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, we’ve recently published a series of personal profiles, and this is the final one.
Get ready to laugh, cry and be taken on an emotional rollercoaster as we hear from another of the industry’s most remarkable marketers.
Comparethemarket.com.au CMO Jenny Williams: The Gandhi fancier
I’m a marketer, digital veteran, public speaker, teacher, project manager, organiser, analyst, hiker, photographer, mother, cat lover, meditator, closet creative, traveller, and cooking enthusiast. If I weren’t any of those things, I’d probably be a technologist.
At school, I’d describe myself as a mostly a B student. When I was 10, my dream was pretty simple: become a millionaire’s wife!
Over the next decade, brand love will become more important than ever; however, it will need to go way beyond what they say they are and actually be relevant in people’s lives. I guess that’s why my favourite-ever brand is Nike.
When it comes to what works, I still think there’s a lot to be said for human connection. Contrary to that, what doesn’t work is email communications. That’s probably the one thing that irritates me in the office – people who send group emails – when picking up the phone and asking the question is likely to resolve the problem rather than in inflame it.
In management, technical expertise and great ideas are only 20 per cent of the job. Getting people to buy in to it and support it is 80 per cent. My biggest career disaster was the $5000 screen saver that ended up costing $40,000! And the learning from that? Don’t get carried away with the creative idea. The best solutions don’t have to be complicated to work.
My favourite piece of technology at the moment is a mindfulness headband that measures brainwaves while meditating and gives instant feedback. The technology I simply do not understand would have to be Google Home. I bought one and all that I know how to do is put on Netflix!
If I had to pick my all-time favourite hero – as in real, not fiction – I’d have to say Gandhi. The last book I read until the very end would have been Marianne Williamson’s Return to Love. As an admission, I do have a few Spice Girls songs on my playlist.
I once ate a fly, so that would be my answer to the most regrettable thing I’ve ever eaten. I haven’t been able to face currants ever since.
And my worst ever holiday? That would have to be the time I ended up having to work the whole time because there was a massive crisis.
