Well for those of you with good Math skills (and those
without) you’ll be able to work out that I graduated in 2009, at the heart of
the recession, meaning job opportunities (especially for that dream job all
graduates so desperately crave) were few and far between.
It took me 6 months and multiple applications, interviews
and rejections but I finally landed myself a job as a Project Analyst within a
Life and Pensions provider.
Not quite the direction I had envisaged myself going whilst
working on Marketing or Business Development case studies about Amazon and
Disney during my studies but it was a job and a foot on the ladder!
Simply put, I was one of the many graduates to almost “fall
in to” a career path that was chosen based upon my necessity to make all of the
debt collected on student loans and late night studying worth it!
There was a certain lack of creativity involved in the Life
and Pensions industry (I know you’re all shocked!) and the right side of my
brain was just craving to be allowed to have its say!
Well last March I made the decision to take my career path
in a slightly different direction and apply for a role within the Marketing
department at Fruit of the Loom.
Luckily for me I was successful and instantly knew I was in
an atmosphere that more reflected both my personality and direction I wanted to
go. Even as a Commercial Analyst I was asked for my creative opinion on artwork
and involved in agency meetings. I had more creative meetings in my first week
than I would have ever had in my previous environment.
But I was still on the fringes of Marketing, watching on as
my colleagues took on creative projects and interacted with creativity on a
daily basis.
Then, 5 months ago, the chance arose for me to apply for an
internal position as Digital Marketing Executive…a role that would send me in a
completely unchartered path for me but one that would combine my passion for
marketing and desire to let my creative side run wild with the analytical
skills I have picked up along the way.
And having previously worked as a Marketing Assistant during
my placement year and also working as a Commercial Analyst within the Marketing
team in question for the 8 months prior, the switch didn’t seem like it would
be as risky as it might be going elsewhere.
I’m not naïve enough to believe that just having the right
job title ensured that every day will come up smelling of roses or that there
won’t be dull moments but I was prepared to take that step into the unknown,
knowing that the days that provided creativity and enjoyment would more than
outweigh the others.
And thanks to all of these decisions that I have taken, I
was able to enjoy one such day last week, when I had the pleasure of attending
the 4th annual McCann Birmingham Digital 360 event, held at Austin
Court in Birmingham.
Now, if you are a believer in fate and things happening for
a reason then the day started well. For in order to ensure I had something to
entertain my mind during the 1 hour train journey to Birmingham from Shrewsbury
I decided to purchase a daily newspaper…something I haven’t done for some time.
With all of the options available to me, I decided against
any of the red-tops (just because) and knew that if I went for one of the broad
sheets then the site of me trying to turn giant pages on a packed train would
soon outweigh any intellectual prowess I was trying to protrude.
Instead I went for the in-between (and weirdly the cheapest)
choice and purchased the i-newspaper for 30p.
There were a number of interesting articles on the first 39
pages, not least one about an inappropriate local train announcer, but as soon
as I turned on to page 40 I was stopped in my tracks (get it, tracks…trains…just
me? Oh well…) and got the feeling that seems to evade us all far too often… the
feeling that everything was falling into alignment rather neatly.
For the headline on page 40 read “The Rise of Digital Marketing"...
(The Page 40 article in question, Source: i Newspaper Print Edition 20/03/14)
The article was predominantly a chance to promote the 2
London Universities offering post graduate courses in different fields of Digital
Marketing but the theme went along with the heading and conveyed the message
that this was a field on the rise and businesses needed to reflect the
importance of it or risk falling behind. Alongside that message was the added
bonus for my background that analytical skills would help people thrive within
this aspect of Marketing…all music to my ears!
I looked around to see if anyone else had reached the same
epiphany moment as I had just done…or whether someone was sat there waiting to
tell me this was a prank being played on me…nothing…just 100 or so blank
expressions from people going about their morning commute as normal and
wondering why this weird guy was trying to make eye contact with everyone.
But it seemed like the world was telling me something.
