Who are you, and what do you do?
I’m Scott Randall Smith and I’m the Marketing Director at Scandia Group Australia, designers and manufacturers of high-end fireplaces and BBQs with $100million in annual turnover across 5 brands.
What has been one insight or lesson that has been most helpful in your career?
Pay as close attention to your competition as you do to yourself.
What has been your favorite mistake? A mistake that in retrospect led to a great lesson and progress.
Telling the CEO of McDonald’s Australia that he was making a mistake adding salads to the menu. He didn’t listen and then assigned the creative to myself and my team while I was CD @ Leo Burnett’s SYD.
Project forward ten years. How will your industry or field be fundamentally different then? What opportunities do you see?
10yrs is a lifetime and at the speed things move now, I’d be placing too much of a bet on where things might be by then. But I can tell you that within the next 2 years we will move to create the best consumer experiences in the digital realm, using AR to encircle consumers in a cross-pollinated branding experience that clearly defines the benefits of each brand to the consumer, but with a slight-of-hand approach so as to guarantee that the tool is also shared with each consumer’s friends.
What are some bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
‘Just get it out there’ (as if it’s going to sell itself).
In the last two years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Over-priced ‘ambassadors’. WAAAAAAaaaaayyyy too many people out there trying to ply absurd $$$ out of companies for content.
What is the one book you recommend most often and why?
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This! – it’s the best all-encompassing book for advertising and marketing professionals and newbies that walks thru history to almost current times.
What advice would you give a smart and ambitious recent college graduate? What advice should they ignore?
The same advice I’d give a dumb and lazy college graduate: Leave your pride at the door, pick-up the closest shovel and get digging. It may take a while to hit pay dirt, but your hard work will be appreciated and in some cases even become infectious. Neve be afraid of the hard work, because there’s always someone willing to work harder than you.
What is your favorite quote, one you aim to live by?
“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.” – Charles Bukowsk This is life (and advertising) in a nutshell KEEP. IT. SIMPLE.