Verizon Media this week brought together 50 creative, media and marketing rising stars from across Australia and New Zealand for the inaugural Brand Love Academy event.
Held in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, the hand-picked future leaders listened and learnt from some of the world’s best business speakers at an event focusing on personal brand building, future-proofing careers and brain-training for a high performance life.
Created as a part of Verizon Media’s company-wide commitment to invest in talent whilst adding value to the future of the industry, Brand Love Academy featured an array of inspiring speakers including Atlassian’s Work Futurist, Dominic Price, co-founder of Vitae.Coach, Shelley Laslett, co-founder of The Impossible Institute, Dan Gregory and Verizon Media’s head of brand & RYOT, Zoe Cocker and head of data & targeting, Dan Richardson.
Attendees came from across a spectrum of agencies and brands including: MediaCom ANZ, Wavemaker ANZ, Kiwibank, Amnet, VMLY&R (PHD), Spark Foundry, Ikon, Starcom, CHE Proximity, OMD, Initiative, Mindshare, PHD, Audience 360, Carat, MediaLab, Bohemia Group, REA Group, Cadreon, UM and Havas Media.
The Brand Love Academy class of 2019 were able to put their new knowledge to the test in a final pitch-off for Musicians Making a Difference (MMAD), one of Verizon Media’s not-for-profit partners through their gold partnership with UnLtd.
The brief tasked teams with creating and promoting a fundraiser for MMAD, with the winning team scoring the opportunity to go behind the scenes at Advertising Week in New York and meet Verizon Media’s senior executives.
The winning team of Caitlin Hess from Ikon, Maia Trepa from Carat, Andrew Clift from UM, Alana Adair from Mindshare and Justine Baloh from Mediacom pipped the competition with their idea to send 20 CEOs to a MMAD 2-5-1 camp. Two days, five disciplines and one shot to brainstorm ways their organisations can reach their full potential to make a difference. MMAD have already started production of the fundraiser, with three CEOs at Brand Love Academy expressing interest in the camp.
Verizon Media ANZ’s MD Paul Sigaloff said: “Our first year of Brand Love Academy exceeded expectations, the positive energy in the room was palpable which reinforced why Verizon Media invests heavily in our industry’s talent. We’ve given young talent the opportunity to access vital tools and information they may not have learnt until later in their careers.”
Pitch winner, Justine Baloh, digital performance executive at Mediacom, said of the experience: “Our team started with a complicated web of ideas but following the advice from Dan Gregory, we focused on the ‘why’ and managed to narrow down to one simple idea that spoke to the brief.
“Having only one hour to develop a pitch and five minutes to present, we were zoned in on giving our all to the task at hand. We’re a bit shell-shocked about winning this amazing opportunity to continue learning thanks to Verizon Media.”
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Top Photo: Brad Love Academy pitch winners – Caitlin Hess, Maia Trepa, Andrew Clift, Alana Adair and Justine Baloh