Nudging me towards the conclusion that maybe I was finally on the right path…or
maybe someone just happened to write an article on Digital Marketing in the
paper I chose to purchase on the one day I chose to purchase it on my way to a
seminar on Digital Marketing? (For those of you wondering, I purchased the same
brand of newspaper the next day just to check if it was a regular theme and I
can tell you there were no such articles on Digital Marketing that day…just
throwing it out there!) Either way, whatever you believe, it started my day
with the confidence and eagerness to increase my knowledge base further…and so
onwards I travelled.
I then arrived at the venue to find delicious breakfast
pastries and juices available, most likely to ensure we were all suitably
filled with enough sustenance to keep our minds focussed on the content about
to be delivered to us…they needn’t have worried…
With presentations from Mintel, Sky Media and The Guardian
intertwined with case studies from McCann employees, the insight provided to
the audience was interesting, engaging and scary all at the same time.
(Prime seats for question time with the speakers at the McCann Digital 360 Event)
Interesting in the sense that we were treated to stats
detailing the habits and patterns of the post-recession consumer; Engaging as
with each new speaker that arrived on the stage, new ways to reach and interact
with these consumers were delivered alongside some modern technological
advances that wouldn’t have seemed out of place being reviewed on The Gadget
Show; Finally the scariness came from the amount of data that is collected on
all of us as we go about our daily lives. Every item purchased, every link
clicked on, even every facial expression made can be collected at different
times depending on where you are or what you are doing. This concept was referred
to as “Big Data” and essentially means that every action we take in the modern
world can be captured, translated and fed back to us in a way that is designed
to seek our engagement all over again… and I know what you’re thinking and I
agree, you’re right to be thinking it… “How very Orwellian!”
The overall message behind the day was that “Content is key”
in order to help engage the end user and drive a business forward with the
right product mix directed at the right consumer demographic… but the prospect
of Orwellian privacy was never far behind…whether we like it or not, Big
Brother (who take many forms and watch us from many locations) can see
everything if we let them, a fact that is seeing legal precedents arise in the
United States on a more frequent basis but one that doesn’t have to be scary if
you a) know how to protect yourself or b) don’t mind the slight intrusion of
privacy if it means that the world around you becomes more tailored to you.
Concepts such as mood-sensing audio systems in the home or
billboards that convey advertising to you based upon your current facial
expression seem all very Star Trek-like but are very real and very much in use
and are just the tip of the iceberg for where technology, data and marketing can
be taken.
For me, as I am still relatively new in to this side of
Marketing, all of the intrigue, engagement and scariness that sparked my
interest and humbled me to see where the field is heading and in an environment
that is ever changing, I already feel like I’ll be playing catch up for a while
to come yet!
And all the while these presentations were taking place, my
mind was taking in all of this information as well as flashing back to that
article on page 40 and my decision to take a step in to the unknown all those
months ago.
However, it was the reinforcement of the message that
analytics would continue to play a huge part in the future shaping of Digital
Marketing that made me realise that life might just have taken me on these
apparently unconnected paths to reach the point where I finally figured out
what I was meant to be doing within it!
It all sounds very fantastical but I can’t describe it any
other way.
Through chance I had landed myself an analytical job outside
of Marketing…a chance decision to take a leap of faith as an Analyst within a
Marketing team led me to be in the right place at the right time when a Digital
Marketing position became available…which led me to reading an article in a
randomly purchased newspaper by chance on the one day that I was on a train to
a Digital Marketing seminar…what would you call it?
Anyway, once the seminar was concluded, questions were
answered, guests and speakers were thanked and the crowds made their way back
to normality, it was time for me to do likewise.
Despite all of the fantastical cosmic alignment talk and
enjoyment of the day, I knew I would still be heading back in to the office as
usual the following day. But for the first time in a long while I would be doing
so knowing that I was heading in the right direction (metaphorically anyway, after one year at the same place of work you would expect I know where the office is by now!).
Ultimately, this hasn’t just been an excuse for me to learn to play the
trumpet, I guess the moral behind this narrative is that change can be scary or
risky but change can also lead you in the right direction. Sometimes taking
that leap of faith can pay off and it may take time and there will always be
ups and downs but on the occasions when everything seems to fall in to place, you’ll
get the chance to reflect and think “I made the right decision…I made this
happen!”
Oh and all of this happened
to me on World Happiness Day…coincidence? I like to think not!
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