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.
Velocity Frequent Flyer’s CMO, Dean Chadwick: The ‘Trekkie’ Tragic
I’d describe myself as a food critic, tech geek, wine snob (which isn’t very endearing), rock star dad, who is fond of marketing and lives in Manly. I’m also a big Star Trek fan, and I make no apology for it.
I’m going to sound like a wanker, but I wanted to be an investment banker when I grew up. My school report cards definitely featured a few “try harders” though. I remember my Year 4 report card said, “Charm alone won’t get Dean through life.”
My all-time favourite hero would have to be my mother. She was a single mum, brought up four kids, was a very strong lady, and she guided us all in the right way. She continues to be my hero even at 82 years old.
The last time I cried was because of my wife, who was a scared swimmer, but learnt to become an ocean swimmer as part of a charity fundraiser. I remember when she was getting out of the swim and running past the finish line, I just burst into tears. I was really proud of her.
I’m all in with Apple, and I quite like my Apple HomePod. It sits in the kitchen of my home and works very well as an egg timer. It’s also great at working out for my kids how far it is to the moon and back. The quality of its speaker is decent too.
While I love the concept of it, one piece of technology I really don’t understand is LORAWAN, which stands for long-range wireless area networks. It’s a great bit of kit, but if I had to try and explain it to someone, I’d probably get it completely wrong.
A long time ago, a boss of mine said, “Try and always lead with a ‘yes’, and then figure out the ‘how’.” There’s been a number of times where I didn’t want to do something but said “yes” and just made it work. It’s put me in good stead a lot from a career perspective.
