Meg Coffey’s Most Valuable Perspective
MVP Episode 7 | A podcast by State of Social & Dear Storyteller
It’s the final ep of MVP and Mike Drysdale is joined by the one and only Meg Coffey, Founder of State of Social (kind of the reason we’re all here) and MD of marketing agency Coffey & Tea. When you spend time with Meg—at her iconic SoS event or just for this time we have together on the blue velvet chair—you will immediately feel her unrelenting ambition. Meg’s passion for this industry (and life in general) is contagious and her insights around the Metaverse, personalisation, and privacy are the valuable perspectives you pressed play for.
When it comes to SoS, Meg talks about the event’s Acknowledgement of Country, a 20% growth in numbers, and her ability to find people with unique ideas that draw a crowd.
For the final round of Mike’s quickfire questions, Meg Coffey speaks about the cultural and social ramifications of a world transformed by social media and rapidly changing trends. She contemplates Facebook’s charmless shift to the Metaverse and the unfortunate fate of Instagram. Without giving away the whole chat, Meg also speaks candidly about her lack of filter and quest for perfection.
Coffey’s insights are a perfect way to cap off what has been a revelatory series of interviews, showing how these really are marketing’s most valuable perspectives.
Read the transcript below or click to listen on your preferred streaming service.
Mike:
Hello and welcome to MVP, the Marketer’s Most Valuable Perspective; a podcast by State of Social and Dear Storyteller. We are here – we are live at Optus Stadium at State of Social 2022. And for the next 20 minutes, we are going to be deep-diving into the most valuable perspectives of none other than the woman herself, the founder, the visionary, the creator of State of Social. Miss Meg Coffey, welcome to the show. How are you?
Meg:
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Mike:
How are you this time of year, is there anything big on in your world?
Meg:
No, just doing a couple of things, hanging with a few people as you do on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Right.
Mike:
Has it been a tradition every year that the day before, you’ve just said on Twitter; “Got a little something going on tomorrow, a few people are gonna be there”?
Meg:
Yeah. It’s a joke because I can’t take myself too seriously on it or I’ll psych myself out. I’ll get nervous. I think the first year, I said I’m doing the very biggest thing of my career – the biggest thing I’ve ever done – and I’m scared shitless, which is very honest. And then ever since then, not that I’ve played it down, I’ve just sort of been like, “Yeah, I’m doing a thing. It’s just this thing I’ve gotta do once a year.”
Mike:
I like it. It’s good fun. Five years now, this monumental little baby of yours; Meg, It’s an incredible feat. I was talking to Rene LeMerle from Bonfire yesterday at the drinks afterwards, and he said to me, “Every year, I think she couldn’t make it bigger.” And once again, you’ve managed to make it bigger and better this year. Is it just like that old adage that everything’s bigger in Texas? Or is there something deep within the psyche of Meg Coffey that just makes you want to put on one hell of a show? What is it?
What drives you on this?
Meg:
I’m crazy. I’m a glutton for punishment. Well, I wanna make it APAC’s biggest. The goal has always been to make it APAC’s biggest. And so I will not be done until I reach that. When I started, we didn’t expect the pandemic. So when I started, look, it was only ever meant to one year; and then it was gonna be two, and then it was five. It was gonna be just five because I figured conferences were changing and after five years we’d be done. Didn’t expect the pandemic, so that changed everything. Now, I won’t stop until we’re APAC’s biggest. And then even when we do reach that, I don’t know, we’ll see what happens, right?
Mike:
There will be another moon shot somewhere in the distance that you’ll get your eye on and chase after that as well. I love that. That ambition has been something that has always kind of been there, that little twinkle in your eye. It’s something that I love about you. We’ve worked together for the past three of these. I started off as a panel member, and then ran a workshop last year, and this year even more involvement. I’ve been honoured to be able to be a part of it and to see it grow and see it change over the course of the year – or years. I feel like in that time I’ve got to know you a little bit. I think you’re fiercely passionate. You tell it like it is.
Meg Coffey:
Very much so.
Mike Drysdale:
You’re a dynamo and you have this uncanny knack for being able to spot and platform really good talent.
Meg Coffey:
Thank you.
Mike Drysdale:
So I just wanted to ask, what’s something that people might not know or might assume incorrectly about Meg Coffey?
Meg:
Are we PG? That I’m evil, or that I’m a bitch. And I’m not. I’m just very direct and I tell you exactly what I think. And you don’t have to like what I think, you don’t have to agree with what I think, but for some reason I don’t have a filter. I don’t necessarily like it about myself, but I’m also old enough to realise that this is just who I am. And I think the reason I’m so direct is because I’m so passionate. Right? It’s because I want the best for everybody or I want the best for everything. I don’t know how to not be the best. I don’t know how to not show up and do my job. So when you don’t do yours and that impacts me, I will let you know. That sounds horrible; but once you actually get to know me, I’m the most loving, nicest, caring, will do anything, go to the end of the earth for you. It’s just that you have to get through that initial wall.
