Callam Hanks was one of the leading creative students in his year at Macleay College. He had come from completing a Certificate 4 in Graphic Design but wanted to hone his skills and learn how to become an Art Director in Advertising.  After connecting with the Social Media Lecturer Tom Ragg, he went on to complete an internship at Soap Creative, where he is now employed as a Social Media Coordinator.

Tell us about Soap Creative?

Soap Creative is a full-service digital agency. We have a great reputation for making games and fun stuff.

What do you do there?

My title is Social Media Coordinator. I manage some of Australia’s biggest Facebook pages: Xbox Australia, Nutella and Dare Iced Coffee to name just a few. I also work with the creative team on content for the pages. But Social Media work isn’t all I do at Soap. I’ve had the opportunity to also work on some big projects that have come through the agency.

What have been the highlights so far at your current job?

There’s been so many. The earliest highlight I remember was helping to develop the online experience for the Australian movie “These Final Hours”. It simulated living through the last 6 months on earth via your desktop. To make it feel real, 100’s of video, articles, chat messages and other notifications needed to be created. You can check it out here: http://thesefinalhours.com.au/

Recently, I was able to work on an open brief for a company that I’d loved as a kid (I have to keep it top secret). But I sat down in a meeting and was basically told: “Here’s the brief, think of the coolest things you can, money isn’t an issue”.

I’ve been able to test games here too, which let me fulfil a childhood dream of being paid to play video games.

What are your future career goals?

My goal is to someday be a Creative Director, but before that an Art Director or Copywriter. At Soap I currently get the chance to work on developing skills for all of these jobs. I’d love to work in New York someday and it’s always been a dream of mine to work at W&K in Portland.

Why did you decide to study at Macleay and how has it helped you get to where you are now?

I started studying at Macleay because of the short course time, some positive things I’d heard and the fact that the  lecturers are all active in their fields of professional expertise. One of those lecturers ended up hiring me, so I’d be lying if I said I’d be at Soap right now without Macleay.

 What are some of your best memories of your time at Macleay?

Some of my best memories are being able to work with lecturers each day at Macleay. There’s a level of collaboration and feedback in the classroom that would be hard to find anywhere else.

Postscript: One of Callam’s most impressive projects while he was at college was to create a social media campaign about his pug dog, names Poncho. Click here to check it out.

Click here to find out more about the advertising course at Macleay College.