MATE 034 – Making successful advertising campaigns, with award-winning creative Daniel Sparkes

Daniel Sparkes is a Cannes Gold Lion and D&AD Yellow Pencil award-winning advertising creative, with a flair for side-projects. He’s also a long-time friend of Adam’s and a MATE podcast fan. In this fun and interesting chat, Daniel talks about his passion for creativity, how his personality shapes the way he approaches his work, and the experiences that lead him to where he is today.

 

Topics:

  • What is an Advertising Creative?
  • Daniel’s experience breaking into the advertising industry
  • Working for Leo Burnett, and what others can expect once they enter an agency
  • What is Daniel’s “superpower”?
  • The theory that creative agencies are a thing of the past
  • Daniel talks about some of the most successful campaigns he’s seen, from the likes of American Express and Adidas
  • How the Reword app is helping to curb cyber-bullying and the PR that helped it take off
  • Daniel and Adam have a healthy debate over industry awards:
Are they really the “be-all, end-all” of industry recognition?
  • “To be in culture is to be relevant”, and why watching that Justin Bieber video you hate, can be beneficial
  • The benefits of having side projects to stay creatively healthy
  • Daniel’s successful side projects such as “Pillaring”, and failed side projects such as entering kid’s colouring competitions
(Yes, you read that correctly)
  • Interactive artist Ivan Cash, and his influence as a creative
  • Amazon’s upcoming move into the Australian market

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 033 – Powerful public speaking tips from TEDxMelbourne curator Jon Yeo

Jon Yeo is an executive speaker coach and the curator of TEDxMelbourne. In this episode of MATE, he gives some powerful tips to delivering an effective public speech, he tells us the key elements to moving TEDx Talk and he tells us what it’s like going to the global TED conference.

Jon Yeo
Jon Yeo

 

Topics:

  • How Jon’s background in IT at the time of Y2K aka “The Millennium Bug”, incidentally lead him to where he is today
  • Intense focus
  • What does a Speaker Coach do?
  • Content, delivery, composure, and vocal preparation: Is one more important than the other?
  • “Great communication is universal”
  • Make your speech accessible to your audience
  • Thought leadership and reputation trumps features and benefits
  • Apple’s trust relationship with their community of customers
  • Jon tells us what makes a great speech, some of the mistakes speakers make and gives us a taste of his ‘9 Elements’ to a great speech.
  • Jon shares his story of a Nigerian gun runner, and how Jon helped turn his story into a powerful thought-provoking message
  • The power of ideas, and asking the question “what if it wasn’t?”
  • FEAR causes us to lose LOGIC
  • The TEDx experience, culture, the history of TED Talks and the TED mantra: “Ideas worth spreading”
  • Jon tells us about some of the most notable, transformative and surprising TED Talks he’s seen
  • Jon’s heavy involvement with TEDxMelbourne conference, and how he is preparing speakers for their upcoming event on 19th September 2017)

 

TED Talks mentioned:

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 032 – Community Management vs Social Media Management, with Alison Michalk from Quiip

With a newborn baby, Alison Michalk took a crazy leap and started her own business, with the goal of a better “work/life blend”. Alison is the CEO and Founder of Quip, Australia’s leading Community Management provider. She’s also a Founder of Swarm Conference, Australia’s only conference dedicated to online community managers. In this episode of MATE, we talk about why forums are still not dead, how to build and nurture online communities, how Facebook is eating the world (and whether that’s a good thing) and how to manage your business through a crisis. We also dispel the ongoing battle, once and for all: Community Management vs Social Media Management.

Alison Michalk
Alison Michalk

 

Topics:

  • Why online forums are still not dead!
  • The ways in which forums are better than social media sites
  • How Alison’s experience moderating online communities led her to start Quiip
  • What is Quiip?
  • What is Community Management?
  • Community Management vs Social Media Management
  • How nurturing a brand’s community can lead to increased customer loyalty and customer satisfaction
  • Social media’s positive impacts on customer service
  • Alison’s primary motivation for starting her own business: flexibility and freedom.
  • Quiip encourages employees to pursue their dreams outside of Community Management
  • Remote work is the future of employment
  • The “work/life blend” philosophy
  • Starting a business with a newborn
  • Chatbots and the messaging mega-trend
  • How edgy brands can exhibit a cavalier, yet fun, tone of voice on their online communities (e.g. 7-Eleven, Boost Juice and Lorna Jane).
  • The key principals of community management
  • Facebook’s tumultuous relationship with its users
  • Facebook’s tumultuous relationship with brands and advertisers
  • Can we trust Facebook? Do we even have a choice?!
  • The responsibilities of social media platforms
  • Challenges with Facebook Live
  • The thing to remember about Facebook: it’s a business.
  • The genesis of Swarm Conference
  • How to manage a business crisis
  • The key question every manager should ask their employees: “I don’t know, what do you think?”

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 031 – Simon Davenport’s lessons from marketing at Officeworks, Boost Juice and Kmart

Simon Davenport is one of Australia’s premier marketing professionals, with 12 years’ experience in the field. He’s spent the majority of his career working in senior leadership roles at some of Australia’s most iconic retail brands. During this chat, Simon explains what he’s learned about marketing from working at successful businesses like Officeworks, Kmart and Boost Juice. In 2016, Simon was inducted into the very exclusive The Marketing Academy as one of the industry’s most influential and successful leaders. Simon’s main goal is to inspire and motivate the next generation of marketing leaders, something he absolutely does in this episode of MATE.

Simon Davenport
Simon Davenport

 

Topics:

  • Simon reflects on his early years, studying marketing and working in creative advertising agencies.
  • Why creativity is crucial in marketing
  • What Simon learned while working for retail giant Kmart: “No business is too big to benefit from change”.
  • How a youthful culture helped Boost Juice grow to over 250 stores worldwide
  • Boost Juice had a policy for their head office staff to spend time working in customer-facing roles in the retail stores, which helps them better understand the brand.
  • What Simon learned from Boost Juice founders Janine Allis and Jeff Allis (Janine is also a co-host of the entrepreneurial reality TV show Shark Tank).
  • “Passion produces great products”. But can you design for that? And if so, how?
  • What Simon has learned in his current role at Officeworks, Australia’s leading stationery and office supplies chain.
  • The similarities Simon has seen in all of the successful brands he’s worked with
  • Simon Davenport considers his career speciality as being “the fixer”.
  • Simon’s #1 leadership tip: “Ask the experts in your team the right questions”.
  • Does advertising actually work?
  • Simon breaks down the three roles of advertising: (1) sales activation; (2) functional benefits; and (3) emotional priming.
  • What are the consequences of abandoning any of those roles?
  • What does having a “brand purpose” mean?
  • The internal and operational challenges of getting an emotion-driven “brand purpose” campaign launched
  • How Simon was selected for an exclusive leadership program with The Marketing Academy
  • Simon’s advice about leadership in marketing
  • Why Simon keeps a gratitude journal

 

Links:

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.