Mike:
I think you also expect people to work as hard as you do.
Meg:
A hundred percent.
Mike:
And you work hard when you’re in pursuit of that vision and pursuit of that goal. That’s something that you have an absolute commitment to and you hope that everybody else has an absolute commitment to it as well.
Meg:
I struggle with that. You’re spot on and it has taken a lot of time in therapy, not gonna lie, to realise that not everybody does work as hard as I do. I can’t expect everyone to work as hard as I do and that’s okay. But I have to give myself a break and I have to give other people a break as well.
Mike:
I like that. Going into the fifth year, was there anything different that you wanted to achieve? And I guess in tandem to that, what about this year has most pleased you so far and why?
Meg:
So on a very micro level, I wanted to achieve having everyone on stage, because for the past couple years due to Covid we’ve had to have a lot of live crosses and video and there’s nothing like having someone on stage. I wanted to achieve bigger numbers than last year, which we achieved. We have a 20% growth, which is just fantastic. And I wanted to achieve a great event. I wanted to make people go, that was the best one yet. We still have at this point another day to get through, you’ve still gotta deliver your workshop – no pressure.
But no, I think that you mentioned that I find people and give them a platform and that’s very true. It’s important to me to find people who we haven’t heard from before who have different voices or different ideas and get them to share with us. Because I think if we just listen to ourselves all the time, we’ll never learn. I can’t pick a favourite child. Everybody has been incredible this year. There are so many. Seriously, I think every session has had one key moment that makes you go, “Oh yeah, that was incredible.”
Mike Drysdale:
Yeah, I think something that I have been thinking about over the past sort of 24 hours is that sometimes within this industry, and I’m sure it’s not just me, there are times when you can feel lonely. There are times where you can feel like, beyond the four walls of your office, what is there? Is there really a community? Is there really a kind of cohort? And then you come into an event like this, you sit in a room; the alchemy of the energy and everybody in this room, and their attention, and especially when you’ve got someone speaking on stage – like you talked about, there physically in the room – it’s electric. The DJ beforehand yesterday, everybody hanging out and getting coffee and getting food and stuff just before it starts.
It was electric. The excitement is tangible and I think that that’s a really amazing testament.
Meg Coffey:
Thank you. I mean everything is about just doing it a little bit differently, and a little bit better. I mean, you look at our Acknowledgement of Country, which is a very important tradition. A Welcome to Country or an Acknowledgement of Country is something very important that we do. I think a lot of times as a guest or a delegate, you tune out. Because – with respect – it’s an older man speaking in a language that you don’t understand and it’s not engaging and so you tune out. From the very beginning I said, “No, when we do our Acknowledgement of Country, it will be young kids and it will be creative. From the very get-go of the event, we will get your brain thinking differently.” I try to weave that into everything we do and get you to think differently.
Mike Drysdale:
Those Wesley College kids did an awesome job again this year. So good. I know it’s a bit early to get into it, but do you have a vision for what the future will look like? Are you already making plans for next year?
Meg Coffey:
Well, I’ve already, yes. I already gave you a secret there. Yes, definitely. I mean, I don’t give my secrets away. Yes, there is a future, what it looks like is still to be delivered.
Mike Drysdale:
I like it, I like it. I like that we’re not saying ‘maybe I’ll do this again’ at this point. I like that the future is confirmed.
Meg Coffey:
It’s too good not to. People are having too much fun. I’d be bored if I stop now – plus, I haven’t reached the dream yet, right? So gotta reach the dream.
Mike Drysdale:
I love that. Last question before we jump into some quick-fire questions. You’ve become such an institution in this town in a lot of ways, almost becoming the voice of social media, your news credits will start-
Meg Coffey:
“Almost becoming”?
Mike Drysdale:
-well, okay, your news credits would certainly attest to that. Can you share a little bit about your thoughts around personal branding, public relations, and the journey that you’ve been on to become such a go-to expert in this space?
Meg Coffey:
Honestly, it’s because I tell it how it is and I say to myself every time I do television that I need to take some acting classes to get my facial expressions under control because – I’m sure if you have caught some of the video clips from this recording, you’ll have seen some of my facial expressions – I’m not good at hiding them, but I think that I am 100% exactly who I am. I think that that comes through. I don’t try to be somebody else. If I don’t know something, I say that I don’t know it, but I go on, figure it out and then I come back to you with an educated answer. I think that I am reliable and I say yes to pretty much everything, ’cause you just never know. You just never know.
