According to Telenor’s Director, Head of Marketing & Digital, Anders Holvøe, marketing is not pure science as much as it is a craft that gets better with practice. This is why his advice to newcomers into the industry is to “learn by doing” as soon as possible.
Anders hadn’t planned to be a marketer. In fact, he played the piano like his grandfather and was aiming to be a full-time musician, working with a couple of bands until it became clear that wasn’t the path for him. Staying close to the arts, he also worked as a projectionist in a cinema before eventually going to university and discovering marketing as part of his business degree.
One thing that quickly became apparent to him after starting his marketing career was that exposure to a lot of varied types of work was essential to success. His advice is that graduates should take a job in a marketing agency first, or even working directly for a brand, and try to gather as much knowledge on the job as possible. Rather than rely on theory, it’s practice that makes the magic happen in marketing.
Through tangible practical experience, marketers will develop that gut feel or intuition that leads to great campaigns. It’s not something you can pick up from a book, although the theoretical knowledge is good to have as well. Instead of becoming too focused on science and theory, Anders’ advice is: “go out and get your hands dirty.”
Anders’ passion for practical knowledge and experience extends to his views on the future of marketing, too. He believes that, in order to succeed in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, big organisations need to switch their focus to agile teams. These pull together experts from all parts of a company to ensure that projects are delivered quickly and efficiently, without waiting for approvals and going through lengthy processes. This is, according to Anders, the key to actually delivering campaigns that work.
Listen to Anders talk about new beliefs he’s developed around problem solving and give more top marketing tips, on the podcast here.
The Shiny New Object podcast is a production of Automated Creative, an adtech platform that turns brands’ media impressions into marketing intelligence. Find out more at www.automatedcreative.net
