Women In Media: Charmaine Moldrich, CEO, Outdoor Media Association

Women In Media: Charmaine Moldrich, CEO, Outdoor Media Association

In our latest instalment of great Women In Media, today B&T talks to none other than OMA boss, the infallible outdoor stalwart, Charmaine Moldrich. Here, Moldrich talks her hippie roots, being a mum at 19 and the very real possibility she has Tourette’s Syndrome…

 I left Sri Lanka at 13 when Colombo was really happening…
It was the 70s and all of the hippies and the travellers were just starting to make it there. It was very crowded and cosmopolitan. We had a carefree and comfortable life in Colombo but arrived in Perth dirt poor. Our standard of living really changed and it felt like a backwater. I didn’t fit in. At school they asked things like how come I spoke English so well – English was my first language in Sri Lanka! And ‘was I betrothed to be married?’ I remember sitting in the class and watching a film on India and going, ‘oh, that’s what they’re being taught.’ Once, I did that and knew why they were asking me those dumb questions, rather than coming home to my mum and going, ‘they’re the barbarians, they don’t know anything,’ I kind of went, ‘oh, you’re asking me this question because that’s what you have been taught in your social studies classes.’

I was accepted to university but threw it all away to run away to far north Queensland with some hippie dude that I met hitchhiking…
Living on the edge of the desert in Perth didn’t suit me – I yearned for the tropics so we ran away to Queensland, north of Daintree, and lived on a subsistence farm, growing our own food and kind of doing the hippie thing. It was hard but also a period of my life that I always go back to in my head. It was life-affirming and changing. I became a mum at 19 and moved to South Australia because it was the only state where you could have a legal home-birth. My family, horrified at my unmarried status, thought I was very out there. I think I still am a little bit. I don’t think I’ve lost those qualities of risk-taking. I’m really happy to live on the edge. I think the best thing that happened to me personally was having my daughter. She kind of made me, and in a way, we grew up together.

When opportunity knocks, I grab it…
In retrospect I wonder whether this somewhat lackadaisical attitude shows a lack of planning but I’m happy where it has lead me. I think when people have said, ‘oh, I think you’ll be really good for this job,’ I’ve gone, ‘yeah, I’ll give it a go.’ Off I go, and then that leads to the next thing. Sometimes I feel as if, when you look at my CV, you go, ‘wow. What was your career path?’ I admire people with planned and un-chaotic lives because mine is not like that.

If I wasn’t doing this job, what I’d like to be doing is working for the UN…
I’ve always wanted to work for the UN and run a business development program that works in areas of empowering people to make better lives, rather than charity; to use the people’s own resources to build great businesses. I suppose I’ve always been really interested in that fair trade model. I really believe passionately that if you educate women, you get a better world. If I made better decisions when I was younger, I would probably be working more in the charity, not-for-profit sector, than in media. I’m interested in a fairer, more equal world really. It’s always been something that’s driven me. Having grown in Sri Lanka, where we had privilege, I grew up in a very, very diverse culture.

I’m incredibly unguarded, to the point where I think that I’ve got verbal Tourette’s…
Sometimes I just, it all just comes out, and then I go, ‘uh oh, I should have held a little bit of that back.’

I’m not sycophantic…
I don’t want, necessarily, to surround myself with people who are yes people. I really like people questioning me. Sometimes I’m not very good at that, my initial reaction is always quite defensive, but I realize at the moment that I’m defensive that I’m about to learn something. The moment I have tunnel vision I realise I am wrong.

I put in 110 per cent when I have something in front of me…
But the moment I don’t, I can really easily wear a sarong, lie around and read novels and do nothing. I have the propensity to be incredibly slothful and lazy, and if I’m indulged, can revel in it.

My favourite recent marketing campaign is the GAYTMs…
It was a real shift at a time when there was a big debate on gay marriage. I don’t understand why we’re having the debate. It was pretty bloody brave of the bank to come out and say, ‘well we sponsor the Mardi Gras and now we’re going to embrace it’. I was actually in Cannes the year they won. There were all of these people there, young, kind of hipsters and me. When they won, I spontaneously was whooping. I was up punching the air, and I never do stuff like that. I was so proud and so many people that I spoke to in Cannes really wanted to know more about that campaign. When the mainstream embraces something that is seen as being a minority cause, it really makes a huge difference. I think, again in my social justice vein, it was a…I had to applaud the bank for doing that, and I bank with them. It felt great and now I don’t have to go and take my money out.

And make sure you enter our Women in Media Awards, or nominate a colleague, here!

