The Creative Data Academy: Tesni Filzek's Experience

The Creative Data Academy provides an opportunity for 30 select young individuals from extremely varied backgrounds with the chance to learn how crucial data is in the marketing industry today. Whether at the start of their careers in marketing related roles, or students studying at University, the jam packed three days really does bring together a very diverse group of people, meaning everyone can bring something different to the table!

Day 1 began with a chance to get to know everyone and a presentation on ‘The Big Data Landscape now and the future’ by Jamie Brookes, really setting the scene for the next few days. We were then split into groups and given a brief by Code Worldwide on how to drive repeat purchases and evoke brand advocacy for the well-known brand Ralph Lauren. Over the next few days we’d be working on this brief and preparing a pitch to present our ideas to a panel of judges at the RAPP agency on our final day. After some well earnt and delicious lunch, Ross Taylor ran a unique careers session, giving some extremely helpful tips on how to stand out in this competitive industry. Before checking into our hotel for the night, we finished off the day with some pizza and a chance for everyone to get to know each other better.

Our 2^nd day was even more crammed than the first, fitting in a data analytics talk by Scott Logie and Chloe Mo from REaD Group about segmentation and targeting and then working in groups on a related task, really teaching us the importance of knowing who your customers are. We then heard from Keith Guthrie, Head of Business Intelligence at Sainsbury's, about how data is used in retail and still had time to work on our briefs before a quick change ready for our evening networking event at the Old Bengal Bar. The evening was spent chatting to some highly knowledgeable industry experts from REaD Group, RAPP, Wunderman, Blueberry Wave, Amnut, Analogue Folk, Commercial Break, Good Agency and Human Theory to name a few.

Our final day - pitch day. In the morning we had talks from alumni of The Creative Data Academy on their experiences since participating in the programme, many of their first jobs being with people they met at their networking event. We then had an hour to finalise our pitches before heading off to the very nice RAPP offices to present. After the winning team was announced and presented with their prize (a £25 Amazon voucher each) we all then headed back home equipped with the knowledge of how data is so influential in the world of marketing.

Returning home that evening I had the chance to reflect on everything I’d learnt over the last three days. The main take home messages being;

1. Networking is an extremely useful tool, but keeping in touch with those contacts is just as important - you never know who could give you your next job
2. Data isn’t just about plugging numbers into algorithms and looking for trends, there is a whole breadth of data related roles out there, suitable to lots of different people
3. Take every opportunity you are given, never stop learning and don’t be afraid to ask questions!

I would highly recommend The Creative Data Academy to anyone interested in data roles within marketing. It really has opened my eyes to all the exciting and new career possibilities out there.

Wish you were there? You can be! Applications are still open for our Edinburgh Creative Data Academy here: https://dma.org.uk/creativedata.

Or, to make sure you know as soon as the dates for next year's London Academy is set, register your interect by clicking here. By completing this form you'll be added to our email database and will be kept up to date with all the events and programmes DMA Talent run.