Mediaweek held its inaugural Power Lunch in October, celebrating the successes of the media industry and the people who make it.
Andrew Murray, head of trading at UM Australia, came in at in 41st place Mediaweek Agency 50 list.
Mediaweek caught up with Murray about recognising the importance of Trading in the cycle of media, the positive outlook for UM Australia in the year ahead and the industry getting back on track after COVID.
Mediaweek: Congratulations on making the #41 spot on our Mediaweek Agency 50 list. What was your reaction to your placement?
Andrew Murray: Definitely one of my career highlights. Being recognised alongside our industry best is an achievement to be proud of. It’s also great to see recognition for the importance of the Trading craft in the cycle of media and most importantly, I cannot do my job without all the team members I lead here at UM Australia, so this award recognises their achievements too.
MW: How does your position on the list reflect the achievements made by UM Australia?
AM: UM Australia is always an agency that delivers strong results for its clients and is constantly recognised on the local and global award stages for this work. Taking the #41 spot is a reflection of the great work that UM Australia’s trading team does day in and day out for all our clients and the passion we have for our craft.
MW: What are three industry issues on your mind, and in your opinion, how can they be solved or achieved?
AM: 1. Retaining and enticing great talent for our industry. This is why I am very supportive of the work that the MFA are doing through its “We Are The Changers” program. We need to remind those who are in the industry, plus those who are thinking of joining, what a fun, vibrant and rewarding career media can be.
2. Continuing to ensure the workloads of our team members are managed effectively, especially with day-to-day manual tasks. This is why I am proud to be part of Mediabrands Australia who has invested in a major transformation project over the past few years addressing workload issues. The transformation allows our team to spend more time having conversations with clients, media partners and on internal collaboration rather than having their heads in spreadsheets/systems for most of the day. It has been game-changing.
3. Specifically in the craft of Trading is the continual audience declines experienced in Linear TV and the impact this has on the additional workload our teams manage. The world of VOZ and Converged Trading will definitely work to solve this, so we are testing and learning from these opportunities to ensure we are managing this moving forward.
MW: What is your outlook for UM Australia in the year ahead?
AM: Overall, looking very positive. We have a strong client base, stability in our teams, the right tools and automation in place to help our teams manage their workloads.
We are also focused on re-engaging our teams in an office environment whilst ensuring they all continue with flexibility– whatever that specifically means to each individual team member. We’ve seen an increased level of people coming back into the office across all of our markets – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra – which is very exciting. The office is electric most days and it is great to see team members chatting about day-to-day parts of their job in person rather than via Teams or Zoom.
MW: What are your hopes for the industry in 2023?
AM: Continued celebration of what a great industry we work in – whether it be celebrating great work, our great people, our media partners, and the great work that they help us produce for our clients.
For a dynamic and relationship-led industry like media, the COVID period was very challenging. In the second half of 2022, I really experienced us getting back to what it should be and my hope is we are now on track to continue this through 2023 and beyond.
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Top image: Andrew Murray