Learning from the Experts - Speaker Series: Volume 3

Continuing with the speaker series, we had four new speakers in March 2021 who shared their insights and experiences with the Digital Media Marketing students at George Brown College. It helped us understand the nuances and gave us the confidence and belief to succeed as a first-time entrant into the industry. This is the final installment of my speaker series, and I hope you were able to gather some of the learnings that I have had these past few months while listening to these industry stalwarts.

The topics that these experts uncovered for us this month were: B2B Marketing, Paid Media Marketing, and real-life experiences of George Brown Alumni. We were fortunate to hear about the challenges our alumni faced in their job because of the pandemic and how they maneuvered through them. The speaker that stood out to me was Amanda Lee.

Amanda is an Account Director at The Aber Group, a direct digital response agency that uses its proficiency in direct marketing to achieve the digital marketing goals of its clients. Amanda is very passionate about not-for-profit organizations and their causes. Her passion stems from years of volunteer work with NFPs and NGOs (including multiple internships at the Heart and Stroke Foundation). She holds a Bachelor of Commerce, specializing in Marketing from York University.

The thing that stood out to me from her session was that just like us (students looking out for internship opportunities), Amanda started her career with The Aber Group in Dec 2014 as an intern and grew along with the organization to become the Account Director. She shared with us the duties and responsibilities she started with and how she advanced in the organization. Amanda shared that she is currently responsible for:

• Client Management ensuring owning client relationships and client satisfaction
• Finding opportunity for account growth and upsell
• Guiding the use of top digital marketing platforms for driving results
• Fostering a culture of innovation and adoption of new ideas and techniques

She also has two account strategists, an account coordinator, and two digital interns in her team. Her insights and experience confirmed my belief that if you are committed and willing to learn, the organization will also provide you opportunities to grow. Amanda shared that her previous volunteer experience helped her understand the basics and prepared her better for the role. Despite being an Account Director, Amanda was very enthusiastic while sharing her experiences, and her passion for digital marketing was visible throughout her presentation.

After listening to the challenges and how to overcome them, all of us had lots of questions. I asked how the volunteer experience shaped her career and how she used the key learnings to get her internship at The Aber Group. Amanda was not hesitant in sharing that:

• Her volunteer experiences played a vital role in shaping her career in the early stages as they helped set her up for future roles.
• Building relationships is an integral part as it teaches you how to work in a team and work cross-functionally.

There were a lot of valuable bits of information that Amanda conveyed in easy-to-understand language. For a digital marketing student who is about to enter the industry, such snippets play an extremely crucial role while understanding how the industry dynamics work. Some of the key takeaways from this session were:

• Always stay up-to-date with the latest social media platforms (choose wisely) and how they work to reach audiences.
• Keep up with industry news by subscribing to newsletters and reading articles on platforms like Smartbrief, IAB, Strategy Daily, Marketing Land, and Think with Google. Also, you can follow these organizations on LinkedIn or Twitter and be up to date with the regular snippets that they post.
• Attend webinars, conferences, and classes. Virtual events provide the option to choose, attend the session that you love, and network virtually. Apart from this, LinkedIn Learning, Google Skill Shop, and General Assembly provide you with free classes/ sessions to upskill yourself.

After listening to this session and the oozing energy that Amanda brought with her, it made me confident that with the ever-evolving landscape of Digital Marketing, it is difficult but not impossible to stay updated with the current trends. We have lots of data sources for reference, and using them to the best of our abilities will help us stand out from the competition.

I can go on and on about this session as I had a lot of fun attending it. I would like to thank Wendy Greenwood for arranging these sessions which not only helped us in learning the industry nuances and best practices but also gave us insights into the journey of industry experts and the challenges they had to face. A big thank you to Amanda Lee for taking the time and sharing these brilliant insights as we begin our careers.