The future of Canada’s marketing industry will be shaped by its youngest talent—the super-worldly, plugged-in, brilliant and creative youth who are already making a name for themselves. Marketing put out the call to the industry to find the top 30 standouts under the age of 30 who have already made their mark on the industry.
From PR to advertising to media and beyond, our 30 Under 30 showcases the smartest, bravest and most creative ones to watch in the business.
Christopher Walton, 27
Senior Broadcast Buyer, Media Experts
The word “broadcast” appears in Christopher Walton’s title, but it’s merely a technicality. The way he approaches media buying reaches far beyond a single channel and his unique take on how to get clients’ messages the right exposure has proven successful time and time again.
The king (or perhaps prince, at his age) of helping devise integrated marketing solutions at Media Experts, Walton has earned a reputation for using different media in different ways.
One such buy, recalls Media Experts director of television services Carol Cummings, was for BMW and involved short-form executions such as stings and bugs. Walton ingeniously backed that up with VOD on television, which, as Cummings says, “nobody was using—they’re still not.”
She says the approach is a great complement to a regular TV buy and a strong way to “come in the back door”—especially since viewers that have missed season premieres or finales often watch them via VOD. Walton presented the idea to BMW and Cummings says they loved it. “I thought ‘Okay, I want to clone this kid,’” she says.
Walton is also keen on social TV and is keeping very close tabs on the impact it will have on broadcast. He largely credits the way he’s deeply embedded himself in that realm and adapted to the multi-screen universe with driving his career forward and helping him win a gold in the media category of The Globe and Mail’s Young Lions. “I get the feeling he really wants [Media Experts] to be at the forefront of the social TV arena and to figure out how to best use it in reaching our customers, which is fantastic,” says Cummings.
What keeps Walton motivated? “I consistently ask ‘What can we do differently to be on the breaking edge?’ I don’t want to accept where we are; I don’t think it’s always the right move to do the same thing twice.”
He believes a better move is to bring creative thinking to his role. “Too often in media buying it’s easy to just connect the dots and move on from there, but there is a lot of strategic thinking that can be done within our everyday job.”
And, as his buys prove, that approach can flourish when taken beyond traditional broadcast.
For lots more of the 30 Under 30, pick up the the Sept. 10 issue of Marketing magazine.
Photo: Mike Ford
