Diane Costa has over fourteen years of experience in advertising & branding of all types of business. She’s owner and MD at Marketing Mechanics in Sydney, Australia and worked with blue-chip companies like Vodafone, McDonald’s and Cadbury. On top of that, she’s an associate member of the Australian Marketing Institute and owns an internet store called Pets Palace.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Born in Sydney Australia and grew up with a large family. Learnt a lot from family life and have worked in many positions with many small and blue chip companies. Studied marketing and advertising and have been working in the field for over 15 years. Currently owner and MD at Marketing Mechanics.
What motivated you to start your own agency?
I felt at 30 I’d achieved what I needed to working for others and felt I had a lot more I could do if I was to start my own agency and help other businesses. Plus I was never a fan of working in the big corporate world and complying!
What do you most enjoy about advertising?
The challenges that happen on a daily basis, the pressure of deadlines, the new technologies, working with teams to create something wonderful for a product or service and always seeing the end result.
What makes a good advertisement?
I’m more of a fan of “simple.” If the consumer “gets” the ad within the first few seconds it’s a great ad. For TV if you can understand an ad and what it’s about without the volume, the agency has done a good job. For print and other static advertising the points we look to always execute are:
– exciting the primary target market
– communicating the benefits of the product easily
– creating a “need” or “want” from the ad for the consumer to want to buy it or have it
I saw a really good ad just this week for a chocolate milkshake in carton. The billboard copy was: “Tastes Good. Buy some.” and an image of the pack. To me that’s what a good ad is all about. Sometimes the simple things are quite complex to create or sometimes they are simply forgotten.
What’s the most common misconception about being an advertiser?
That we get paid too much and don’t work hard!
What skills are most important for an advertiser?
– having life experience
– passion for the industry they are in
– being able to think outside the box
– being able to make a client brief into a reality and nailing it.
And last, how should one become a great advertiser?
I think to become a “great” anything takes years of practice, patience, persistence, making a lot of mistakes and learning from them, laughing and crying and having a lot of success. The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary, so with any industry, you have to put the hard yards in.
Try and learn from as many people you can, read as many books (and comics) as you can and surf the net any chance you get. Switching from job to job and industry to industry is great as well, don’t just settle where you are – always challenge you self!