Welcome to the Digital Marketing Inner Circle

If you are a follower of these interviews, you will know I am genuinely incredibly impressed by the passion and breadth of talent and experiences the digital industry attracts and have a great opportunity to highlight these people and hopefully inspire some of you. This week, Denise Shrivelle has contributed a great interview with Mark Pollard – truly the real deal – perhaps the digital industry’s version of the ‘triple threat’. From an entrepreneurial background where he gained hands on experience building a multi-platform niche media business, a blogger with a strong and provocative voice, he now brings his considerable know-how and hands-on insights to the corporate world through his strategy role with McCann – Sydney. In his profile Mark gives us his future trends and forecasts (see Q5) – watch out publishers!

He also offers 5 succinct areas which the digital industry can address right now (see Q7). Mark is passionate about men’s issues and wellbeing and encourages us all to see ourselves as more than our professional roles – a topic he addresses regularly in his blog, which I have linked to at the end of his profile. So, do you think Mark is a ‘digital triple threat’? – given the nature of the business he started, I bet he can even sing!

Name: Mark Pollard

Works: Often – at McCann Sydney

Job Title: Strategy Director

1. How, where and when did the digital industry find you?

I think it was in 1996 when I found 2 things that have led to so much stuff in my life: Hotmail and IRC. With Hotmail, I couldn’t believe that I could write to people without sending a letter. With IRC, I couldn’t believe that I could talk to people I didn’t even know… whenever I wanted… about stuff I was interested in.

Within a matter of months I had set up a website on Geocities (maybe Tripod as well) and was interviewing rappers overseas. I was also using IRC to promote dance parties. I think it was in my 2nd year of university that the key marketing channels for our parties were: bad A3 posters, stalls at uni, trying to get the welcome message when people logged into particular IRC channels and asking people to send around links via ICQ and email.

All of this led to me taking over the main hip hop radio show in Sydney (The Mothership Connection, 2SER) then setting up a magazine (Stealth: www.stealthmag.com) that went global.

I loved it all so much that I finished my degree off quickly to work in a digital agency for $150 a week, working on Levi’s first branded content website, Original Sin.

2. What is your current role and what do you actually do?

I am a bit of a hybrid. I do digital and brand strategy. So, I could be involved with coming up with positioning statements, brand essences, insights part of the day then thinking about information architecture, social networks and search the rest of it.

3. If you could have any job, what would it be (can be in and/or outside the industry)?

I dig what I do but my life, I hope, is more than what I do for a living. I’m really interested in manhood and education. I’d like to think that when I die I’ll have challenged some men to think differently… for the collective better.

4. Take a punt on the ‘next big thing’ in digital?

I’m actually interested in things that make more of what’s already there – taking existing data, for example, and creating new value out of it. The impact of search, social networks and mobile will be incredible. But existing (and new) data being made available to people excites me. It’s like watching the Church post-Middle Ages open its libraries.

5. How do you see the digital industry in the next 5 years? (any forecasts and challenges)

I still remember waiting for our doors to be closed at K*Grind in 2000. After the dot-com era, people left the industry, students stopped getting trained, Macquaire Bank stopped spending… Fortunately, with fast access to the internet, the proliferation of mobile and things like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube now in existence, I don’t think we’ll have a 5-year gap in skills. But here are some thoughts:

- Australian online media still needs to innovate. It’s a personal opinion that a lot of the large networks have been getting away with … not innovating. When a media agency tells me that a campaign did really well because it got above 1% click-through, “the industry average”, it makes me imitate Susan Boyle. And, yes, I understand that not all online display campaigns are about click-through, but, still… I’m begging large online media companies to innovate. Stop being ruled by archaic IT systems.

- Everyone’s digital so who do I work with? So if digital is mainstream, if people spend more time online than watching TV as they do now, if all agencies and media are digital… what happens? Generalists? Specialists? We’ll be in another cycle of slow generalisation. I think the economy is going to be crap for a while – and in this time many companies will just eat each other while others will die. Maybe it will just be about brands/companies dealing more directly with their customers.

- Professional tribes. So many digital types I know work best in small groups. I wonder if this will lead to a lot of small, agile professional collectives over large digital and mainstream agencies. It feels natural – and the economic imperative of global companies doesn’t feel as assured as it did.

- Data stoushing. Who owns the data? Wow. This nerdy number stuff that so many weren’t interested in will become fighting grounds – if it isn’t already. Agency vs agency, social network vs search engine.

- What’s the sound of a big penny dropping? Finally, search and social is getting attention from the C-Level. It is definitely interesting, however, how many marketers’ IT departments don’t let them onto YouTube or Facebook. Ummm….

6. How do you see other media evolving in the next 5 years?

I’ll state the obvious – screens will be everywhere. Then, the possibly obvious – we are all media. And, if we are all media, then brands will understand that they are also media. Further, they will understand that not only are they media but they are a distribution channel. Maybe brands will sell other stuff via their packaging… Maybe brands will cease giving money to big media companies and, instead, create their own media… despite their current thinking that this is not their core competency.

7. What does the digital industry need to do in the next 12 months?

I’ll give you 5.

1. Think strategically
2. Be usefully measurable
3. Make ideas – before executions
4. Stop talking bullshit
5. Stop flashturbating

8. What tips can you give to aspiring web entrepreneurs or those entering our industry?

Solve problems in interesting ways then work your arse off. Continually answer the questions: “How am I different?” and “How am I adding value to the environments I’m in?”

9. Where do you get your industry information from?

The internet.

10. What industry groups or networks are you a part of?

I’m on the Account Planning Group committee and AFA Digital Committee.

You can see Mark’s blog by going to – http://www.markpollard.net/ and follow him on twitter here – www.twitter.com/markpollard

Have any comments or feedback on this interview then please post a comment below