I think one of my favourite recordings that I’ve done was – this is years ago – I was on the ABC and they called me early and I was like, “You can’t call me early, I won’t be home. We can do this from my house, not a problem, but I won’t be home until this exact time.” And they called me early and I was driving; so I had to pull over on the side of the road and prop my phone up on my steering wheel on a water bottle and try and shoot through the steering wheel and doing this live cross on national television and I’m just – whatever. I deliver it, I nail it, and Samantha Maiden sees it and she tweets, “I’m convinced this woman is hiding in her car from her children, more power to her.” And anyone that knows me knows I don’t have children; so people lost it and they go, “Actually, she’s probably hiding from her dog.” But that little piece of television then got seen by so many people and has been the catalyst for so many other opportunities that I’ve had.
Mike Drysdale:
That’s so kind of history of here and now, hiding from children or dogs on camera and live news crosses. It’s certainly become something post-COVID world. I love that. I also think that they couldn’t have been two more perfect people on stage yesterday when you asked Adam Ferrier a question and he went, “Nope, dunno.” I was like, “Could have been either one who answered that!” I asked him a question on the podcast, he did the exact same thing. He went, “Nup. But I’ll come back to you once I figure it out.” Yeah, no wonder that he started this whole thing as well, being the opening speaker of your first State of Social.
Meg Coffey:
Yeah, no, look, Adam tells it exactly how it is as well. And I think those people are rare and they can be abrasive at times, but you gotta love them anyways.
Mike Drysdale:
Alright, let’s jump into some quick-fire questions.
Meg Coffey:
Oh no. Okay, I’m ready.
Mike Drysdale:
Question number one, where do you go to learn about marketing?
Meg:
Online.
Mike:
Where online?
Meg:
Everywhere. My initial, if you’d said one word, I probably would’ve said Twitter. That’s where I start. But I also, I’m a voracious consumer of media. I watch a lot of television, I watch a lot of news, I am on my phone all the time.
Mike:
It’s funny, David Ray said the exact same thing when we recorded with him yesterday; “I am a voracious consumer of media.” That’s a good habit to have, apparently. What’s a small brand you love and why?
Meg:
Oh, there’s so many. Look, I think… I mean that’s a hard one to put me on the spot.
Mike:
First one that comes to mind. You don’t have to thank everyone.
Meg:
No, no, no, no. I’m just trying to think. I’ve been doing some online shopping lately trying to get some things ready to go from home ’cause I’m heading overseas for a month for the first time since COVID. I’ve had to buy an Eagles beanie and some sweatshirts and just all the stuff that you take home to overseas guests. And it’s been fascinating, the various levels of shipping and customer service and just the way that a lot of these DTC brands work. One, Hat Locker, I’ve never heard from them. I think I ordered it Sunday night, it was at my house yesterday, which is what, two days? I live in Perth. That doesn’t happen. So that’s absolutely amazing.
And now my sister – who will not be listening to this until it’s released – has an amazing Eagles beanie. That’s really cool. That’s amazing customer service compared to a brand – who I won’t mention – who I’ve ordered from three weeks ago and I’m still waiting.
Mike:
The question is to who you love, Meg. It’s okay. We don’t have to mention-
Meg:
You know what I mean. I think there’s some brands that are doing it really well, and-
Mike:
Others. Yeah, I get it. That’s okay. If you could spend four hours with any marketer or business person in the world, who would you choose?
Meg:
Oh, you’re killing me. You should have given me notice on these questions. That’s why I’m good on TV, I get them beforehand. No, I’m kidding. I can’t; there isn’t just one. I wanna split that into eight half-hour sessions and just have an opportunity to pick the brains of a lot of people. And I don’t necessarily think they need to be straight business or marketers. Adam, he’s a consumer behaviourist, but he is also a marketer. So I think anyone that’s really deep in philosophy and English and those kinds of things.
Mike:
You’ve got Myles Pollard talking today.
Meg Coffey:
Oh, about persuasion. That’s gonna be incredible. We were talking about boats in the Kimberly yesterday. I mean a couple years ago we had Chris Messina, the gentleman who invented the hashtag, and this is actually – so August 24th is 2007 is when the hashtag was invented – so we’re about what, 20 years? I don’t know. I can’t do math. But having conversations with Chris Messina are just absolutely incredible because one second you’re talking about human history and then you’re talking about open relationships and then you’re talking about the most incredible technology that you’ve ever had and you’re like, “Your brain is fascinating.” I like those kind of people.
Mike Drysdale:
Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like we’ve had a lot of those conversations over the last two days. I mean, when we asked about a small brand that Susannah George loved yesterday, she talked about Normal, this new brand of sex toy that’s come out, very sex positive, and that they have almost an educational curriculum about sex that’s part of their marketing. Wild, wild times. It’s amazing to speak to people who just aren’t afraid to go fully broad with you and speak about so many different things. Right?
