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It wasn\u2019t until Mitchell Long began his career in advertising that he felt he was in the right place.<\/p>\n
Long, PHD Sydney\u2019s head of strategy and\u00a0AdNews<\/em>\u00a02020 Emerging Leader, entered the industry after a lifetime of searching for what he calls his \u201cGoldilocks zone\u201d. From a failed concert violinist, to joke of the school\u00a0formal, injecting-room reject and F-grade hand model, this is the story of how Long eventually found his niche to become the youngest head of strategy in the history of PHD\u2019s global network.<\/p>\n One of three children, Long grew up in a<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until Mitchell Long began his career in advertising that he felt he was in the right place.<\/p>\n Long, PHD Sydney\u2019s head of strategy and\u00a0AdNews<\/em>\u00a02020 Emerging Leader, entered the industry after a lifetime of searching for what he calls his \u201cGoldilocks zone\u201d. From a failed concert violinist, to joke of the school\u00a0formal, injecting-room reject and F-grade hand model, this is the story of how Long eventually found his niche to become the youngest head of strategy in the history of PHD\u2019s global network.<\/p>\n One of three children, Long grew up in a musical family. His parents had met while studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where his grandmother and sister had also studied, so learning an instrument from an early age was a big part of growing up.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of my earliest memories are sitting in the orchestra pit by my mum as a baby and feeling the vibration of Mahler\u2019s Symphony No. 5 belting through the floorboards,\u201d says Long.<\/p>\n He picked up the violin at age five, became the lead violinist of the SBS Youth Chamber Orchestra at 14 and went on to earn his Associate in Music performance (AMusA) from the AMEB at 16, by which time he earnt spare change teaching violin after school.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2018t touched it for a long time now so I couldn\u2019t play to save my life,\u201d says Long. \u201cBut it taught me the difference between being a good player and a good performer, and my nerves meant I certainly wasn\u2019t the latter.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, whenever I feel that rush of adrenaline before a pitch or presentation, I am relieved my sweaty palms don\u2019t have to attempt double stop harmonics or spiccato.\u201d<\/p>\n Completing his HSC in 2006, Long describes high school as \u201ca bit of a rough\u201d experience. At a time when the LGBT+ community faced a lot more stigma and discrimination, he was a teenager coming to terms with his own sexuality.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t all doom and gloom, but there were definitely moments when I found it difficult,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was before projects such as \u2018It Gets Better\u2019 and \u2018Wear it Purple\u2019 existed to fight homophobia, and the only reference point for gay people in mainstream media were a narrow selection of Will & Grace, the original Fab 5 [Queer Eye for the Straight Guy] and Ellen.<\/p>\n \u201cFeeling like you don\u2019t fit in at a time when you\u2019re still trying to figure out who you are makes it hard for any kid to find confidence in themselves. So going through school feeling like there was something wrong with me was quite an alienating experience. That was the most difficult time in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n At his high school formal, Long\u2019s peers awarded him \u2018Most likely to come out of the closet\u2019, a joke he views as a defining point in his life.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time I just felt like they didn\u2019t get what kids in my position were going through internally,\u201d says Long.<\/p>\n Long and the PHD team at the MFA Awards<\/em><\/p>\n Free from high school, and putting away his violin, Long began\u00a0a double degree at University of Technology Sydney studying communications, journalism and international studies, where he also studied for a year in Japan at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Long was drawn to journalism because it would allow him to leverage his knack for storytelling and writing, combined with a clear career pathway.<\/p>\n However, once he began his journalism courses, Long realised he was probably too \u201cmild\u201d for the life of a reporter.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember one of my first assignments was to go and chase down a story from Kings Cross where I ended up being kicked out of the\u00a0injecting room while trying to get a sound bite,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my first tutors was a real hard news journo who I found both inspiring and slightly terrifying. It didn\u2019t take long for me to figure out\u00a0I was probably too mild for a life of cold calling and chasing stories from people who obviously didn\u2019t want to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n Coasting through journalism, in his fourth year, Long studied abroad in Tokyo as part of his international studies degree and had the \u201ctime of his life\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201c2010 was a highlight \u2014 it was one part study and many parts partying. On my first day off the plane, an agent scouted me for a Gucci event in downtown Shibuya which led to a string of odd promotional jobs. To this day, the pinnacle of my success is hand modelling for page 78 of Vogue Homme Japan.