Sponsor-bar

 




Latest News

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC
  • Media

Archibald Williams Wins NBA Digital, Activation & Fan Engagement Accounts For APAC

Independent brand and digital agency, Archibald Williams (AW) has been appointed to lead the NBA account across the APAC region. The NBA is one of the most prestigious sporting leagues in the world and basketball is one of the fastest-growing sports in Australia. Effective immediately, AW said it was “excited” to work across all digital, […]

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor
  • Advertising

QMS Champions Creativity As First Most Contagious APAC 2023 Sponsor

Leading digital outdoor company QMS has announced it is the first-ever inaugural partner for Most Contagious APAC, the landmark London event by creative and strategic intelligence company Contagious, which will be showcased in Australia on Tuesday, 12 December in Sydney and Wednesday, 13 December in Melbourne. Most Contagious is an event that delivers key advertising […]

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics
  • Technology

OMG’s Annalect First To Get Meta’s Advanced Analytics

Omnicom’s data and analytics division Annalect has partnered with Meta, giving it access to Advanced Analytics (AA) – one of Meta’s privacy-focused measurement solutions – to provide Omnicom’s clients with future-proof, next-level measurement. Omnicom is the first holding company to have access to AA. AA allows advertisers to combine their first-party data with Meta’s ads […]

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably
  • Technology

AKQA Launches Eco-Conscious AI DIY Assistant Encouraging People To Gift More Sustainably

WPP’s AKQA has launched Fixmas.gift, an environmentally conscious AI-powered DIY assistant, affectionately known as Fixie, for a one-stop solution for all things repair. Fixmas.gift hosts an array of guides and inspiration to empower people to prolong the lives of their belongings or purchase pre-owned items that need a little love and care. Fixie can: Help […]

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024
  • Opinion

Marc Collister: AI & Automation Set To Revolutionise Creativity In 2024

Marc Collister (pictured) of P2 Content Creators spills the beans on his 2024 predictions drawing from two decades of experience in the advertising, film and television industry. I’m certain it will come as no surprise that in 2024, we can expect our industry to move at breakneck speed again. With even more rapid shifts in […]

Opinion

by B&T Magazine

B&T Magazine
Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader
  • Marketing

Zeno Group Australia Bolsters Client Offerings With An Expanded Creative Services Portfolio & New Senior Leader

Zeno Australia has announced expanded creative design capabilities and the appointment of Jim Michell (lead image) to its senior leadership team. The new moves support strong growth in the region. Zeno Australia’s clients, including Abano Healthcare, Motorola and Yorkshire Tea, can now tap into a suite of creative design services to augment the agency’s work […]

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC
  • Campaigns

Assembled Media Inks TikTok Creator Campaign for BIC

Assembled Media, is drawing upon the creative power of TikTok Creator Marketplace to help generate unique, impactful content for iconic stationery brand, BIC. The social activation campaign titled ‘A Pen for Every Side of You’ promotes the flexibility of BIC’s 4 Colours pen and is active nationwide on the BIC Stationery TikTok account. The campaign […]

Big data and analytics visualization technology with scientist analyzing information structure on screen with machine learning to extract predictions for business, finance, internet of things
  • Media

IAB Launches Fourth Module In Its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series

IAB Australia has launched ‘Evolution in Market Mix Modelling’, the fourth module in its Marketing Measurement Innovation Series, which has been developed by IAB Australia’s Ad Effectiveness Council. The module explores what is driving the increased use of MMM and how the technique is evolving with advances in computing power and machine learning to provide […]

Aerial view of a coal fired power station with large cooling towers emitting co2 into the atmosphere. With its lights already turned on the power station is illuminated in moody twilight.
  • Media

Scope3 Expands Carbon Measurement Capabilities To Include DOOH Advertising

Scope3, the collaborative sustainability platform leading the decarbonisation of media and advertising,  announced the addition of digital out-of-home (DOOH) to its emissions measurement. With DOOH ad spending predicted to grow from $17B in 2023 to nearly $24B by 2028, measuring this channel brings us one step closer to understanding the total impact of digital advertising […]

January 14, 2023 - New York, New York, USA: 2023 NRF Big Show press conference with Composition 2024 NRF Singapore.    Photo by Ian Wagreich / © Ian Wagreich Photography
  • Marketing

Now Open For Registration – NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific

NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, is now open for online registrations for the main conference. Jointly organized by the National Retail Federation and Comexposium, Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific will take place from 11 – 13 June, 2024 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore and is expected to draw thousands […]