Meg Coffey:
Yeah.
Mike Drysdale:
Is there an emerging customer behaviour that you think will be highly influential over the next decade?
Meg Coffey:
Oh, I think there’s an emerging customer behaviour being interesting. Whether or not that will be over the next decade, I don’t know. I think it’s a fascinating time in the level of personalisation. And I know, please personalise my stuff, give me the stuff I want, give me the ads I want. I literally bought a suitcase that I didn’t know I needed in four clicks on Instagram the other day, but give me the things – and that’s being delivered tomorrow. I’m impressed. Gimme the things I need. I’m all for personalisation.
We joke about not wanting to be tracked, yet we wear the Apple Watch and you put the Apple tag on your car keys. Where I think that that is going to backfire is I think we are going to move towards wanting some privacy. I think that people are going to feel rather overexposed and the customer behaviour will be understanding the value of their data and being far more reluctant to give you that data at the benefit of the personalisation.
Mike Drysdale:
Yeah, I get that. Is there a major public opinion that has flipped recently where you feel as though marketing or communications played a crucial role?
Meg Coffey:
My cheeky answer would be Instagram. Yes. When Kylie and Kim complained about the direction of Instagram and the power of their influence stopped the change in Instagram. I think that Instagram at the moment is being bullied into submission. You know, look at what happened. Mark Zuckerberg released his vision of what the metaverse was and everyone was like, “Pff, that’s not cool.” And three days later he was like, “It was taken at a quick shot. Here’s what it’s actually gonna look like.” And it just feels like, I don’t know, Instagram is releasing BeReal features. It just feels like they’re being bullied.
So I think that your question about, has there been an instant that marketing has changed something? I think the users are starting to revolt a bit and Instagram is not winning.
Mike Drysdale:
I think you’re right as well. I’m gonna ask you two more questions. There’s one more quick-fire question and then one just wrap-up. Just funsies. When you think of the term prized possession, what’s the first branded thing that comes to mind? And while you think about that, I’ll give you the follow-up. Do you remember the specific ad or piece of marketing that convinced you to buy it?
Meg Coffey:
So when you said what’s your prized possession, that’s my dog. But then when you say the brand?
Mike Drysdale:
When you think of the term prize possession, what’s the first branded thing that you think about? So I’m guessing that your dog isn’t branded.
Meg Coffey:
I mean Henry is a brand, he has his own social.
Mike Drysdale:
Himself, you branded it. Okay.
Meg Coffey:
A luxury product, probably like a prize possession to me is… I know the first piece of advertising that ever influenced me was the Absolut ads back in the nineties, and I was obsessed with them, and that’s what made me wanna get into advertising.
Mike:
What was it about them that stood out?
Meg:
The creativity. Incredible, how you could take a bottle and make it look so many different ways and have it apply as a young kid just going – and it was fascinating ’cause it’s alcohol advertising and my mother was very wary about it, but at the same time she understood that I appreciated the art. Yeah, in the nineties is when they were doing all the incredible styles of bottles and they were print campaigns and it was fascinating. I don’t have an answer to your question.
Mike:
That’s okay. I like that answer. Anyway, that definitely gave me an answer to what influenced you and got you into advertising in the first place. I love that. My final question, and it kind of is a sneaky kind of backdoor into your non-answer about who you would spend four hours with; is there a speaker that you would like to get to State of Social in the future that you haven’t already? Maybe they’re gonna listen to this, maybe they’re gonna see it and maybe this is gonna be the thing that tips them over the edge.
Meg:
Yes.
Mike:
Can you tell us?
Meg:
Look, Ryan Reynolds would be the ultimate dream guest.
Mike:
Let’s go. Maximum Effort, let’s go.
Meg:
There’s nobody that beats the marketing that Maximum Effort is doing right now and the brain and the team behind it. And it’s not just Ryan, right? It’s the team at Aviation Gin. We had Adrian Molina speak last year and that man is brilliant.
And the team, the creative team at Maximum Effort, George and those guys are brilliant. I think that, yeah, their take on advertising and pushing the limits and the way that they’re changing the game would be a pinnacle.
Mike:
Well, you heard it here folks. You’ve basically been watching this podcast for the last eight episodes thinking, “This guy looks like the Wish version of Ryan Reynolds,” so it’s probably about time we get the real thing. Ryan, if you’re out there, give us the real deal. Thank you so much for joining us, Meg, this has been MVP, The Marketer’s Most Valuable Perspective.
Leave us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We hope you enjoyed this episode and we hope to be speaking to you very soon.
Congratulations on a great show, Meg Coffey.
Meg:
Thanks Mike.