<\/p>\n \u201cJapan is a crazy place full of contradictions that certainly fuelled my interest in culture and contemplating why people do what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2011, Long returned to Sydney for the final year of his studies.<\/p>\n \u201cI had no idea what I was going to do,\u201d he says. \u201cI was no performer, I wasn\u2019t a journalist and hand modelling wasn\u2019t exactly a lucrative trade so I took a sub-major in advertising and surprisingly things clicked.\u201d<\/p>\n In his final semester, Long landed an internship at PHD, a small media agency of around 50 staff at the time that has since grown to more than 300 nationally.<\/p>\n \u201cBy this point my hands had gone from being in magazines to booking them for eBay\u2019s \u2018Fashion Gallery\u2019 campaign at the time. \u201cQuite early on I was instinctively drawn to strategy. At the time, Chris Stephenson was heading up the strategy team at PHD and he\u2019s a superstar. Beyond a brilliant brain, he has that rare kind of energy and creativity that can transform a room.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat drew me to strategy was the opportunity to fuse my creative side with the part of me that loves to think deeply on things and do so in a way that solves problems simply. In a way it was the \u201cGoldilocks zone\u201d I\u2019d been searching for that brought together aspects of all the things I had been drawn to growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell Long and his family<\/em><\/p>\n Within his first six months, Long was competing at the national finals of Cannes Young Lions, returned to the finals again the following year, and spent the next four years honing his craft through investment and planning roles on PHD\u2019s Google account before eventually landing his dream job in strategy working across accounts including Google, Unilever and Volkswagen.<\/p>\n In the following years, Long was leading strategy for campaigns that won awards such as AdNews Media Campaign of the Year, Gold at the MFA Awards, Festival of Media APAC and M&M Global.<\/p>\n By 2017, these awards contributed to 65% of PHD Sydney\u2019s annual award wins and Long was travelling to New York, San Francisco and Tokyo as the Australian lead in Google\u2019s global strategy unit for the coordinated launch of several of its priority products.<\/p>\n In 2019, Long stepped up to head PHD\u2019s Sydney Strategy team and he led the strategy on the winning pitch for Virgin Australia.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are definitely those tick-box accolades which are really humbling to get,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for me it\u2019s more about the sum of all parts versus a specific moment in time. Strategy isn\u2019t something delivered in a single In recent years, Long has focused on finding his own style of leadership.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a point in your career when you need to shift from striving to be the best, to enabling the best in others. Part of this is finding inspiration in the superpowers of those around me, from my boss, Alex Pacey, and his inappropriately disarming humour, to members of my team and their infectious curiosity.<\/p>\n \u201cI find the best leaders have the EQ to read people and the self-awareness to identify the gaps in their own behaviours to give others what they need from them to do their best work.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell Long accepting the 2020 AdNews Emerging Leader award<\/em><\/p>\n In 2020, Long became Sydney co-chair of Omnicom\u2019s Open Pride and helped lead initiatives and events across Omnicom\u2019s media and creative agencies to drive greater diversity and inclusion across the broader network.<\/p>\n For Wear it Purple Day, Long shared his personal story growing up gay as part of the Heart on My Sleeve initiative which he regards as one of his \u201cscariest but also most rewarding\u201d career moments.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw an opportunity to turn some of the negative experiences I had left behind growing up into something positive that could hopefully help other people on their own journeys of self-discovery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem with many diversity and inclusion conversations is we often look at things through one dimension. Sometimes people can be really sensitive on one issue because it relates to their own identity, but dismissive of another and I find that bizarre. I believe sharing our stories enables us to recognise that we all have hang-ups, past trauma or that little nagging voice in our head, and if we\u2019re kind and open with one another, we can do a lot of good.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I love about Open Pride, it\u2019s inclusive for LGBT+ people and their allies as there are life lessons we can learn from each other that have nothing to do with who you sleep with.\u201d<\/p>\n One key lesson that Long himself has learnt is shaking off the experience of his younger years and rethinking what his image is to other people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe big learning for me coming through into the industry is that my childhood years of feeling judged based on my sexuality ended up causing me to judge others later in life in terms of who I felt I could be authentic with,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you realise you\u2019re carrying a lot of unnecessary baggage and projecting that onto how you assess others, at some point you realise it\u2019s your problem, not theirs. That was a big learning curve for me.