Innovating for the Industry - The 2013 Advertising Hall of Achievement Inductees - Michael Kassan

One of my perennial joys is having the opportunity to get to know and be inspired by exceptional people making tremendous contributions to the art and science of marketing and media This week brings one of the most important of those opportunities when the American Advertising Federation celebrates the 2013 inductees into the Advertising Hall of Achievement AHOAThis annual honor the industry39s gold standard for recognizing the leading young ad professionals age 40 and under which makes me momentarily hate themamp8230 is a testament to the type of barrier breaker the computer programming community calls a quot10xerquot a person who makes an outsize contribution to whatever it is he or she is doingThese individuals don39t just make things better they help change how business is done They are engines that move our industry forward Because their contributions reverberate so widely recognizing these young superstars39 achievements is vital in creating great examples for our industry as well as the many industries that rely on advertising to communicate to their consumersThis year39s class of inductees exemplifies the talent passion and commitment to excellence we set for ourselves They include such talents as Adam Bain Twitter President of Global Revenue B Bonin Bough Mondelamp233z International Vice President Global Media and Consumer Engagement Robert Candelino Unilever Vice President Branding and Skincare Tara Walpert Levy Google ampamp YouTube Managing Director Global Ad Marketing Lynn Lewis J3 UM Global Managing Partner Emmanuel Seuge The CocaCola Company Vice President Global Alliances and Ventures Todd Pendleton Samsung Telecommunications America Chief Marketing OfficerI am fortunate and honored to be cochair of the AHOA and in preparation for this week39s event I kept thinking of something entertainment legend Jeffrey Katzenberg said during our session at Advertising Week last month When asked about how to identify and grow great people he said quotfollow your talent not your passionquot The idea struck me as a perfect place to begin a conversation with our inductees to discover what makes them tick and how they view the challenge of industry innovationWe asked each of them four questions beginning with a paraphrase of the Katzenberg quote Since many of our MediaLinked readers won39t be in the room when the AHOA class of 2013 is formally inducted at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles this week we39ve compiled a sampling of their responses I have no doubt you will find their insights as fascinating as I do1 Jeffrey Katzenberg spoke about quotfollowing your talent as much as your passionquot amp8211 speak a bit about that in relation to your career path and your success thus far Levy quotNo amount of talent ever overcomes lack of passion And even if or in the rare instance it does it doesn39t make for a very happy life Obviously it39s ideal to have bothamp8212and most people tend to retain passion only in those areas where they have or are able to develop talentquot Candelino quotI think Jeffrey is correct If it was only about passion I39d still be trying to be a professional athletequot Lewis quot About 10 years ago there was an opportunity to move to media side of the business from creative It was not the norm at the time But it was the way to communicate with consumers and the creativity was exploding on the other side of the businessquot Seuge quotI wanted to be a soccer player as a kid pretty quickly recognized I didn39t have that talent So I promised myself wanted to stay involved with world of soccer and of sports So in business school a year before the world cup I sent my resume to every sponsor figuring that if I was hired it would be a dream come true Of the 12 sponsors CocaCola hired meamp8230and the rest is historyquot2 What project or aspect of your job inspires you most right now Lewis quotThe access to data and insights to build better business solutions is truly incredible At J3 datamining is such a critical part of our agency success and something we are most proud ofquot Seuge quotBeing focused on organizational design structure and creating an organization today that fits for tomorrowquot Levy quot The ability to work with content differently Google is investing heavily in video creative and storytelling in a way that really blurs the distinction between b2b and b2cquot Candelino quotTo be able to lead a team of thirtysix and a broader indirect team is a gift and honor amp8211 to teach challenge and inspire is undoubtedly the greatest part of my jobquot Bough quotThe scale and pace of China is just so huge and the ambition so palpable One of my focus is on a 39Chinaout39 strategy how do we drive the innovation and creativity from china out to the rest of the world At the same time I love the general approach of reinventing communications starting with content video Just look at our work on trident where we are reinventing TV in partnership with Adam Bain and Twitter it39s never been done before that39s what excites mequot3 What39s the best business advice you39ve ever received Levy quotPower isn39t in your title or position It39s in your reputation and your network Invest wiselyquot Lewis quotHire for what you don39t know amp8211 don39t surround yourself with people who are exactly like youquot Candelino quotBeing different is the key to marketingquot Seuge quotNever take no for an answer with 39humble confidencequot Bough quotAri Emanuel told me life is not address rehearsal Peter Guber told me anything worth doing is something worth giving your all to and my dad told me just keep getting up in the morning But the best advice ever came from my mom anything u can dream u can doquot4 What39s your favorite book on business and it doesn39t have to be a business book Levy quotMy favorite book of the moment is Multipliers How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter It39s about the idea that great leadership is not about being the genius it39s about being a genius makerquot Seuge quotLong Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela and Like a Virgin Secrets They Won39t Teach You at Business School by Richard Bransonquot Lewis quot Steve Job39s biography by Walter Isaacson and Freakonomics amp8211 which is apropos given her focus on data and creativityquot Candelino quotOnward by Howard Schultz amp8211 it distills the challenges we face every day as marketersquot Bough quot My new book will probably be my favorite but while I read a ton of books I read more magazines and I just think that having a pulse on culture is the most important thing ever So I buy hundreds and I read almost every magazine on the newsstandquotMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media LinkedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Innovating for the Industry - The 2013 Advertising Hall of Achievement Inductees - Michael Kassan

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