A virtual meeting with Richard Nathans

“ … nothing came easy and nothing is guaranteed.”

Richard’s quote directly shows by having effort it is possible to pass any ups and downs in a career-long journey.

He graduated from GBC in 1999. His journey started as a coop student at Grand National Apparel. Richard mentioned how coop became an opportunity to change himself to an active job seeker, as he found his way into a job at Corus Entertainment by reaching out directly to one of an employee and requesting guide from him to find a position there. He had been understood that online applying would not help him to find a job he is looking for; thus he had started to reach people directly by himself.

Being the fifth hiring for Kijiji Canada project and launching the ad platform is Richard’s next career journey. This step of the journey ended with many significant outcomes for Kijiji, such as increased revenue growth year by year.

Richard found out the importance of data in his career and entered the data world at ComScore Canada as a Senior Sales Manager. After having 5 years of cooperation with ComScore, he joined the Quebecor team which is well-known media, especially in Montreal province, as a Digital Account director.

Moreover, Richard is an active member of this professional society, as he has sat on the IAB Mobile Committee, and the Canadian Marketing Association Digital Committee.

After sharing with us his career story, Richard provided six Canadian companies to inform us how we can find our way to these companies through Coop.

However, that was not all learned stuff. It is essential to thank Michelle for providing these empowerment meetings and helps students to find their ways. Richard highlighted how it is critical to take the risk and move forward without being afraid of losing. He mentioned always follow your heart and listen to your gut, as it is how you find your most strong passion and following it and letting it bloom would lead to being a success. Another noticeable point was that be aware of people around you, choose good friends and spend your time with winners and trust them. Let them uplift you and be a giver to them, and it is how we can grow our community.

If you asked me “What is Marketing?” five years ago, I probably could not come up with a proper answer. Likewise, marketing was not something I recognized much at all. All I knew was that companies tried to attract me and persuaded me to buy their products. However, the more I study and engage in the marketing concept, the more I find it interesting – because it literally takes place everywhere! For example, a hotel with high guest traffic not only needs someone to clean and refresh the rooms after the previous guest checking out but also need to make sure the restrooms in the lobby lounge are also neatly cleaned. Because dirty restrooms can link to a negative marketing message at the hotel. And in this way, the cleaning staffs have no idea that they are also involving in “marketing”.

Lesson I: You do not need to start off in Marketing, to pursue your career in Marketing

I did not initially want to be in marketing and indeed, I have built up my experience in hospitality. Therefore, at the beginning of the Strategic Relationship course at George Brown, I have had no idea how I am going to find a Marketing job after graduate. But it is interesting to find that I am not alone. The GBC alumni - Jordan also started off in Hospitality, Natasha had a career in childhood education and Asta was a full-time graphic designer. None of them took Marketing in the first place, but all have become successful young marketers now. That is really inspiring because I am exactly like them a few years ago. And what does it take to turn your initial career path into Marketing? It’s continuous learning and a passion to know about new things. All of the alumni have finished their degree and been working in other fields, but they all came back to GBC to get the certificate in Digital Media Marketing to help pivot their careers.

Lesson II: Networking = Jobs

By participating in the course, I have had tremendous opportunities to expand my network, which will eventually benefit me with a better chance of getting a job in the future. That is the second lesson I learned from the alumni – It’s all about networking. How coincident it is to have a job offer from a mutual friend? That happened to Asta, and could happen to me too. Networking is the best advice for the question “How to increase my chance of getting a job offer?”. And while networking, you are also marketing yourself to potential employers. Once again, marketing does really exists in every aspect of life.

Lesson III: How is it like to work in an agency?

There have been many controversies over the pressure and stress for working in a marketing agency – you have to meet the deadlines from the clients, get flexible and accommodate their ever-changing requirements, or even having to work overtime frequently to be able to finish the projects. However, it really depends on the company and the position that you are in charge of. As for Natasha, she was lucky enough to find a company that she can dedicate all her effort during a regular 9-5 work and she does not necessarily have to stay longer for getting credit. After all, the ultimate goal for any marketer, despite working in a client or an agency company, is the same – that is to “create happy customers”. As happy customers equal to more sales, and more sales mean increased revenue for the company.

Lesson IV: Adapting to “The New Normal”

This term has undoubtfully become popular in the past few months and the words speak for itself. The way we are doing business now isn’t the same as we did several months ago, at least for the rest of the year. The alumni also gave me a sneak into how business is running during this pandemic. From having to be prepared and properly-dressed for virtual team meetings even though you are working from home, to adopt the marketing campaigns to meet with the current situation. The pandemic has severely affected many businesses, and it has changed how brands market themselves. Take a look into how the top brands' response to the pandemic:

Coca-Cola spaced out letters in the Times Squares, USA

DoorDash #OpenForDelivery Campaign

> The campaign was run on multi-platform with the initial purpose to inform customers that restaurants are open and in need of patronage more than ever to survive through the COVID-19. The 30-second video campaign starts with the title sentence “Restaurants have always there for you” is an homage to essential restaurant workers that continue to work for the others staying at home and it triggers a call to action the help them.

People are more engaged in data points and the internet than ever while practicing social distancing, which has made brands pivot away from their previously scheduled campaigns. Apart from grocery stores and cleaning products that are experience a surge in demand without the need for marketing, other brands have to follow the trend of adapting to “the new normal” to weather this pandemic. Jordan revealed an interesting fact that his marketing team has recently get used to Tiktok as the platform has been over popular and opened a new way and opportunity to reach prospective customers.