A lesson in how to thrive as a media and marketing maven
Q&A with Jeanette Asteborg, Marketing Manager of Volkswagen Group Sweden, on media best-practices, worst habits and more.
Jeanette Asteborg knows media.
From honing her skills in the media sales and agency bubble to taking the leap to Volkswagen Sweden, she has experience and knowledge in it all.
Since taking the wheel at Volkswagen Group Sweden as Marketing Manager in 2015, her days are filled with meetings, running ATL, BTL, dealer advertising, sponsorships…the list goes on and on.
Google around and you’ll see. Her experience is matched with a killer drive — which helped to outmanoeuvre both Dieselgate and in 2017, other marketeers to win Sweden’s Best Marketing Manager in the Automotive Industry.
So what’s this media mavens secret for success?
From the outside looking in — Mental agility.
She has fine-tuned mental agility and an on-the-go mentality to manage her work with her time. To succeed in media and advertising, an industry where trends, people and tech change quickly, being mental agile means adopting an openness to new ideas and trends.
Building a career gives experience and heavy insight into what is needed, what needs to go and what works. We caught up with Jeanette for (on-the go, of course) for a quick Q&A to pick her brain on what to scrap, keep and look towards in media and marketing.
What media trends need to be trashed?
“Rationalizing backwards
Agencies and companies will get an idea and try to rationalize it backwards to make it fit in the strategy. Think about the output, the object and focus on supporting the best solution to support it in the beginning.”
What does media and marketing need more of?
“More differentiation
The market is so saturated. Products are more and more alike and brands need a personality. This is important — reflect on if my brand was a person, who am I? You can copy any product. You can’t copy a culture.”
What tools do you use the most?
“Anything accessible on my smartphone. 📱
Please and thank you! I travel a lot and logging in from a computer isn’t always an option.
I’ve got 15 meetings a week. This means I need to be extremely effective and have seamless access to my work tools across all devices.
My to-dos, dashboard and mail are standard. Sure, they aren’t the most intricate, they are always in my pocket.”
What is Ocast for the media and advertising industry?
Yes, I obviously asked.
“A crystal ball. 🔮
For me, Ocast is a crystal ball.
The media landscape needs a crystal ball to crunch a lot of data sources. Right now there is a lot of information in various silos and made by many different consultants. We need to connect the dots between data, platers, initiatives and find patterns.
I don’t use [Ocast] directly because we have agencies but it’s a smart way for them to collect time consuming information in one platform. For us at Volkswagen, it means more effective hours.
Instead of searching around for information, we can get this info fast and spend more time focusing on communicating.”
What is your method for success?
“Test and develop. Repeat.
Improving your method is about testing and learning. You will not improve if your decision-making is always based off past data alone. You have to work with a combination of business systems and your gut feeling — that is my best compass.”
Key takeaways 👇
#1. Maximize your time. Maximize your output.
Simple — more efficient time means your get more done.
Using tools that accessible across devices and are a fast information tool should be your best friend.
#2. Find new ideas and strategies. Then don’t look back.
Strategize towards your goals from the beginning and don’t shy away from ditching old processes. The change makes way for more efficiency and new ideas to develop in marketing and media. Wouldn’t you like to lead that?
Give us a 👏 and share to spread the word. Follow us on Medium, Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn to stay updated.
Interested in another read?
Read an Ocast exclusive — “What does the future holds for the media industry in Sweden?” here.
