The marketing professions pushes for creativity and that’s what drew Lorna Antoniazzi. She plans on pushing it further by being the type of ethical marketer that improves marketing for the better.
Everything your post-secondary education is telling you about networking is, in fact, true. Go make some friends with similar goals! A support network of critical, open-minded peers and mentors will go a long way in breaking into the industry. And If networking isn’t your forte: I feel you. I’m an introvert, so I preferred joining clubs where I could grow alongside the same people instead of attending networking events.
I got my foot in the door through a reference. In university, I joined a literary journal and became friends with my Editor-in-Chief and mentor, who eventually decided to pursue marketing as well. I reached out to them post-university and was lucky enough to get an interview with Brainrider through them. The rest is history.
I think marketing in our current digital world is extremely interesting. I like the challenges that it brings and how it blends creative work with objective results. In the end, I chose marketing because I wanted to contribute in the ways it was helpful and improve the ways it was harmful.
I believe marketers need to find their place in the puzzle. As a marketer, you’ll be collaborating with a lot of teams (internally and possibly externally), so learning how to communicate quickly and effectively is key. And, to that end, most of the communication comes from listening. Learning how to pause and actively listen to your clients and teammates is more than half the battle. A bit of a shout out to my company Brainrider on this one. Brainrider has a few core values that I personally align strongly with when it comes to marketing: accountability; teamwork; sage; continuous improvement; and customer value.
To me, a successful marketer is someone who has built a personal brand of trust, reliability, and customer-focused results. Your clients have to trust you to put best practices forward and stick behind the work you do. And ultimately, success will come from putting the customer’s best interests first.
Technology is the crux of marketing – it shapes everything we do! As we take further strides into more complex automation and information capturing, I would not be surprised to see the marketing industry shift in kind. I think new technology will result in more targeted messaging, and hopefully drive us towards only marketing to those who wish to be marketed to. That’s where the good leads will come from, after all. I would also hope that emerging technology leads us to greater conversations about marketing’s place in our digital ecosystem, and the lines between product placement and privacy. Marketing’s role is to evolve with the times – from newspaper to news feeds – and my goal as an upcoming marketer is to help build a future where marketing can be achieved ethically.
One defining moment for me, I would say is the first time I made a huge mistake. To be a marketer you’ll have to be comfortable with accepting roadblocks that are outside of your control. Always be ready to adapt and problem-solve, and also be ready to sometimes take a hit and learn how to bounce back.
Can you really see yourself doing this as a career? Are you even going to be good at it? As you double and triple check your assignment due in an hour, you start to wonder - is this marketing education that you're pursuing – what you want or is it something you think you want? You're taking stock of how things are going in school but more importantly how you feel about it. Suddenly, questions like. 'Is this really where I want to be?' start floating around in your head. You're not sure if something's driving you, but at times it feels like you have more questions than answers.
We know what you're thinking. Your friends are binge-watching another series while you're wondering: Should I be doing something more strategic with my break? The answer? Absolutely.
"In marketing, you can't afford to stand still. Being current isn't a suggestion – it's a lifestyle to achieve success as you continue to evolve and grow." It was a powerful statement – one you agree with to your core. But it sounds stressful, doesn't it? Especially when you don't know where to start.
