Cameron Armstrong
About ten years ago, I uploaded my first video to YouTube, and this little hobby grew into my obsession with marketing. In that time, I’ve worked on numerous companies and projects, while constantly learning and aiming to up the standards. I finished (dropped out of) Sixth Form to work at one of the leading media agencies, OMD UK, working on the accounts of McDonald's and Barclays. This was my first insight into the media industry and working with some of the biggest brands in the world.
I'm currently working at Initiative on the Amazon account, working across digital planning and strategy.
Having now been in the industry for years, I've seen first-hand some of the amazing work which goes on within. However, I think drastic change is needed.
Gone are the days when advertising was an art, 80% of ads now may as well be computer generated. As an industry, we're now at a stage where people are actively paying for ad blockers. There's a disconnect between media, creatives and tech, and ultimately it's the consumer impacted by this.
This gives us an opportunity to adapt, to focus on what matters, bringing things back to what advertising once was, an art. Not just creating campaigns but creating conversations.
People want to buy from companies they believe in. That's why human-centric marketing is always the solution.
It’ll be those who pair creativity, media, and tech who win. This is the agency of the future. People will try and get in its way, try and shut it down, try and stick to the old ways, but the future is inevitable – the trajectory of innovation we’re now seeing has never been seen before.
The plan is to eventually take this knowledge, experience and learnings, to build my next startup.
YouTube
In 2015, at 13 years old I started my YouTube channel, Cameron Armstrong. In the 2 years I was posting regular content out on the channel, I was able to build a following of over 4500 subscribers, and 350,000 YouTube views, with 16,000 followers on Facebook too.
PayDigic
At 15, I went about creating a cryptocurrency payment gateway, called PayDigic. After months of working on the company, the pitch and the business strategy, I was able to secure a £50k seed investment. Although there was one slight problem... at the time, I hadn't even completed my GCSE's and legally couldn't own a business, so it didn't make sense to continue.
Impedia
Growing up on social media, digital marketing seemed like second nature to me. So I went about starting Impedia - a social media marketing agency aiming to help businesses grow. I worked with a variety of clients, although was never able to make it the success that was planned. This led me to my current role in marketing, where I am working on the accounts of McDonalds and Barclays.