Grill Wrap: Dav & Cathal Edition
Last Thursday Carma Levene hosted 50+ curious minds to discuss the future of marketing with Dav Tabeshfar & Cathal Mongey
In what may be the most challenging name pronunciations in out 7 years of Grilling, the Perth marketing industry came together for an important discussion about the future of marketing, in the signature free-flowing format of Grill The Marketer.
There was almost a dust-up, a question asked that was definitely NOT a question at all, and we gave away some secret sauce, and some literal sauce.
"I wanted to look at the future of the industry from both a youth perspective and a 'doing things differently to the duality of agency V client side' lens and Cathal and Dav were the perfect choice to facilitate this"
Said Carma.
The suit-turned-creative sober Irishman who repped Australia at Cannes, and the lifetime creative, agency co-founder, and now consultant doing things a little differently.
Attendees ranged from agency folks, creatives, academics, students from ECU and Curtin, PADC members, and client-side marketers of all flavours.
The questions were, as always, immaculate (if we ignore the one that was a statement...), with examples being:
What do you do when your values don't align to the client vertical?
How do you stand out in a sea of sameness?
How do you get clients to trust your bold idea? (hint: "bold" works better than "brave")
It took approximately 17 minutes before someone mention AI. We need a timer linked up to a confetti cannon - if anyone has a hookup send Carma a dm.
We talked about being "unfakably human" as how to stand out from the slop, but also the sameness of mediocrity. Bonfire's work with Skull Island Prawns was put forward as a local example of this, and you can check that out here.
We discussed when things go wrong, like when you accidentally name a something after a strain of marijuana.
There was even a little tangent about toilets.
We asked Dav if he could sum up the experience:
"By far the best thing about the whole Grill The Marketer experience was the lack of preparation. You have no idea what you’ll be asked, so there’s no time to consider whether your answers will impact your ‘personal brand’ or upset people. It’s just raw, unpolished and honest."
"Quite liberating, really.”
Cathal shared a similar sentiment:
"it's an unfiltered exposé on the current marketing playing field. No corners are rounded, and both panel and audience get to hear what they want. It's like having a cuppa with an old friend."
" You don't get that too often in this industry"
Have we created an "unfakably human" event? We'll let you decide.
See the gallery
Thanks to Peter Dancewicz from Spoilt Photobooths.
Stuff you need
Find out more about Dav's hybrid model, going into in-house creative teams here.
Check out Dav's recipes for leftovers here.
Follow Cathal's book journey here.
Read about Cathal's Cannes Young Lion entry here.
Thanks
Peter from Spoilt Photobooths for snapping us.
MC Jacqueline Baril for yelling at us.
Alexandra from Coursebox.ai for interviewing us.
Zoe for (wo)manning the door.
Keith for being our Mic Man.
The AMI for being our event partner.
The Court for looking after (putting up with) us.
And all of you curious-minded folks who came along, many for the first time, on the Thursday before the Grand Final long weekend no less.
See you on the 19th of November for the final instalment of Grill The Marketer for the year. Life gets busy so pop it in your calendar now and stay tuned for more updates as we confirm them.
Can confirm now that's it going to be a banger 😉
