Molly Blacker (Strategy Director, Slingshot), and Sophie Gallagher (Senior Strategist, Slingshot), presented to the lecturers at the 2023 MFA Lecture the Lecturers event.Their insightful presentation showed the value of a competitive mindset, where you identify competitor's greatest strengths, or the reason a consumer would chose them over you, and turn this into a weakness.
We asked them a few important questions about their media journey, their presentation insights and the key skills needed to succeed in their role.
What’s your role & how would you explain it to your mother?
As strategists, we work with our clients to find their target audience and create an overarching approach to reach this audience in media. With the combination of creativity and data, we show clients how they can make the most impact in media.
What was your presentation about & why did you think it was relevant to share with lecturers?
Our presentation was on the importance of developing a predatory mindset when it comes to media strategy. A predatory mindset helps you strike at the weakness that arises from your competitor’s greatest strength. This helps you leverage your relative advantage against something they find hard to change. Adopting this mindset is more important than ever because right now, there is no more money, resources, or audiences – so you must be competitive to win share. This was relevant to share with lecturers because it provided a clear framework that can easily be applied to any category or budget. It also gives them tools to help their student be creative, bold and stand out within the industry.
What are the top 3 takeaways of your presentation?
- You must choose and focus on one single direct, indirect or adjacent competitor to win share from.
- To use a predatory mindset, identify this competitor’s greatest strength – or the reason why a consumer would choose them over you – and turn this into a weakness. Here, think laterally about the pain point that creates a relative advantage for you.
- To ensure it comes to life in media, you must exploit this weakness and turn it into a behaviour that you can action in media. This is the key to ensuring distinctiveness and growth.
What skills do you think are most critical to your role?
- Having an open mind to new perspectives.
- Being willing to try something new, learning and trying again.
- Being interested and interesting.
What are the best resources to keep up to date on the industry?
There are plenty of trade resources we use every single day, such as WARC, Lions Creativity and Mi3 – however, this is where everyone is looking. You also need to complement it with resources that may be a little left of centre to ensure you consistently have a fresh perspective. Whether you’re listening to a podcast on the laundry, or reading a memoir, you can always find and apply learnings.