Changing Perspectives... on Ageism

Malcom Connor recently wrote on the dwindling presence in media of people over the age of 50. In fact, apparently only 18.5% of our colleagues in the workforce are over 40. And according to the latest MFA Industry Census, the average age of media agency employees is 32.7.

As someone who turned 40 last year, this was mildly terrifying. 40 is a big milestone and definitely a time when you sit and think, am I where I want to be?

At first, I hesitated to celebrate the number. I worried that my wider team, the majority of whom are in their 20s, would think differently of me and possibly doubt my abilities given I was now ‘over the hill.’

But of course there’s another way to look at it. I have clocked up 20 years in media agency land, and that’s worth celebrating. My age group – the elder Millennials/Xennials – spent most of our childhood without internet and smartphones.

When we started in media, some booking confirmations still came via fax, some by mail. There was no Holdings; you were expected to check your confirms line by line with a pen and ruler.

We’ve seen nothing but technological transformation since we started out in media (side note, YouTube did not exist when I started in media).

We’ve mastered everything from the introduction of digital television and multichannels, digital radio, and the vast fragmentation of the media marketplace.

We’ve ridden the evolution of digital advertising from the days of buying out the ninemsn portal to now, where campaigns are increasingly bought programmatically.

Such comprehensive experiences mean we know how to do things manually and we’re at the forefront of automation – for example, we’re very useful for mapping out the detailed steps AI requires to perform them for us! I will never say I’ve seen it all, but I have seen a lot in 20 years.

This places me in the fortunate position of being able to mentor and guide my teammates with the wisdom of past experiences.

The world keeps turning and the same issues continue to arise, even though thanks to the emerging challenges of today they may be shaped a little different.

My lived-experience as an elder-media agency-millennial leaves me confident navigating the asks of today because I can relate them to the asks of yesterday.

Like the persistence of low-rise jeans, I am confident in suggesting how things could work in whatever situation arises. I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, more so the benefit of having seasoned professionals in an agency.

I am privileged to be surrounded by a team with collectively many more than 20 years of experience. This is my way of acknowledging those of us with a few more candles on our cake, and letting the next generation know that this industry is a great one to be in for the long term.