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked about his future goals, Long says he\u2019s more focused on what he can bring to people he works around. Now I\u2019m in a role that feels aligned to my skills, and I find myself pursuing more of a feeling as my role isn\u2019t just about what I do anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the KPIs I routinely set myself each year is to be described as a joy to work with. I use that as a guiding light to constantly ask myself am I energising others? Am I empowering them to be their best selves? Am I giving them the confidence to do their best work?<\/p>\n \u201cIt can at times be draining if you\u2019re more introverted, but the further you progress you realise leadership is all about how you make others feel. Of course, being great at your craft is essential, but that alone will only get you so far.<\/p>\n \u201cBe good to others, do good work that resonates with you, and you will find your \u2018Goldilocks zone\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n What others say about Long:<\/strong><\/p>\n Alex James, PHD Australia head of strategy Melbourne<\/em> Alex Pacey, PHD Australia chief product officer<\/em> Mark Jarrett, PHD Australia CEO<\/em> Freya Harvey, Google AUNZ product marketing manager, hardware![\"mfa-awards.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com\/adnews\/live\/images\/dmImage\/StandardImage\/mfa-awards.jpg\")
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\n\u201cLike most, I landed in the industry having no idea what a media agency does, but I was instantly struck by the fun energy, the smart people, and the warmth I felt.<\/p>\n![\"mitch-family.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com\/adnews\/live\/images\/dmImage\/StandardImage\/mitch-family.jpg\")
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\ncampaign so if I think about the journey I\u2019ve been on with clients such as Google helping to genuinely transform their marketing function, what I value most is having been part of their broader journey.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"adclub_0002_0001-1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com\/adnews\/live\/images\/dmImage\/StandardImage\/adclub_0002_0001-1.jpg\")
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\n\u201cWhen I started out it was easier to know where I wanted to go as it was about a destination, such as getting into strategy.<\/p>\n
\nI have had the pleasure of working with Mitch for two years now, and it\u2019s an understatement to say that he is one of the best strategists in Australia right now. His talent to be able to synthesise complex challenges and quickly understand the core issues and opportunities at hand for his clients is second to none. Not only does this make it incredibly easy to make great change happen, he sees it through with passion, flair and drive and his unique touch! Mitch thinks deeply about communications and our industry and is a key leader amongst industry bodies to make our industry a better place and I feel genuinely lucky knowing he\u2019s there \u2013 as he\u2019s motivated for all the right reasons, to do great work that makes a difference. He is an exceptional leader with a ferocious pace, who is empathetic and understands that great leadership is the balance between strength and vulnerability (to quote the great RuPaul). I\u2019m truly excited to see where Mitch goes and feel exceptionally lucky to work with him.<\/p>\n
\nI have been lucky enough to see Mitch\u2019s progression at PHD for the last\u00a0seven years. He is by some distance the most talented strategist that I have had the pleasure of working in my 22 years in the industry. Mitch has an openness to learning that has powered his ability to uncover and deliver true insight across our business for multiple years and on multiple existing and new clients. Throughout his progression this openness has not diminished, in my experience this a very rare and valuable trait. For this reason amongst many others Mitch was a no brainer to lead our strategy team and the work he and the team has produced thus far along with the culture he has created has been outstanding. Although, not surprising!<\/p>\n
\nOften recognition of this sort goes to people who have moved around different organisations to gain wider experience. I\u2019m especially proud of what Mitch has been able to achieve and experience both locally and globally by staying with PHD throughout his journey. From helping to strengthen D&I across our broader network as the co-chair of Omnicom\u2019s Sydney Chapter of Open Pride, to being our youngest head of strategy in any office globally and helping drive award winning work for clients including Unilever and Google in collaboration with teams out of Sydney, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo, Mitch has crammed a lot into career to date. It\u2019s been a privilege to see Mitch grow and evolve over his time at PHD, he\u2019s an amazing strategist that we and our clients are lucky to have and I couldn\u2019t think of a more worthy recipient of this award.<\/p>\n
\nI couldn\u2019t put pen to paper fast enough to recommend Mitch having had the absolute pleasure of both working with and learning from him over the past 4 years. His intelligence and passion combined with an incredibly open and collaborative attitude make him a sought after strategist and respected leader. He\u2019s always one step ahead, asking the right questions and taking the time to understand businesses, products and consumers. This translates into an amazing ability to distil complex problems and exciting opportunities into clear and concise strategies that drive real impact. I can\u2019t wait to see the continued impact Mitch will have on his clients and the industry.<\/p>\n