Search results for: Month: July 2022

My Media Life – Natalie Lam

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NATALIE LAM IN CONVERSATION WITH ARIF DURRANI, MEDIA CONSULTANT

Welcome to My Media Life, where we chat with the movers and shakers in the worlds of business and marketing to find out what the media industry means to them, their advice for those starting out today, and personal insights into their sources of inspiration and motivations.

This month, we’re delighted to be joined by Natalie Lam, Chief Creative Officer for Publicis Groupe across APAC and the Middle East. Based in Hong Kong, Natalie leads a creative community of 3000+ people across Publicis’s various agencies in markets across the world. Below are extracts from our longer conversation – you can watch the full interview above or listen to the podcast here.

What does the media industry mean to you?

It means everything. Even though I’ve been in Hong Kong for more than a year, I still go check out The New York Times – it’s still my ‘go to’ to get a more balanced perspective in the world.

What’s, what’s one piece of advice that has helped in your career?

There are so many, but that I got early on was ‘listen well’. I was just starting out and was wondering why [sometimes] my work would get recognized and [other times] it wouldn’t. There didn’t seem like there was rhyme or reason. Back then, it was very hierarchical and as a junior – you did everything your seniors told you and people rarely bothered to explain. Often, we’d try everything and then cross our fingers and hope something would work!

After a long time of this guessing, I got the advice ‘listen well’ in one of my reviews. I’ve learnt to really listen to every single word that every single person says, and then put what they say and what the outcome is together. ‘Listen well’ was really good advice for me.

What’s your favourite thing about your current job?

Cultural tourism. Every single market is so different, so diverse. Every team is so different, the personalities are different. Cultural tourism is how I describe my experience. You can basically travel around the world just by being on Teams calls. Over the last two years, every time I talked to a team from a different market, I learned something new; I learned a little bit more about the culture.

It’s not the same as being there, which is so much more multi-dimensional, but I’m talking to people and observing them, their mannerisms, their little jokes and then habits, their expressions. There are endless things to learn. It’s just fascinating.

What advice would you give to people starting a media or marketing career today?

I think they’re extremely blessed yet extremely challenged. Blessed because they have endless resources influences and tools at their disposal 24-7, on demand. That’s also a huge challenge because you don’t have time to make your own decision. So how do you have a strong point of view and see things with clarity. What’s your voice? What’s your thing?

Back in the day when we didn’t have any of these limitations, I thought it was quite helpful in having a focus and in making up your mind, making your decisions, your choices. It was up to you rather than all the infinite availabilities, which can be sort of like false signals out there.

What would you describe as your personal secret talent?

I can make very complicated things pretty simple. I think it ties into that advice of ‘listen well’.  Whenever there are a lot of conflicting opinions going in different directions, I’m pretty good at taking a step back and prioritising; I look at what is most important to start with, then focus and set some kind of clarity, rather than being overwhelmed.

Where do you get your daily news from?

Unfortunately, nowadays, everybody is stuck in echo chamber. So, my blend is The New York Times, local news, a little bit of BBC, a little bit of what all my friends and family are sharing – it’s a little bit of a mash up.

For me the headlines [from The New York Times and BBC] represent the western view. I think The New York Times does editorial in such a brilliant way. I go to the style section, T magazine, to try to keep up with the latest in terms of lifestyle and culture. With the BBC it’s a slightly more European way of looking at things; a non-US way of looking at things.

Where do you get your creative inspiration from?  

It’s everywhere. I’m such an observant person, so there are a lot of things from everywhere that trigger me. I’m someone who likes to find little anomalies in the world. Whether it’s a little fun habit of someone sitting next to me, a small joke or, a something a bit amusing in our daily lives, social media, my friends and family, my parents, my colleagues, or big world news. It’s everywhere – real life. There’s so much inspiration all around from people, from culture, from the physical world.

Which media brands are most important to you?

The New York Times, Instagram – I use Instagram for a lot of inspiration. I’m obsessed with style, design, fashion culture so I follow a lot of photographers, artists and filmmakers. Instagram’s that source for me. I also listen to a lot of podcasts – you get soundbites and little stories, news, a collection of different things, both global and local.

How do you switch off from the always on culture we have?

I improvise with making food. I like making things and getting my hands dirty. There are two things that I can’t live without – an air fryer and an instant pot. A good stew that usually take a long time, I can now make in 30 minutes. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I cook guilt-free, oil-free, crispy fried food. I also try to exercise – I do yoga and take walks. If I have time, I listen to audio books or watch a film, but those times are very hard to find nowadays!

Finally, who or what inspires you?

I always respect original thinkers, people who have a very strong point of view and very strong conviction in what they believe in, because I think that the world is so overwhelmed with choices, with influences, with voices and hype and trends. It doesn’t matter, what they do, it could be a creative, it could be a big name, it could be a performer, an author, or someone who doesn’t have a glamorous job. If they have strong convictions rather than following the trends, those people inspire me.

Film is one of my favourite pastimes. Some of the classic directors and filmmakers from the sixties, seventies, nineties – have that power, that creativity, that originality. It’s hard for the newer generation of directors to replicate that impact. How do you bring in something new? It’s really a big challenge nowadays.

