Mark Pollard has media career has seen him go from hip-hop journalist to radio host and now, a strategist.
Pollard began his strategy career in his native Australia before moving stateside, working for companies including Leo Burnett, Big Spaceship, and McCann. He founded Sweathead in 2018, a global strategy training company with a community of over 18,000 strategists worldwide and a podcast with over 1.3 million listens.
Pollard’s work has seen him consult for and train companies like Wall Street Journal, Twitter, The Economist, and agencies around the globe.
Pollard spoke to Mediaweek about getting his start in the industry, the key to a successful strategy and his outlook for Sweathead.
Pollard on his start in the industry
Pollard shared that at 28 and with a baby on the way, he decided to go freelance. He said: “I’d been working in digital agencies on user experience since I was twenty while publishing a hip hop magazine called Stealth Magazine, writing for local street press, and hosting a radio show on 2SER.
“I decided that the only job I’d take would be a full-time strategy job,” he said.
Pollard was freelancing with the digital team at Leo Burnett in Sydney. After a few months, he accepted a role offered by Todd Sampson that would see him doing 50% account planning and 50% digital strategy work.
A decade later, he established Sweathead in New York. He said: “I’d spent five years trying to work in corporate America, but I couldn’t click with it. I loved strategy, teaching strategy, and, increasingly, writing about it.”
Pollard said he was told he was not a “cultural fit” by an 800-person PR firm where he was head of strategy and could not get any traction.
“I decided to go solo and then set up Sweathead. I remembered my twenties and how much I loved radio and writing. So, I slowly built my life around these things. Sweathead helped me refine my voice, build a social network, and, eventually, turn my mind into a business,” he noted.
Pollard reflects on his proudest moment in strategy
Looking back at the many strategy projects he has worked on, Pollard highlighted the McDonald’s NameIt Burger, which won him gold at the APG Creative Planning Awards, as a piece of work he was particularly proud of.
Pollard noted that he fell into the project with the suggestion that they get Australia to name a new burger. He said: “The Leo Burnett team was world-class and brought that simple suggestion to life in an incredible way.
“That campaign made me realize how over-engineered this line of work can be and how incredibly effective work can come from a conversation in a corridor or café.”
However, Pollard noted that the suggestion was only possible because the creative team invented the character of the retiring burger-naming champion needing someone to take over from him.
“It was epic. And it’s the kind of work I still love today but see less and less of,” Pollard added.
The key to being a successful strategist and providing a successful strategy for a campaign
With a community of more than 18,000 strategists he has helped through Sweathead, Pollard shared his thoughts on what he likes about strategists and the key to being a successful campaign.
Pollard said that the strategists he loves have many diverse interests. “They’re nerdy. They love prying. They dig into why things are the way they are. They might love intellectual stuff, but they won’t use it at you.”
“They see themselves as creative but know the creative department is a different kind of “creative.” They know how to hold space for other people. And they love words,” he added.
In terms of a successful strategy for a campaign, Pollard noted that one of the most important yet skipped-over tasks is to dig into the problem.
“Ask, “What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?” Then dig and dig and dig. Often the answer is at the bottom of a well-dug hole,” he shared.
Industry issues on Pollard’s mind
The industry is facing various issues, from challenging economic times to shifts in work culture attitude and talent crisis and retention.
For Pollard, he highlighted three issues on his, starting with that the industry needs to be more fun. He said: “People are too serious. Decks are too long. Everyone is pretending to be something else.”
Keeping it light but brutally honest, he said that “there are too many numbers, but there’s not enough sense. ‘Data-driven’ this, ‘data-driven’ that – blah blah blah.”
Rounding out his three main points, he said that the industry doesn’t develop people the way it could.
Pollard explained: “I hear a lot of complaints about bad bosses, no training, no coaching, people stealing work, long hours, stress. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Sweathead in the year ahead
Looking to the year ahead, Pollard shared his ambitions of creating world-class learning experiences. He noted that he hopes to help people ignored by the industry get into the industry and help publish other people.
“Another idea I’m gently pursuing is partnering in a significant way with a college and an industry body to really change the face of learning,” Pollard revealed.
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Top image: Mark Pollard