This week’s Meeting of the Minds sees Sonia McLaverty and Alayna Kunitake from DDB Group Melbourne reveal their leadership heroes, current streaming binge, and career goals.
The Mediaweek series showcases diverse perspectives, thoughts and opinions by bringing together two different points of view from an industry rookie and an experienced expert.
Sonia McLaverty, Head of Production, DDB Group Melbourne
Favourite podcast/read – Right now, I’d say the Smartless Podcast.
Current streaming binge – After being absolutely obsessed with Severance, I’ve just finished watching The Studio. Even though it’s very different to advertising in Oz, there are some mildly relatable moments.
Misconception about your role – That from the outset, producing looks relatively easy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It can be the most challenging role in the agency as we are right in the middle of creatives, account service, clients and production partners, needing to juggle multiple objectives and expected outcomes.
Best career advice – Having the right attitude is everything, as well as being infectious. Also, relationships are everything – with clients, production partners, peers, everyone.
How do you stay motivated – Being around creative, passionate, talented people, who I care about. It helps me want to be better, do better.
Best training course/session – Weirdly, becoming a parent. I think it put my ‘day’ job into perspective, which gave me real clarity, making me better at my job.
I wish someone had told me – There will always be a way to solve a problem.
Something that’s surprised you about the industry – That over the years I’ve made so many amazing connections, some of whom I now count among my very best friends.
What is your hot take on the industry – I think, generally speaking, the Industry has lost a bit of confidence over the years. There’s so much overthinking and questioning now, and not enough doing and making.
Favourite way to switch off from work – Going for a big beach walk or bike ride with the doggo and family.
Career goal for 2025 – Make great work. Look outside the box. Mentor.
Alayna Kunitake, Senior Art Director, DDB Group Melbourne
Favourite podcast/read – I famously lack resilience to commit to pods or reads, but my current wish list of coffee table (or positioned wherever I can find space in my home) books are: Made by MSCHF, Nadia Lee Cohen’s ‘Women’, John Waters: Pope of Trash and Visual Feast: Contemporary Food Staging + Photography.
Current streaming binge – Fantasmas – created, directed, and written (!) by Julio Torres. I attended MIFF’s Live in Conversation with him earlier in the year and was awestruck.
Misconception about your role – My title! Depending on the day, I do think an Art Director is also a stylist, a designer, a producer, a TED Talk speaker, an illustrator, a director, a curator, a director of photography, a content creator, a writer. I think it helps to have a base understanding in all the many fields when it comes to collaborating with experts in their respective professions.
Best career advice – “Write hot, edit cold”. Also, despite what the internet says about cassettes making a comeback, “you don’t get a cassette type playing alongside your ideas”.
Whatever the medium, our job as creatives is to communicate an idea within the execution itself. If the execution needs additional explanation, we’re not doing the idea justice.
How do you stay motivated – Keep getting jealous of good work. So I do whatever I need to do to be exposed to that work. Industry and non-industry publications, exhibitions, gigs, restaurants, films, internet doomscrolls (in moderation, they say).
Best training course/session – Rare Masterclass as part of Semi Permanent Festival. Founded in 2017 to address the lack of diversity in the creative industry, at a time when DEI initiatives weren’t a norm yet, Rare has always understood how diverse diversity is.
Through connecting with creatives in the course with an array of unconventional backstories, I no longer felt like I needed to define myself when I felt like the ‘only one in the room’.
I was just in the room. And from that day on, whenever I’m theoretically the ‘only one in the room’, I remind myself of that feeling. I no longer wait for a seat at the table, I just pull up a seat for myself. Huge!
I wish someone had told me – Not everyone is going to understand you, and that’s okay. Just focus on the kind of work you want to make, and through that, the right people will find their way into your life and bring out the best in you.
Something that’s surprised you about the industry – Your career can start with you, but it’s indeed nothing without the input of all the people you meet along the way. That’s the tangible input on a 9-5 basis, but more so the advice shared in the 5-9.
What is your hot take on the industry – It needs to evolve at the (incredibly fast) pace of culture.
Favourite way to switch off from work – Op shopping and swimming. In a parallel universe I own an underwater boutique so I can do both activities simultaneously.
Career goal for 2025 – Expand my knowledge on the intersection between food and advertising and see what wonderful things that does to my brain.
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Past editions of Meeting of the Minds.
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Top image: Sonia McLaverty and Alayna Kunitake