From a life of Lego to an innovation-led career

That he’s now an advertising professional is somehow oddly aligned with those youthful dreams – his day-to-day life as Client Strategy Lead for News Corp is spent building colourful, creative and often unexpected solutions for his clients. 

“My job as a lead is to solve complex problems using creativity by mapping out opportunities and solutions for my clients. Whether it's advertising, research, content or editorial, it's focused on crafting the narrative that pulls all those services together,” he says. 

Since graduating from the combined UTS Bachelor of Communication (Digital and Social Media, Public Communication) and Diploma in Innovation in 2021, Marcus’s advertising career has gone from strength to strength.

In the last 12 months alone, he’s won the NGEN Award from the Media Federation of Australia, has been named on the 30 Under 30 list by the International News Media Federation and has been promoted into a team that oversees a portfolio valued at more than $100 million. 

His secret? A huge work ethic, an irrepressible personality and a unique set of innovation skills.

Harnessing his maverick streak 

A born storyteller, Marcus assumed he’d study something communications and marketing related when it came time for university. The Bachelor of Communication was an easy choice – he’d long been a fan of the TV series Mad Men and saw exciting potential in a career based on telling stories through creative advertising. 

But enrolling in the Diploma in Innovation, a bespoke offering from the UTS Transdisciplinary School, was more of a roundabout journey. 

“I’ll be honest – my mum was a big part of that decision,” he says. “She was trying to set me up for success in the workforce. Her position was, ‘Well, Marcus, you can learn the creativity aspect in your Communication degree, but you need to be able to think critically, too’.”

Mum was onto something. The Diploma is a six-month creative problem-solving qualification that can be added to just about any UTS degree. Delivered by leading innovation practitioners, it brings together students from across university faculties to build skills in design and systems thinking and entrepreneurship that they can apply to real industry projects.   

During his studies, Marcus worked on projects set by Mastercard, the City of Sydney, PWC and the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). He also learnt to use complex methodologies – such as the waterfall method, double diamond design process, and divergent and convergent thinking – to solve pressing social challenges, from designing housing solutions for domestic violence survivors to re-imagining the schooling system of the future. These experiences were among his favourite in the degree and were excellent preparation for how he works today.

“We get a brief from a client, we go away and work on a solution, we come back. Sometimes you’d get a two-week deadline, sometimes you’d get a 12-week deadline, sometimes you’d get 24 hours. That’s exactly what my job is like now,” he says. 

Further, studying two degrees at once turned out to be hugely beneficial for Marcus’s learning. Both the Communication and Innovation degrees had extensive crossover, which meant he could take learning from one course and apply it to the other.

“There was a lot of synergy between the two, and one helped elevate the other. I might learn how to pitch a room in an advertising subject and then take that skill to a pitch in front of PWC. In the Diploma, I might take the brainstorming skills and apply them to an advertising project,” he says.

Spreading the word on innovation 

The UTS degree combination has continued to pay dividends for Marcus in the years since he left UTS. The innovation skills, in particular, have only become more valuable with time.

“At uni, you rolled up your sleeves and you were focused on having a good time with people, learning great content. But I think what really clicked for me and what I have so much more appreciation for now is the content, now that I’m five years into my career,” he says.

“In the first subject, we learned about the double diamond design process, which is a framework for innovation. I didn’t know how to use it then, but years later it’s a cornerstone for the work that I do.”

Marcus has also seen firsthand how those skills can be applied to social enterprise projects, something he cares deeply about. His aforementioned NGEN Award, one of his major achievements of the last 12 months, was the result of a competition proposal to increase Dress for Success client numbers. Dress for Success is a charity that provides professional support for unemployed and underemployed women.

The NGEN award was special in and of itself, but so too were the circumstances surrounding it: his project partner and co-award winner, Angelina Das, was a friend and classmate from his Diploma of Innovation days. Angelina is also now his colleague at News Corp.

“We were in the same cohort. We were good friends, and somehow, we both ended up at News. I said to her, ‘I want to do work with you like we did in the UTS days.’ This competition came up and we had a swing at it,” Marcus says.  

While Marcus might now be out in the world, his ties to UTS remain strong. He’s now a sessional tutor in the Communication program, a mentor in the UTS Startups entrepreneurship program, and a volunteer coordinator for a mentoring program that pairs final-year communication students with industry experts.

These commitments are an opportunity to give back to a university he cherishes, to see his skills come to life in different settings, and to support the next generation of media, innovation and other professionals who are now making their way through UTS’s ranks.