Success is born out of failure

The Marketing Society kicked off the year with the first ‘Under the Spotlight’ event for 2019. The Society's Chief Executive and host for the evening Gemma Greaves was joined on stage by Hannah Pain, winner of 2018 Young Marketing Leader of the Year and Senior Brand Manager of McDonalds and Mark Evans, winner of 2018 Marketing Leader of the Year and Marketing Director of Direct Line, who were tackling the subject of bravery.

Success is born out of failure

On being asked how they try to be brave every day at work, Mark reminded us that "when things do go well you don’t learn - success is born out of failure" and what’s important about failure is that it "creates inner resilience".

Show courage and take the opportunity

Mark gave us some context. He shared an anecdote of how an employee managing the social media channels once received a tweet from a distressed customer whose TV had been stolen before a long-awaited boxing match. The employee who lived in the same town as the customer, quickly collected a TV and delivered it to the customer just in time for the boxing match. Mark flagged the potential risks of that altruistic action, but enjoyed using the story as an example of the ethos of Direct Line and demonstrating how we as companies need to be thinking outside the box and showing courage in everything we do, even if on the surface it sometimes appears a little unconventional. Mark advised that it is "best to regret something we have done than something that we haven’t". We need to have the courage to spot the gap and go for it – take the opportunity.  

Vulnerability is proof you’re not a robot  

Meanwhile, Hannah Pain from McDonalds added that “when you’re passionate about something you can really put your heart on the line" and "vulnerability is proof you’re human and not a robot”.  Hannah shared that while McDonalds is a polarising brand, she has certainly put her neck on the line to help tackle that, by passionately introducing award-winning marketing campaigns that may not have been agreed by the wider business, had she not had the courage and self-belief to back her proposals wholeheartedly. 

I came away inspired, excited and encouraged to keep on risking failure because that’s how we fly.

By Aimée Anderson, Director, AAA Films.
www.aaa.film
@AimsAnderson