Imagine spending your life working towards one career, only to realise it no longer fits. Elaine Tor, Insights & Strategy Director, knows that feeling well. Her story spans childhood ambitions, career reinvention, and even a seat at Super Bowl LX, thanks to dentsu’s Global Talent Circuit – a program designed to give people the opportunity to experience new markets and global opportunities. And we can’t wait to see what she does next.

Read on to hear Elaine share her story firsthand.

Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone… you never know where life will take you. 

In 2021, I made the crazy decision to give up a career that I spent my whole life building.  

Since the age of 12, I have wanted to be a sports scientist. Specifically, I wanted to work with the Australian Swimming Team, and I wanted to do it at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). I spent the next eight years with the blinkers on, dedicating every waking moment working towards this goal. Until I got the phone call to pack my bags and move to Canberra with a one-way ticket, a suitcase and a lot of excitement. 

Pictured: Elaine at 4 and 24 outside the Australian Swim Centre, Canberra

Fast forward 12 years and three degrees later, I had made many lifelong friends, worked with some of Australia’s best athletes over three Olympic cycles and made memories all over the world. Life was going great until I lost my dad and my perspective on life changed. I needed more structure to get through each day and hobbies outside of work. I needed balance. The high-performance sport lifestyle was no longer for me. 

I begun my career again from the bottom. Learning about the world of marketing with fresh undergrads 10 years my junior. Then, I came across a job at MKTG and my life changed again.  

MKTG was the opportunity I needed to reignite my passion for sport in an environment that welcomed someone with my unconventional career path.  

If you had told 12-year-old me that I would be advising Australia’s largest brands and rightsholders on how to measure and optimise their partnerships, I probably would have laughed and said that is crazy! 

But someone how I am making it work and am having a lot of fun in the process.  

Late last year, I won the MKTG Global Talent Circuit Program and was given the opportunity to head to the Super Bowl. I have been a lifelong sports fan, so this was the ultimate bucket list experience that has me still in shock. I was a deer in the headlights with my jaw to the floor the entire week I spent with the MKTG US Team in San Francisco.  

Some highlights include:  

• Shadowing all the amazing MKTG US teams across multiple large scale brand activation and hospitality experiences. 

• Learning from global experts 

• Building relationships with MKTG colleagues from multiple US Offices.  

• Learning firsthand what is possible when sponsorship consulting is done correctly on a global scale.   

• Experiencing the scale of US Sport Fandom firsthand.  

• Learning the rules of American Football 

• And of course, attending the Super Bowl. Bad Bunny was Iconic.  

Participating in the Global Talent Circuit Program was a privilege and an experience I will never forget. Thank you to the entire MKTG US Team, DSI and MKTG AUS for making this experience happen. 

This is a lesson in backing your skills and throwing caution to the wind. I will be forever grateful to MKTG for taking a chance on someone with zero days experience in sports marketing.

Each year the Global Talent Circuit provides the incredible opportunity for three people from any region to experience working in another part of the global business under dentsu Sports International. Selected from a global pool of applicants, the experiences are designed each year based around major sporting events. 

In 2025 we had two other Australian-based team members awarded a place on the Circuit. Read about James McKenzie’s operations and technology experience at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, or Vicki Brown’s sponsorship experience at the 2025 US Open in New York.