creativebrief: Why did you choose a career in marketing?

Adam Johnson: I completed my Batchelor’s Degree in French & International Management, and Marketing was the part of the course I enjoyed the most. I had always been a relatively creative person and marketing seemed to be the most natural confluence of creativity and commerce.

I was lucky enough to get myself onto a work placement programme at Toyota in their marketing department when I was still at University, something which involved working with their advertising, direct, digital and CRM teams. It also gave me the opportunity to work with their agencies and as soon as I was exposed to the energy and excitement of a creative agency I was hooked, from that point on I knew that’s where I wanted to start my career. I thought maybe one day I’d end up on the client side and, so far, things seem to have gone to plan!

creativebrief: What do you think makes a successful career in marketing?

Adam Johnson: I’m waiting to find out! The best advice I ever got was “Plan for success”. Whether that’s for your career or just your next campaign, the point is that if you plan for things working out the way you truly think they will, then they generally do.

On a more practical note, a successful career in marketing has to be built on credibility. Knowing your numbers, trusting your gut, knowing what your team can achieve and then do everything you can to ensure the rest of the business see Marketing (with a  capital ‘M’) as a critical driver of the business.

creativebrief: And who is a great example of this?

Adam Johnson: Having had the privilege of being a Marketing Academy scholar for the past year, I have met some incredible individuals who have shown what can be achieved with belief and the ability to show a business the true power of Marketing.

Amanda Mackenzie at Aviva is a fantastic example of this, for me, and yet somebody who has remained incredibly grounded.

Closer to home, John Nichols at Nokia (now Global Brand Director) is the person who has instilled in me a fierce commerciality and consumer obsession. This has ensured that Marketing has maintained a proud and respected “seat at the table” at Nokia UK&I.

creativebrief: What do you think are the main challenges facing marketers today?

Adam Johnson: The first is the constant need to do more with less. This won’t change as long as we remain in a competitive business environment, and this isn’t unique to Marketing. It just means that Marketer’s need to  empirically show how they’re doing more with less, and what could be achieved if we did have more.

The second is ‘paralysis by analysis’. Marketers who don’t embrace research, metrics and accountability will soon be extinct. But a marketer earns his or her crust when they instinctively know the point to say “we don’t have all the information, but this feels right” and has the support of the business to do the right thing. Continuing to research and refine beyond that point will only result in delay and banality.

creativebrief: How do you keep up with constant stream of innovation in marketing comms?

Adam Johnson: I’m not sure I do, if I’m honest. I don’t think anybody can, such is the pace of innovation in our world. I also don’t think you can separate innovation in marcomms with the innovation that happens every day in the rest of our world.

One advantage we do have at Nokia is that our business is reliant on the level of innovation we bring to the market (as much as I’d like to think it’s solely the quality of our Marketing!). We’re therefore probably more acutely aware of what is happening out there, as a lot of it comes from our industry, and there is an innate expectation we use these tools in our consumer engagement.

The only other practical thing I do is have a separate folder for the plethora of newsletters and social media reports I receive, and dedicate an hour per week to absorb this. It’s very rare if this doesn’t result in an idea that we are able to quickly implement.

creativebrief: How does this impact your relationship with agencies?

Adam Johnson: I treat our agencies as an extension of our team, it means I expect them to come to me with innovation-driven, commercially-considered ideas as much as I do my own team members. What they may lack in day-to-day exposure to the business, they should make up for in the external focus they have with prospective suppliers, the unavoidable nature of a more creative environment and the younger profile of their staff.

creativebrief: How do you know if you’re getting the best from your agencies?

Adam Johnson: When we are successful, they are successful. When we feel pain, they do as well.

You know you’re getting the best from an agency when they work with you through the latter, in the unshakable belief that the former is inevitable.

creativebrief: Of your recent work, what makes you particularly proud and why?

Adam Johnson: I think some of the content stuff we’ve done recently, to show authentic proof-points of our technology that people can relate to, has been excellent. In an industry where it’s very easy to take yourself a little too seriously, we thought the best way to demonstrate the PureView technology in the Lumia 920 was to give the device to a real-life crane driver called Eugene in East London, and let him show in his own words how it works, above the London skyline. We’re also about to do a similar thing with some Freerunners as part of our global partnership with Red Bull.

The two collaborations (Millbank and Southwark) we have done with deadmau5 have been great examples of the reward of calculated risk, and what can happen when branded content becomes cultural currency (9m views between them).

And finally, I’m proud of the deal we struck with Channel 4 in the sponsorship of their Drama series. I’m particularly pleased with the way we have activated it through idents that still educate the viewer about the product, rather than simply announce that we have paid some money to stick our logo at the start and end of the ad breaks.

creativebrief: How do you think marketers can raise the profile of marketing within their organisations?

Adam Johnson: Marketers need to embrace the whole new world of accountability that wasn’t here a decade ago. No longer is it a ‘mystical art’, but a discipline which is as transparent as any other in the business; one where a CEO can access a dashboard at the click of mouse and ask some pointed questions about why our CPA has increased 5pc since last week.

Rather than strike fear into the heart of a CMO, marketers should arm themselves with these insights and proudly demonstrate how much of an investment marketing is, not an overhead.

creativebrief: Do you see yourself as a generalist or a specialist, does it matter?

Adam Johnson: I am very much a generalist. Having worked across almost every part of the mix on the agency-side, and then having done the same on the other side of the fence in probably the fastest-paced industry of all, I don’t think I could have survived with a single string to my bow.

Does it matter? That’s very much down to the individual, from what they derive most energy and what they want to achieve. The most important thing for these people is to work within an organisation that respects, promotes and rewards specialism. I’ve seen specialists made into more generalist managers because that’s the only way they can progress. This means the organisation loses what this person was clearly excellent at, and the individual loses engagement and satisfaction.