Oatly Creative Director, Michael Lee: “Hold On To Your Common Sense”
10 February 2023
The marketing industry is creative and competitive. It’s a place where you’ll meet strong characters and find mentors and inspiration. But there’s a risk: you can lose sight of your own self in all the noise.
In How to Make It in Marketing Vol. 1, Tom Ollerton, host of the podcast and the founder of Automated Creative, spoke to industry experts who’ve weathered exactly this type of challenge. They talked to us about the importance of identifying your values early, sticking to them and allowing them to define you in your career. This can mean always throwing your hat in the ring for any opportunity, holding on to “common sense” as you define it, and defining what makes you happy.
Michael Lee, Creative Director at Oatly, warns that corporate life can quickly suck the individuality out of anyone, even in a creative industry like marketing and advertising. Instead of putting on a mask and joining the “farce” of business meetings and jargon, he advises new starters to look inwards and remember their own common sense. Otherwise, years down the line, accepting what everyone else tells you and playing by the rules 100% of the time risks turning you into someone you may not recognise. That’s why Oatly does things differently - as Michael puts it, running under the principle of “inmates running the asylum.”
Once you know you’re sticking to your values and your common sense, you need to also jump into every opportunity with your whole heart. There’s no glory in watching from behind the scene, warns Jon Hall, Head of Strategy at Whirlpool Corporation’s WOW Studios. His favourite bit of advice was a paraphrasing of Teddy Roosevelt: “It’s better to be in the fight and fail, than be the critic on the sidelines.” Then, even if you fail miserably, at least you’ve stood up for what you believe in. Creative projects, process changes, embracing new tech - anything goes as long as you have a plan and you put yourself forward.
While the book holds lots of advice around defining values and working with mentors to further your career, another huge part of being successful in marketing is following your heart. Nicole Yershon, founder of the Ogilvy & Mather Innovation pod, Ogilvy Labs, and of the NY Collective, tells us all to take notice of what makes us happy. Nicole mentors new starters and her first homework for everyone is to start scanning their environment every day for an hour and see what gives them an injection of interest. Knowing what you’re passionate about is the first step to becoming excellent in your job, and in life.
For more advice on how to make it in marketing, check out the full book and find out how to develop your knowledge, self-awareness, a career strategy and leadership skills.
This advice comes from “How to Make It In Marketing Vol. 1” - a collection of tips from 45 industry leaders in advertising and marketing, compiled from interviews on the Shiny New Object Podcast. Tom Ollerton is the host of the podcast and the founder of Automated Creative. If you wish to download the book in full, click here.