
Confessions of a Marketeer who used to be an Adman.
“Find out who you are. And do it with purpose”.
It all started at the moment of realisation
June 2016: That was the moment I realised I was no good for advertising. Being brutally honest, I could fit the profile of an adman. Strange sense of humour, ready to challenge anything ordinary, multitasker (almost) and “tagline” responsive for everything that happened around me. With a sense of sarcasm and cynical reality. That was the day I decided to see if the grass is greener on the other side, the day I decided to leave my first ad agency job for a second one; in search of my purpose.
November 2017: The moment of truth. When you understand that it is your duty to be honest with yourself, your employer and your colleagues. Because you know that what you really need to be is something else.
Being in an advertising agency is like partying on a 24/7 basis. It stimulates your brain cells, activates your happy hormones and makes you confident with your ideas, thought process and mindset. Confident enough to resign from your job and start something on your own. From scratch.
Advertising is not Marketing: Marketing needs time
The problem of the equation with me and the advertising industry was mostly “existential”. I loved to pitch, I loved to challenge and get challenged and I adored seeing my clients in owe or smirking. What I didn’t love was that my responsibility ended at the message, while I wanted to do more.
There is a huge misunderstanding about marketing & advertising. Advertising is the science of communicating a specific message to a specific group of people in an attempt for a specific result. While marketing involves a broader spectrum of activities in an effort to add value to the proposition; beginning from the product and ending to the consumer with an ultimate goal to win their hearts and minds.
What most advertisers do is to attract eye balls. Which is fairly acceptable. The game of attention is crucial and very challenging. But what happens next? What is the ROI of the eyeballs you attract? What is the real-time insights you build through the behaviour and interaction of users with your marketing initiatives?
That is when I realised that beyond the fact that I loved slogans, pitching and gimmicky activations that attract eyeballs, I wanted to be more than just a adman.
I wanted to dedicate my time into peoples concerns and challenges. I wanted to provide solutions that would pay-off the money invested. I wanted to be that guy you are looking to talk about your vision, discuss about how you will do things now that everything is changing. I wanted to revolutionise what people think of marketing in Cyprus. And then use those “modern marketing believers” that I like to call gems, and travel them around the World. Make our island proud of what we do, by travelling local brands into a Global Era.
I want to make our island proud of what we do, by travelling local brands into a Global Era.
My purpose will never be in conflict with anyone or anything.
Finding who you are and your true calling is a challenge. Some of us never find it, some of us do. I know I did. I know that finding out your why is a lot to take, especially if you are honest to yourself and the people around you.
My purpose: To help visionary companies align with the future by bringing them closer to digital re-invention. From zero to hero.
I know that my purpose is more of a promise. I would prefer calling it a way of life or a mindset.
But it’s no slogans…no bullshit.
Care to see more?
Wait for it…It’s near.
