Russell Nelson.
Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Russell 'Rusty' Nelson: Creative Director, CX Lavender.
Time in current role
1 year in role. 9 years at CXL.
How would you describe what the company does?
We influence how brands show up across the many 1:1 touchpoints they have with new and existing customers. (We also nurture talent exceptionally well and have some impressive tenure to show for it.)
What do you do day to day?
I’m a big believer in the adage that a Creative Director’s role is to create space for creatives so they can get on with creating. So, a lot of my day is spent trying to get out of the way. Wholistically at least. In reality it’s just a lot of brief reviewing, creative reviewing, internal reviewing and client presentations (aka client reviewing).
Define your job in one word:
Unhinged.
I got into the industry because:
I had never heard of the term ‘graphic design’ when I signed up to do a diploma in it at TAFE. I just liked to draw and someone told me you could do that on a computer. One thing that’s kept me in the industry is that our contribution involves an output. There’s an actual product at the end that is attributed to the effort you put in. This provides a lot of job satisfaction – satisfaction I don’t think you get in all industries.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Slimming margins leading to shorter and shorter timelines. It’s getting harder to justify a healthy buffer to allow creatives to explore the depths of their imaginations. On the flip side, the pressure is leading us down an interesting path of innovation where we’re seeing some exciting advancements that boost creative productivity and streamline some of our chunkier processes. Silver lining!
What’s the biggest industry wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
I’m sure there are people out there looking into this but ever since that tiny thumb-sized bat inside a remote Chinese cave decided to inflict a cataclysmic global event that changed our industry forever, we haven’t properly worked out a way to get back to long lunches on Fridays.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
I often think back to a teacher I had at TAFE, Wes Wickham, who strongly encouraged me to continue my studies once I finished my diploma. Less of a mentor and more of a heavy influence as I ended up moving to Melbourne to do a Bachelor of Communication Design at RMIT and landed a job in a tech start-up designing apps in the early days of apps. One little push that upended my life in my 20s and probably wouldn’t have happened without his encouragement.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Make sure you do the 10,000 hours first.
If I wasn’t doing this for a living, I'd be:
It’s a cliché but I would love to do something where I get to make things with my hands. I think it’s a symptom of working in an industry where we make things but not necessarily things that are tactile and that you can touch. I’m not very handy but I built a flat pack shed the other day and it was soooo satisfying (I even made a TikTok compilation of it). Compacting sand for cement pavers, rivet guns, tin snips. These are all things I had to Google before I started. I also long to be outdoors more. So maybe a landscaper.
My philosophy is:
Fortune favours those in motion. I apply it to everything. My career, day-to-day tasks, life outside of work and even my health (movement helps with my old man back pain). I try to keep everything moving. Without movement you have effectively stalled. Brands need to continually evolve too – otherwise you become complacent and irrelevant to your audience.
My favourite advert is:
Adidas Originals House Party – 2009
I wanted to go to that party so badly. I’m a sucker for music video ads (Apple has always excelled at them). Music is so emotional and it’s such an important part of advertising. This one hit me hard. When I first watched it, I’d never heard of Frankie Valli (the song sampled in the clip) but years later I went to the Frankie Valli musical with my parents and was instantly taken back to this spot.
Music and TV streaming habits: what do you subscribe to?
Spotify, Netflix, Disney+, Binge.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
When I first started at CX Lavender (almost 10 years ago!) I was asked to provide one interesting thing about myself to be shared during my all-agency introduction. I think I said ‘I am good at seeing things that are really far away’. Which is true. I’m always the first to spot kangaroos on road trips. But as I’ve already used this nugget, I think I’ll go with the fact I’m half Estonian and have a strong connection to the Estonian community in Sydney.
In five years’ time I’ll be...
At the wheel of a dusty 4WD towing some sort of caravan/camper contraption on a remote dirt road somewhere along the north coast of Australia halfway through a lap around the country with the family. Or at the very least still in motion.
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