Ahead of the AdSchool Advanced Strategic Planning course this September we caught up with some of our presenters to tell us a little about themselves and get their perspective on the course
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Presenter: Erin Core, Strategy Director at Clemenger BBDO Brisbane/ Proximity
TCC: How did you first get into the advertising industry?
Erin: That classic story of ‘I fell into it by accident’. My early career was in motorsports media and I got to a point where I had travelling non-stop for months and I was exhausted. Thanks to an introduction by my Mum, I got hired as the personal assistant to an MD of an ad agency in Sydney. And then I fell in love with the industry.
TCC: What was it about strategic planning that attracted you – as opposed to, for example, client service (or any other advertising discipline)?
Erin: I’ve always intuitively connected the dots between things and love learning. I actually started in client service, and once I moved into bigger agencies with more departments I learned that that you could do the thinking part without the JDRs part, so I tried to find a way to make more of the thinking happen. It’s my ideal job, and one that I never knew existed when I was younger.
TCC: What would you say have been the biggest challenges of your career to date, and what would you rank as your best successes?
Erin: There’s no singular big challenge, but rather an ongoing challenge of effort versus reward: how much of your heart and soul do you give, how much time do you have available to give, where do you focus your energies, and what’s the likely outcome of those inputs.
I like to always think that my best successes are ahead of me, not behind me. We’ve got some behaviour change and social change projects live that should have a lasting influence in Queensland. But in terms of past work, I do have a real soft spot for the ‘Spotty Dog’ character that we developed for Arnott’s Tiny Teddies.
TCC: Have you seen any big changes in strategy planning since you first got into it?
Erin: The retreat from the depths of ‘specialisms’ – the industry has self-corrected after diving a little too deep into specialist planning roles, which lost some of the magic that comes from creating insights from a wider range of inputs.
TCC: What do you want students to take away from the AdSchool Advanced Strategic Planning course?
Erin: I love the three terms used to describe the course: inspiration, provocation and practical application.
I want students to be inspired by some of the wonderful work that exists, and by the stretch in their own, and each other’s thinking.
I want to provoke questioning and new perspectives. There are multiple perspectives in advertising and marketing, with a common history that is often poorly understood, yet has shaped the advertising era we find ourselves in now.
I want students to walk away with practical methodologies, frameworks and learnings that they can apply the very next day.
Having 8 weeks to focus and sharpen your thinking is incredibly invigorating.
About AdSchool Advanced Strategic Planning
This course is aimed at more experienced planners/ professionals (3+ years) who want to expand their skill set and their horizons and make an impact as a strategist at a senior level. It will stretch the delegates, and offers inspiration, provocation and practical application. Endorsed by the APG.