Remarkable Marketers: Meet Mars Food’s Matt McInnes

There are some pretty remarkable people in our industry, each offering their own unique perspective to adland.

While we spend so much time learning about our peers’ career highlights, B&T, in partnership with Carat Australia, thought it high time to dig a little deeper, and find out what makes the shining stars of our industry tick and, at times, tock.

So, for the next little while, we will be publishing a series of personal profiles.

Get ready to laugh, cry and be taken on an emotional rollercoaster as we hear more about adland’s most remarkable marketers.

Mars Food Australia’s acting marketing director, Matt McInnes: The golf-loving Volvo driver

I grew up on a farm in country NSW and when I was 10, I always wanted to be a farmer. I always remember my pop driving around in a tractor and I just thought what a fantastic job that looked.

My Myers-Brigg profile is INTP, which is only ever evident in two per cent of the population. And that means you’re imaginative but decisive, ambitious but private, amazingly curious with a lot of self-confidence but an aura of mystery. It’s the same profile as Elon Musk and that’s the best way to describe it.

What were my reports like at school? All I can remember is that each comment from the teacher revolved around sport, sport, and more sport. If I wasn’t a marketer, I’d be a struggling amateur golfer. I’d be broke, but I’d be happy.

One of my favourite brands is Volvo. It was a brand that used to be so boring and dull, and it’s so good now that I’ve got two of their cars. It has a goal that by 2020 that it doesn’t want to have a single person killed or injured in car accidents, and I always think it’s those brands that try and be brave like that who are doing the best work.

Marketing still works at its most basic. You can’t beat having a great product or, should I say, one that gives you the best chance of success. It’s always an uphill battle when you’re working with a not so great product.

You just have to keep tinkering and readjusting and reinventing and meeting the needs of your customers… we all know what happens to things that refuse to change – you’re very quickly out of fashion.

I enjoy the thrill of the chase. I think if you’re too rigid in the way you do things then you can miss a lot of possibilities. It’s the thrill of the hunt and trying to chase something down.

Excuse the bias, but I still think Mars’ “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play” ad is still one that’s stuck in my mind since I was a wee nipper. And I think the best ads are the ones you remember from your childhood. ere was just so many classic slogans, so many classic ads from that era from the 70s and 80s. It really was a golden time for advertising.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from one of my first bosses, who gave me a carpentry tip. It was “measure twice and cut once”. And that means you should never act too early – well, at least until you’ve got all your ducks in a row. It’s even simple things like re- reading an email before you shoot it off. Who hasn’t sent an email that’s quickly turned into a disaster.

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