Grill The Marketer discusses the future of marketing with Dav Tabeshfar and Cathal Mongey

Carma Levene hosted more than 50 people at the latest Grill The Marketer, last month September 24, bringing together Dav Tabeshfar, DIRECTER, Creative Consultants, and Cathal Mongey, Copywriter at Moonsail, for a free-flowing discussion about the future of marketing.

In what may have been the most challenging name pronunciations in the event’s seven-year history, the session delivered a little bit of everything: almost a dust-up, a question that was definitely NOT a question at all, and the sharing of some secret sauce – both figuratively and literally.

“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 guests brought contrasting perspectives to the discussion, with Mongey described as a suit-turned-creative, sober Irishman who repped Australia at Cannes, and Tabeshfar as a lifetime creative, agency co-founder and now consultant doing things a little differently.

The audience included agency folk, creatives, academics, students from ECU and Curtin, PADC members, and client-side marketers of all flavours.

The questions ranged from what to do when your values don’t align with a client’s industry, to how to stand out in a sea of sameness and get clients to trust a bold idea. The advice on the latter? “Bold” works better than “brave”.

And of course, it took approximately 17 minutes before someone mentioned AI.

The conversation also explored what it means to be “unfakably human” as a way to stand out from the slop, as well as the sameness of mediocrity. Bonfire’s work with Skull Island Prawns was put forward as a local example of this.

There was also discussion about what happens when things go wrong, including accidentally naming something after a strain of marijuana, before a tangent about toilets rounded out another typically unpredictable Grill The Marketer session.

The final instalment of Grill The Marketer for the year is set for 19th of November.

Photos thanks to Peter Dancewicz from Spoilt Photobooths.