UQ Bachelor of Business Management / Bachelor of Commerce alum Linh Diep discusses how digital innovation has transformed the marketing industry, the cutting-edge technology she uses in her work, and how her dual degree propelled her marketing career.
Linh is a Business Manager at Special Group and founder of industry-wide program for women Assisterhood. Since graduating, she has amassed an impressive list of clients including ANZ, Taco Bell, Australia Zoo, and Queensland Health. Her efforts have been recognised by Australia’s leading advertising industry publication B&T, which celebrates the marketing industry’s brightest young talent, where she is a two-time winner of the 30 Under 30 Award.
Find out what sparked Lihn's curiosity in business and marketing, and how she shaped her career.
What do you do in marketing?
I work on the advertising you see on TV, billboards, at bus shelters, and those social media ads that keep following you. My agency works with multiple brands, which allows me to explore different career paths while working for them. I can switch from one client to another on any given day, which allows me to develop different skill sets and work in different ways.
What are some of the new technologies you use in your day-to-day marketing work?
Social media has changed the conversation
Something that's changed over the last 20 years is that now there are two-way conversations between brands and consumers. Before, brands would talk to you through a commercial, which is an example of one-way communication. These days, there's a way for consumers to talk to brands directly via social media, and brands actually listen to what consumers have to say.
Social media has definitely changed how people engage and socialise with each other over the last few years. One statistic I read recently is that 15–25-year-olds spend at least 8 to 12 hours a day on their phones. So, for me, instead of capturing someone’s attention for 30 seconds to tell a story or inform them about a brand, it's about how I stop their thumb from scrolling to be able to deliver that message.
How we use AI in advertising to captivate audiences
In the marketing industry, we are starting to use a lot of new technologies including some early artificial intelligence (AI). For example, when a customer sends a direct message on social media, we have a team behind the scenes who build platforms that automate the responses. It’s not a person responding to a customer's message but a robotic system that has answers built up based on commonly asked questions. That's something we've been using over the last few years.
One of the brands we work with is US company Taco Bell, which has grown here in Australia the past few years. Not only have we built them a basic question and answer tool, but we've given them some personality in their responses, so customers don't feel like they're talking to a robot. To do this, we analysed different conversations and tested them against potential target audiences to make it sound like you're talking to a real person.
Augmented and virtual reality
Another technology we work with is augmented reality and virtual reality. One of our clients is Australia Zoo – we wanted to bring this world-renowned attraction to overseas tourists. So, we built a virtual reality experience of the Crocoseum using a camera attached to an attendant and filmed the crocodile coming at them. When someone puts on virtual reality goggles, they can experience this exhibit as if they're at the zoo. We shipped that experience out to different conferences around the world and people really got the sense that they were there. Then they said, "we have to be here, we have to go to this and experience it for ourselves in person.” The virtual experience led to demand for in-person tourism experiences, which is where our client sees revenue.
What led you to study the Bachelor of Business Management / Bachelor of Commerce?
I thought I knew what I wanted to do in high school, which was medicine. I studied biomedical science in my first year of university but quickly realised it wasn't for me. Then, I jumped into journalism because I knew I wanted to tell stories about people. Again, I quickly realised that journalism wasn't for me. So, I jumped into a double degree in business management and commerce here at UQ – to give me a broader understanding of global companies that have such a big impact in the world. The degree allowed me to try out all aspects of business – accounting, finance, law, marketing, advertising and research. Experiencing these first hand was important for me to drill down into advertising.
How did the Bachelor of Business Management / Bachelor of Commerce prepare you for a career in marketing?
My undergraduate study taught me the nuts and bolts of what makes a business, including marketing and finance operations. I committed to a career in marketing because it was interesting. The course that got me across the line was consumer behaviour.
Learning about people, gaining insight into how they work, understanding how people change and how they behave is vital to the work I do every day in my job.
Interested in a career in marketing or advertising?
Focus your studies with a major in marketing as part of UQ's Bachelor of Business Management or Bachelor of Advanced Business (Honours).
