Original Article Posted by Dash of Lime
In the Limelight this week we have Brad Page, Senior Digital Strategist at Neo@Ogilvy Cape Town, who talks to Dash of Lime about the most rewarding part of his job and shares one thing most people don’t know about him…
What is your job title and what does this entail?
I work as a Senior Digital Strategist in the Cape Town office of Neo@Ogilvy South Africa.
Neo@Ogilvy is Ogilvy & Mather’s global digital media agency and performance marketing network. My role encompasses strategic planning, project management, leadership and keeping a finger on the pulse of digital innovation on the web.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Loads of things, the list runs long, but once I hit the books for my tertiary education, it became clearer to me that I’d fulfil the role of CMO at Manchester United Football Club.
Why did you choose digital?
I was lucky to land in the butter, fresh out of a BCom Marketing Management degree, with an entry level position at a digital media agency office located in Cape Town, servicing foreign based clients.
What role do you think “digital content” plays in a media strategy?
Creation (DCC), as part of the digital production process, followed by syndication (DCS) (or in plain English: information available for download/ distribution across the web) has been the bread and butter of smart web publishing properties for years. More recently, with an increasing amount of consumer and corporate brands entering this arena, as content creators, they need to determine the best way to present their digital content to consumers. As an integrated cog of a media strategy, its role is vital in the two-way dialogue which the web facilitates. More recently, consumer brands are becoming more comfortable with this, and have accepted the challenge to fully integrate it into their media strategy. IBM @smarterplanet, British Airways @British_Airways and Nike Football @nikefootball are notable success stories. It must be noted though, that it is not for every brand.
What excites you about the digital marketing and advertising industry?
Living in a developing market, we find digital marketing in its infancy stage, we’ve barely scratched the surface. We have world-class talent and world-class creative minds. Complement this with an approaching tipping point between digital marketing demand and supply, and there is not much more motivation needed to be excited about the local digital marketing and advertising industry.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
Working in a team filled with bright young minds, and within a Neo@Ogilvy global network which functions as an extended team, with a shared vision, allowing us to see the benchmark, is rewarding. Translating business problems into digital marketing strategies, and watching these strategies develop into business results, by simply connecting the dots, is satisfying.
What is your favourite website in the Dash of Lime portfolio, and why?
Computicket. As a retailing service of Shoprite Holdings Ltd it was an inspiring early adopter of e-tailing in SA and is a success story.
Do you have any advice for advertisers considering investing in online marketing?
Simply put…
Do:
Plenty of research to understand the discipline.
Partner with online marketing experts.
Avoid ‘bright shiny object syndrome’.
Do Not…
Approach it in the same way as offline marketing. In reality, there are plenty of resources available online for SME’s, to assist them in making online marketing decisions.
The snippet of advice? Set out with the goal of creating: data driven online marketing decisions.
What is the one thing most people don’t know about you?
I have an identical twin brother who lives in London and is working at Vodafone UK.
What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Self-entitlement.
If we were to check your PVR/DVD library, what would we find?
PVRed: mostly CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Bloomberg’s TechStars and Game Changers, CNBC Africa’s Invest Africa and Entrepreneurial Edge, BBC’s Click, SuperSport’s Barclays Premier League and episodes from the Travel Channel…
What’s your superpower?
*insert witty, funny and somewhat narcissistic answer here*
If you could send a short letter to your sixteen-year-old self, what would it say?
“Teach yourself computer programming (coding), and become a developer, and I’m not talking about a property developer!”
Just kidding…
I would tell my sixteen-year-old self to continue acting like my sixteen-year-old self.