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The State of the (Dis) Union: Editors’ Perspective

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After years of geo-political, social and economic unrest, it’s time to take stock. But how do we rise above the discord to build a positive future? That’s the question we posed to our panel of top international journalists at the World Media Group’s latest Smart Briefing. Chaired by Spriha Srivastava, International Executive Editor, Insider, Inc., our guests included William Booth, Bureau Chief, The Washington Post; Faisal Islam, Economics Editor, BBC News; and Jeremy Kahn, Senior Writer, Fortune.

Changes in the post-pandemic world

Srivastava began by asking the panel what they thought the biggest changes had been to the world since the pandemic. The Washington Post’s Booth said the Covid crisis had demonstrated just how unpredictable the world is. “I felt the pandemic would be six to 12 weeks. I thought there would be a booming economy after it was over with so much pent-up desire for products and travel,” he said. Now, with questions around how long military action in Ukraine will continue, a new UK prime minister on the horizon, and the ongoing effects of economic recovery, the future is even more unclear.

Faisal Islam, BBC News’ Economics Editor, believes what’s happening now is the result of multiple overlapping crises with some common causes – the post-pandemic situation, the Russian-Ukraine conflict causing the energy crisis; market crises as a result of debt and rising global interest rates; and a potential resurgence of the unresolved Eurozone crisis. He says the contradiction of public and private high debts, which would normally be dealt with by lowering interest rates, and speculation, which requires high interest rates, is causing stagflation.

Signs of a recession are showing across multiple sectors, including tech. According to Jeremy Kahn, Senior Writer, Fortune, the big US tech companies are doing all their planning based around the idea of a deep recession, reflected through hiring practices and, in some cases, lay-offs. “I think they feel that there’s going to be this substantial downturn, and that’s what they’re preparing for it,” he said. “Certainly, the foot is off the accelerator in terms of any venture investment.”

Srivastava asked Booth whether we were heading for a recession here in the UK. “The government needs to get inflation under control and get the economy going, but one of the biggest issues is the profound labour shortage,” he said. While Britain wants to manufacture again, it’s lacking the workforce required to do. This becomes a huge problem when globalisation is no longer working the way it should do.

The move away from globalisation

Kahn says that globalisation has been forced to take a large step back compared to the pre-pandemic days: “When you see what’s happening with Ukraine, it has only reinforced that there’s a decoupling in the world. It’s not just one world. Yes, there’s still trade but it’s becoming much more balkanised.”

The reality of this can be seen through Booth’s anecdote about the fate of the UK fish and chips industry. During research for a story, he realised there has been rash of fish and chip shops closing as a result of the various crises. “Energy prices are killing them,” Booth says. “They get all their fish from Russian trawlers and the British government is about to slap a 35% tariff on Russia and white fish. Cod and Haddock aren’t available in the English Channel; British fisheries, despite Brexit, aren’t very productive and don’t produce the fish that goes into fish and chips.”

Added to that are issues with sunflower oil coming from Ukraine, and Indonesia blocking palm oil exports prioritising their own domestic consumption. Booth expects these domino effects to have an impact for months or years to come until we sort out a new economic world order.

He suggests one solution may be a return to a more regional economic alliance model, similar to the NAFTA, agreement, which joined the United States, Canada and Mexico. The UK version of that, he suggests, would be the UK plus Europe, Eastern Europe, and some of northern Africa, where each region would specialise in producing a specific commercial output to trade with the others.

The commitment to net zero

When Srivastava opened up questions to the audience, one of the areas of interest around the environment and, in the wake of the current economic and political issues, whether the commitment to net zero had fallen to the bottom of the agenda? Booth said he felt the COP26 commitment to go completely net zero in some economies in such a short space of time was incredible. He said its success, however, was sure to be affected by the economy. “Watch what happens when the price of gasoline goes up five cents a gallon in the United States, then see how good Joe Biden’s word is – or Boris Johnson’s,” he says. “It’s easy to make promises, but whether countries hold towards the vision will be a major story of the next decade or two. It has to start happening and you can do it all in the last week.

A sliver of optimism for the future

So, is there any hope on the horizon? That was the question from another audience member. According to Islam, there’s going to be a big wave of investment, some of it likely to be strategically supported by government. In the UK, which Islam says is not even in the top 20 on the league table of robot density in manufacturing, he sees a huge opportunity for investment.

Booth is also optimistic and points to the advent of the RNA vaccine as a “mini minor medical miracle,” referring to the relatively unproven technology that was used, and how it delivers a template for future medical innovation. “Remarkable techno change will happen where we least expect it and we’re not in such a bad place,” he says.

Islam believes that the current wave of defence spending, could be revolutionary for Europe: “If all of this money that’s now going to defence as a result of Putin can be channelled in the same way it was in Silicon Valley to help the economy, that’s pretty interesting stuff,” he said.

Kahn agrees that there’s a chance for “tremendous investment” in the area of defence, and to help with the issue of labour shortages. “There’s the potential for automation and robotics to accelerate but it takes a lot of money, and it takes time. It won’t solve this problem within a year, but if we come back in 10 years’ time, it might be that the fish fryers aren’t there because it’s all been done by robots,” he said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]