It takes bravery for CMOs to use creativity to connect the dots across emotional brand connection, functional customer experience and commerce, VMLY&R’s global CEO, Jon Cook, says.

From Australia’s golden beaches to backyard swimming pools, any kid who has ever ventured into the water knows the importance of having a buddy nearby. So it’s not surprising that as Swimming Australia’s CEO, Eugenie Buckley, propels her organisation into the uncharted waters of brand building, she has buddied up with Publicis Groupe and its Queensland-based managing director, Simone Waugh.

Former chief customer officer of Betfair Australia, Nick Thomas, has joined marketing transformation agency, -lution, as its new partner and chief strategy officer.

It’s been almost 10 years since Victoria’s Metro Trains and McCann Melbourne had Australians singing about being killed by public transport.

Deloitte Digital is proclaiming it’ll shortly become Australia’s biggest provider of marketing technology and digital experience consulting capabilities after the teams from Blended Digital, New Republique and Venntifact join its ranks.

“I’m a political campaigner, a political strategist and a justice reform activist,” says R/GA global CMO, Ashish Prashar.

Long-term brand building and distinctiveness are the hardest things for today’s chief marketing officers to accomplish, IAG’s Brent Smart says.

CUB premium brands marketing chief and instigator of the FMCG’s in-house digital agency, Chris Maxwell, has spun out his own marketing, data and tech consultancy aimed at helping other brands build and optimise an in-house agency model.

Recently returned to local hands, RM Williams has appointed a homegrown media agency to spearhead its global media buying, insights and strategy.

A very robust brief, empathy, collaboration and a willingness to pivot and adapt to new ways of working proved vital elements in creating Catch Group’s first major brand building campaign, the company’s chief marketing officer says.

​WPP AUNZ has launched the Centre of Excellence, a new division that is advising clients to navigate the digital landscape, drive maximum value from their existing data, and fully leverage their martech investments.​ The centre will have a hub and spoke model, allowing WPP's agency brands to tap into the tech capability.​

WPP AUNZ has confirmed the departure of its chief customer officer, Sunita Gloster, after less than 18 months in the role and a month after the group posted more than $230 million in losses in the first-half 2020.

Forrester has revealed its leaders in global digital experiences agencies, with Publicis Sapient, Deloitte, IBM, Accenture, and PwC named in the top spots.

Agency and industry players who haven’t yet grasped how important marketing and advertising software systems are in the industry’s long-term future risk falling into the same trap their predecessors did when they failed to recognise digital’s significance.

Accenture is looking to strengthen its data game with the acquisition of Analytics8, a privately held Australian big data and analytics consultancy specialising in data management, reporting and visualisation, data science and analytics services.

For the longest time, people have used words like ‘plumbing’ to describe technology. Yet as digital becomes a critical aspect of every facet of business, it’s clear organisations and brands are being defined by the experiences technology enables.

Customer strategy consultancy, Ellipsis, has taken the wrappers off a new company aimed at bridging the gap between Aussie brands looking to solve known customer pain points, with emerging CX solutions globally.

Digital transformation - it’s on the lips of every c-suite executive and a requirement of every organisation. Yet Ogilvy’s new executive creative director, Gavin McLeod, is worried about what it’s doing to the role of the CMO.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then location visualisation paints a thousand insights.

Former Domain chief, Antony Catalano, is looking to tighten his grip on the real estate industry once with news he’s now chairing and backing vertically focused marketing technology and services company, The Today Business.

Accenture has acquired one of the world’s most impactful creative agency heavyweights to propel its CMO services capabilities further, picking up US-based creative player, Droga5.