As CMO of AIA A/NZ, Renae Smith leads a cross-functional department including brand, product and pricing, digital, marketing communications and the insurance group’s leading wellness program, AIA Vitality. But she also finds herself purposely aligned to the HR chief.

If there’s one thing Domain’s Melina Cruickshank thinks modern marketers should do more of, it’s build the courage to back their own judgement and experience.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef faces myriad threats, and big one of which is overfishing, WWF’s CMO, Yves Calmette says. Five shark fishing licenses, each with a 1.2km net, trawl the reef every day. These nets kill thousands of juvenile sharks each year, including the endangered hammerhead, and dugongs, turtles and dolphins as bycatch.

Marketing leaders from Berlei, National Australia Bank and Youi took to the stage at YouTube’s Brandcast event this week to highlight how they’re using the video platform and its growing suite of advertiser offerings to build their brands with on-demand audiences. Their stories came amid a raft of new advertising product offerings and updates from YouTube all aimed at improving the robustness, measurability and quality of interaction with the consumer.

Today’s fiercely competitive online shopping environment is driving more ecommerce businesses to find innovative and creative ways to attract and retain customers. One of these is VetShop Group, which is successfully leveraging the power of technology and a unique competitive event to drive digital engagement and boost sales.

Isentia’s acquisition of Brandtology and King Content has ignited media speculation about the future of King Content’s capabilities, but chief executive and managed director John Croll confirmed the move is about prioritising content strategy.

Tourism Australia has partnered with Buzzfeed on a new millennial targeted campaign in an effort to attract compelling and engaging content around authentic Australian travel experiences.

In our latest Food for Thought series with leading marketers, we asked three brand experts: What are you doing to improve the art of storytelling capability within your team?

A marketing executive with a background in IT and sales can be strategically equipped with the right skills to bridge the gap between sales and marketing, aligning both towards a more dynamic vision for innovation, agility and digital transformation.

From his studio in Auckland, Pat MacFie leads a team of video professionals that would put some independent production houses to shame. But he's not running an independent video production house. Instead, his group is part of an internal marketing agency producing content to help attract and retain customers for the online business software maker, Xero.

A new list of Australia and the world’s most ‘meaningful’ brands has found fewer than half of consumers see organisations contributing to their well-being and quality of life and that most are failing to resonate because of the quality of their content.

No matter how much you believe in the benefits of content or are committed to creating a content strategy, it can be a struggle to execute a successful content marketing approach. In working with a variety of B2B firms across a range of industries, I’ve discovered six common challenges facing marketing professionals and executives when it comes to content marketing.

Content marketing has shown tremendous growth in recent years, as brands scramble to find ways to engage and retain the attention of increasingly-distracted audiences.

When Mars Chocolate announced it would set the price of a Snickers bars based on the mood of the Internet, it did more than just create a cool integrated online and offline campaign – it set in motion a fundamental rethink of how Mars reaches specific audiences.

Video content is playing an increasingly important role in demand generation as well as customer lifecycle engagement for Cochlear, as the group seeks to improve the lives of the hearing impaired globally.

Over the past year, Mondelez International has been building out a media monetisation strategy that transforms the snacking giant from transactional media spender to content investor, producer and owner.

Since she took on the combined role of chief editorial and marketing officer at Domain in 2014, the core of Melina Cruickshank’s strategy has been informed by four major areas: Data-driven decision making, editorial content, audience-oriented marketing and mobile-first thinking.

Over the past 18 months, Fairfax’s Michael Laxton has worked to realigned business processes to ensure the media owner’s end customer – its audience – is at the centre of all activity programs.

There’s a holistic change going on at Bupa to focus on customers’ health and care needs. “We’ve really seen a shift in our strategy over the last 12 months to position Bupa as a leader in health and care and to be loved by our customers,” marketing director, John Moore, says.

A new approach to media intelligence is not only helping South Pole Group figure out which content matters most to clients and influencers, it’s also informing management decisions and driving sales conversions.

In the past year, there’s been an augmented reality explosion as more brands embrace the technology offerings to boost customer engagement and create a buzz around their products.