK, across both agency and publisher sides. With stints at OMD, PHD, Nova, she is currently the managing director of MAGNA, where she leads three business units: product & innovation, centralised buying and intelligence solutions.
Morgan is a natural and authentic leader who commands respect across the industry. She mentors senior women executives and has advocated for gender diversity wherever she finds herself, driving gender diversity at PHD in particular.
1. You’ve had an awesome career in OZ/UK and now the MD of MAGNA. If you had to pick only one, what would be your career highlight so far?
Morgan: That’s harsh, all of the roles have had their benefits and helped shape my career! Career highlight so far has to be jumping into this role at Mediabrands. The learning curve was huge, but on the flip side, I loved the enormity of the challenge before me, and the changes that I could make to take our investment offering to the next level.
2. You have mainly been agency side; however, you went to Nova after PHD. How did this experience enhance your investment skills?
Morgan: I’d always worked agency side, so being able to see things from the sales perspective was invaluable. Understanding what the priorities are, how vendors look at briefs, report their numbers and generally just understanding what makes them tick. Much as I wasn’t at Nova for that long, the experience gave me a far more rounded perspective, and I’d like to think it has matured my approach when it comes to negotiations and partner relationships.
3. I know you are passionate about ESG. Are our local publishers doing enough at speed, and do clients value?
Morgan: Based on the results we’ve seen from our latest Media Responsibility Index survey, vendors are all leaning far more into ESG (when compared to our last MRI survey a few years ago). There’s obviously further improvements that can be made and some clear standouts in the pack, but the bar has certainly been lifted.
A number of clients have absolutely leant in on ESG and are factoring this into their thinking. There is, of course, an upside opportunity.
4. As a young girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Morgan: I used to change my mind every other month about what I wanted to do, but I certainly didn’t see myself sitting behind a computer screen day in day out. How wrong could I be?!
I remember doing one of those psychographic tests that you do in school, which tells you what sort of career you should go into, and the army came up number one. So, I thought about that (very briefly), while also thinking that being a flight attendant would be great to travel the world, or a policewoman.
5. Agency Media Partners events have become popular. What’s the benefit to your clients?
Morgan: They’re a great opportunity for clients to hear first-hand what a vendor’s plans are, any new developments, priorities/focus areas, etc. They’re also a great opportunity for clients to network and build stronger relationships.
6. As an industry, what’s one thing you would change to make us all better?
Morgan: Bringing the fun back to media. It used to be the classic example of a work hard, play hard industry – the stress and hours were worth it for the social aspect. Since the pandemic, though, with a large proportion of the industry working multiple days a week from home, we seem to have lost a bit of that fun/culture aspect somewhat. I’m not saying at all that we need to be back in 5 days a week, but the balance needs to be right so that we can reinvigorate the culture.
7. What’s keeping your CMO clients awake at night?
Morgan: The economic uncertainty and what that means for their budgets. A number of clients are (rightfully) getting granular on the ROAS of their media activity. With more and more clients turning to modelling to assess campaign delivery, it has a knock-on impact on how we then plan, buy and negotiate their media activity.
8. I know you give back to the industry big time, who have been your mentors, and what’s the best career advice you have been given?
Morgan: There have been many over the years. Coady and Horgs have both been heavily influential over the course of my career from a media industry perspective.
Looking back, though, I think my dad’s influence has also been pivotal. He built his business from scratch when he was in his early 20s and always instilled in us his values, but predominantly the need for authenticity with everyone that you deal with and being financially independent, not reliant on others. I’d like to think I’ve built these into my own tool book as I’ve progressed through my career.
9. What’s one thing that’s not on your LinkedIn profile?
Morgan: So much – I’m not a great updater of LinkedIn to be honest. Great at gardening – my veggie patch is doing brilliantly!
10. Important last question, do your parents know what you do?
Morgan: No! My mum constantly asks me to explain ‘just once more’ what exactly I do.
