Mediaweek Academy superstar Duncan McGrath talks building trust and respect with clients

The second Mediaweek Academy will take place on Wednesday and centre on building client trust and respect.

MFA Hall of Famer and Mediaweek contributing editor Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham will lead the sessions, featuring a Legend of the industry sharing their career development wisdom and a Superstar discussing their insights.

This month’s Legend is Mark Buckman from Accenture Song, alongside Superstar speaker Duncan McGrath from Google.

McGrath spoke to Mediaweek about his career, leading Google’s SMB Ads Marketing team and the key to building client trust and respect.

Brought up in the industry

McGrath shared that he grew up around the marketing agency world with his parents running their events agency from the family home, often using their dining table as the board room.

“Even as a young kid, I’d come home from school and overhear their calls with marketing teams at P&G while I ate cereal on the couch,” he recalled.

McGrath continued working for them through his teens to earlier twenties, helping them with promo and running large brand experiences. He chose to move into diplomacy and studied Economics and International Relations before working in microfinance program management at a foreign aid agency.
 
After a year in that space, he wanted to return to his marketing roots, leading him to Google.

Being a leader in Google

McGrath leads Google’s SMB Ads Marketing team across Australia and New Zealand. He is responsible for acquiring new Google Ads customers and helping existing advertisers continue to improve their results and grow their business. 

“This covers everyone from very small businesses right up to very large brands and agencies,” he said.

McGrath noted that while award-winning campaigns and accolades have been highlights, the most rewarding part of his career has been coaching and mentoring the marketers on his team.

“I’ll never forget the first time I promoted someone. Giving people the feedback, the stretch opportunities, and the self-belief to go out and excel in their role and then seeing them achieve things they never thought possible is easily the best part of my job,” he said.

McGrath on the Mediaweek Academy and building trust and respect

The Mediaweek Academy session will centre on building client trust and respect. McGrath noted that the key to achieving that professionally is no different to how one would do in any human relationship.

“It’s about both ‘what’ you do as much as ‘how’ you do it - but here are a few tips from my experience being a publisher, an agency and now a client,” he said.

Among the points McGrath noted when building trust and respect were to deliver reliably, honesty, to know your craft, to treat everyone with respect and professionalism, to be easy to collaborate with, and to ask for feedback and to give it.

Looking ahead, McGrath noted that besides funny stories, he hopes attendees leave with appreciation that not all clients necessarily want the same things.

“Spoiler - fancy lunches aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and, for some, could even be a headache. But what is universally valued is trust and respect,” he said.

“My advice is to ask yourself, ‘will this help or hurt trust in our agency’ - I’m yet to find an example where the long-term payoff isn’t worth it. 

McGrath concluded: “Your values need to be the unwavering backbone of who you are in business. By contrast, what you do, can and likely should change. From job to job and year to year, what you do will be different, but who you are shouldn’t be.”

For those who missed out on the first session, Mediaweek will run nine more sessions this year. Sparrow urged those who missed out to come to the next ones.
 
“It’s going to help your career, get your promotion and really kickstart your journey in the industry. So, I’d say don’t miss out,” he said.
 
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Top image: Duncan McGrath