For Glykeria Antonaki, Sustainability is About Understanding People and Data

Glykeria> It is an interesting path, I have to say. As a student, I was working in parallel in sales and I was a volunteer editor to help evolve the Greek start-up ecosystem. However, my biggest love has always been the advertising industry. I remember writing jingles and slogans since I was very young because I was finding it fun; my mum was kind enough to listen and, every time, say that I have a talent. 

At university, I studied marketing and communication. In the last year of my studies, I started as an intern in the client service department of the MullenLowe Group in Athens. When my internship ended, the personal assistant to the CEO recommended me to take over her position as she was leaving. That was the best thing that could ever have happened to me! Thank God, I had made a good impression as an intern and I passed the interviews. My dream came true and I got my first job in advertising before turning 23 years old. I was very lucky to work with amazing leaders and colleagues there who gave me the opportunity to learn and evolve internally. 

Glykeria> In later roles I started managing clients and getting involved in creative planning. After three and a half busy but educational years, I quit my job (without saying sharing that with my father!) to start a new journey. My two friends and I co-founded the first ever flirting app with gamification features which we launched in Greece and Cyprus. Our app was awarded as one of the most disruptive start-up ideas. We had over 25,000 users with the minimum marketing budget and we kept it alive for years. This start-up experience is where I learned everything digital but, most importantly, it marked the start of my official journey in tech. 

This experience of advertising, data and tech helped me get my first job in London which was with a SaaS company helping large UK clients get the most out of their local SEO data. After that, in 2018, I joined MCA as an operations manager and I soon progressed to a product manager in the tech team. Now, I have transitioned to the dual role I currently have which embraces both my passions. In the last five years, I was blessed to move between different roles. I got my master’s in digital anthropology at UCL, studying part time while working for MCA full-time, and I also became a mum. 

Glykeria> To be honest, I had never thought that I would end up in sustainability when I was young, but now looking back I can connect the dots. In my opinion, people working in sustainability need to understand data, but also people. We need to understand context, culture, and emotions to help provide the tools and the processes to help people shift to new behaviours.

Sustainability still seems like a new subject or idea, but it’s certainly here to stay. And it affects us all. At UCL we talked a lot about sustainability. I remember the word ‘anthropocene’ used a lot, which is a geological epoch marked by human impacts on global ecosystems. This is when I started thinking more about my role as an anthropologist after finishing my master’s and how I can use my learnings and apply them in the advertising industry. My dissertation was very much related to environmental anthropology; I investigated the role of materiality in how people adapt to new norms after a disaster - like a nuclear disaster, a tsunami or covid. I was pregnant with my first child while I was writing the dissertation. During my maternity leave I was determined to dive deep on sustainability and upskill myself with seminars, certifications, and books related to sustainability. My plan worked out well and by the end of my maternity leave I had achieved basically everything that I set out to achieve. I hope this story is inspiring for other people (and mothers especially) about how to upskill themselves if the desire is there.

Glykeria> Yes, at MCA, our founder and global CEO, Pat Murphy, not only has a huge personal interest in saving the planet but has made a commitment to offer all our clients carbon net zero production solutions by 2025. That’s great because this kind of initiative should start from the top. This vision is possible with our action plan and focus on two main pillars, our people and our clients. Firstly, we make sure that all our people are trained and empowered. My role is to provide them with the resources and support they need to understand sustainability and feel confident to apply.

Secondly, we have initiated the MCA Green Production Process (GPP) for all our clients who are interested in measuring CO2e data. We have also trained every individual in the business from top to bottom in the Ad Green calculator and the frameworks of Ad Net Zero.

Glykeria> Reporting internally and externally needs to be supported by technology. However, as an industry, we need consistency too - not many different tools and processes but one framework that works and is simple for everyone to adopt. I also believe that marketers will soon have to approve cost and carbon budgets for both production and media as part of the same process. If clients agree with my prediction, I suggest they talk to us!

Glykeria> I did my master’s in digital anthropology at UCL because I wanted to develop my critical thinking and become a better person, if you like. Sometimes routines are so hectic that we forget to think. I was feeling that way. I wanted to commit myself to studying again so I had some time to think. We live in an era where tech is part of our lives but what does it mean? What’s the role of culture while people are posting on social media? What’s the role of bias while algorithms are being developed? How do we research user behaviour and how do we apply ethnography in our daily tasks? What’s the role of ethics and who is responsible for what?  

Glykeria> Of course! If we want to create new ‘by default’ behaviours and social norms, we need to help people. We can do this by providing them with the right tools so they will understand how they can help and if they want to help, they will start doing things without thinking while everyone else around them is following too. These tools, in my role, are the MCA GPP tools, smoothly embedded in the MCA core service.

Glykeria> Recently, MCA and our client Reckitt were awarded for the adoption of virtual production. My production expert colleagues are saying that this is becoming mainstream. For me, this is a great example, because we can reduce carbon while producing amazing ads.

Glykeria> Sustainability shouldn’t be the responsibility of one person in any given business. In my opinion, sustainability managers should help everyone become ‘sustainability managers’ in what they are doing. I imagine a world without sustainability and DE&I managers because these will be part of all processes and mindsets by default in the future. Am I too optimistic? If that happens, I will be glad to not have a role….or maybe a somewhat different role 

Glykeria> By spending time with my kids. I pretend that the kitchen is on fire and my toddler is dressing himself as a fireman and he is rescuing me! I have two kids, a 1.5 year old and a 2.5 year old. My time with them is my escape from work and my time at work is my escape from them…