It’s midweek, and we’re reflecting on quite probably the busiest couple of months in Marketing Academy history, so fitting it into one digestible update for all your inboxes has been a little challenging. Here’s your *ahem* brief update…
Inspire Live
Last Thursday saw the highlight of our learning events calendar, our annual conference, The Marketing Academy Inspire LIVE at Google… it was our biggest and best event yet, and it was great to see so many familiar faces! Even better, we raised over £25,000 for our apprenticeship programme!!!
Throughout the day we focussed on the superpowers needed to be a great leader. We covered resilience, influencing, growth, networking, trust, storytelling, curiosity, listening, and how to actually discover your superpower. With an array of phenomenal speakers the atmosphere was buzzing and the energy throughout the day was inspiring. Thank you again to everyone who made the day possible!
In even better news, our Marketing Academy Inspire Events programme has got a host of further lectures and breakfasts coming up, including:
- 18th May: How to manage relationships with Alexandra Lichtenfeld
- 8th June: What’s your problem – defining the challenge with David Alberts
- 6th July: Creativity and Curiosity – a masterclass – with David Pearl and Chris Barez-Brown
- 27th July: Storytelling with Max Dickens
- 23rd Nov: How to lead teams effectively with Anna Hickey
100% of money raised from the Inspire learning series is donated to support the The Marketing Academy’s Apprentice programme. The events are open to all and can be booked online here.
The Marketing Academy Foundation
Since separating our Apprenticeship Programme off as a separate charity at the end of 2016 we’ve been very busy! The first meeting of the trustees took place in March – comprising Daryl Fielding as the CEO, Emma Sapani and Lisa Goodchild (a former Scholar) and Sherilyn as a lifetime trustee and chair.
We have ambitions to scale the effort and widen the pool of young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds that get an opportunity to start a career in marketing, advertising or media.
Jake Elgar, our Apprentice at The Prince’s Trust, successfully completed his year and is now working at iprospect, a global digital marketing agency that is part of the Dentsu Aegis network. We are super proud of Jake who is now also one of our Ambassadors!
After such a successful Inspire LIVE for fundraising – thank you Team Inspire – we’re delighted to say that another Apprenticeship can be funded! The Prince’s Trust are recruiting, so please click here and share with anyone who you think would benefit from this life changing opportunity.
The Class of 2016
As the UK 2016 Scholarship comes to an end, the Scholars have begun organising their Showcase Lecture which is to be hosted at the BFI Southbank on Tuesday 9th May from 5.30pm.
It’s free, there’ll be drinks, the Mentor Awards and the Class of 2017 will be announced and welcomed to the Marketing Academy family. Book your ticket now.
News from Down Under
It’s been a packed few months for our Australian friends who had the tough job of selecting the 2017 Scholarship cohort – you can see who made it here.
They spent five inspirational days at their Bootcamp at the unique Q Station just outside Sydney with John Steedman ‘Steady’ Chairman at WPP Australia & NZ Media Services and Russel Howcroft, Chief Creative Officer at PWC and Robbert Rietbroek, CEO of Pepsi and many more.
Partner Spotlight – Google
Digital marketing budgets are on the up – but the skills behind that spend are flatlining, says the latest Talent Revolution report published by Google Digital Academy in partnership with Boston Consulting Group and industry bodies including the Marketing Academy.
The findings for a digital skills survey that included 5000+ marketers from 126 agencies and 141 advertisers across 41 countries reveal there’s been no improvement in advertiser digital skill levels at all over the last 18 months. Agencies shape up a little stronger in comparison, but there’s a clear disconnect between the skills required and those in play on both sides – particularly in high-impact channels such as mobile, video and testing. How do we take things forward as an industry? Google think advertiser-agency skills partnerships would be a move in the right direction. Read the full Talent Revolution write-up and get your capability checklist here.
The Scholarship Alumni Council led by Kathryn Marriott kicked off their new programme in March. With representatives from each Alumni year they shared their purpose to build the community and invited everyone to get stuck in (over a few beers and glasses of prosecco!) We remembered what connects us all and the shared challenges that we all face. There was even a giant brainstorm about how we can all best shape the programme together.
We kicked off the programme of events with a Masterclass with Thomas Barta on Leadership last Saturday at Global Radio, and next up is a Breakfast Session with Ian Pries on 27th April at AMV BBDO.
Watch this space for more opportunities to get involved….
Marketing Week Live
Last month saw our third year at Marketing Week Live and we went bigger and better than we ever have done before, hosting our own main stage over both days! With a packed crowd, our speakers brought to life inspirational stories, industry tricks and creative thought. With presentations from the likes of Lloyds Banking Group, Lego, Google, British Gas and Facebook, delegates went away with notebooks full of top tips and trade secrets!
Advertising Week Europe
And just a week later we were at Advertising Week Europe for the first time! It was a-mazing! For the first time we brought our (in)famous Bootcamp programme to a public audience and it was a sell out! Our speakers were a mix of familiar Bootcamp faces with a few new ones too… Attendees were blown away by stories, insights and ‘from the heart’ confessions from the likes of Sarah Warby, Steven Overman (Kodak), James Brett (Plant for Peace) and JC Oliver (Unlockd).
Partner Spotlight – Brand Learning
Brand Learning, our long-standing partner, is launching new research into how to lift performance for growth. As better judgement, faster uptake of new learning programmes & smarter decision-making become even more important, line managers have to play a critical role. Last year’s Growth Drivers Study from Brand Learning in partnership with the Marketing Academy, found middle managers and leaders are often disenchanted, but are absolutely vital for driving performance change. How equipped do you feel as a manager to help your team learn? How well does your manager help you learn what you need to do your job? Please give just a couple of minutes of your time to complete this survey, and we’ll follow up on the results in a few months’ time!
Congratulations to Marketing Academy Family Members…
(Scholar) Claire Canty has been internally promoted to Head of Innovation with Weetabix
(Fellow Alumni) Keith Moor has been promoted to the Executive Board of Santander
And some recommended reading…
Don’t forget to check out our news & blog page on the website. Also worth a read from the Marketing Academy family and beyond are Shut the Duck Up by Pete Cohen, Hack Yourself by Jack Lowman, Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity by Edward de Bono, Why the ‘millennial problem’ isn’t a problem at all by our very own Sherilyn Shackell, and this Marketing Week article starring Keith Moor – Fellow Alumni, looking at CMOs on boards by Thomas Hobbs.
And… that’s a wrap – thanks for reading!