Chris Willingham joins the iconic Australian manufacturing and retail brand as its marketing chief
RM Williams has brought on former DDB New Zealand managing director, Chris Willingham, as its new chief marketing officer.
Willingham boasts of more than 25 years’ brand experience, largely working across agencies locally, regionally and internationally. He has spent the last two-and-a-half years as managing director of DDB New Zealand. Prior to this, he was global director on Nike at Wieden + Kennedy based in the US, and oversaw campaigns for the 2016 Olympics and 2018 World Cup.
His resume also includes a stint leading BBDO’s Singapore hub as well as nearly nine years with London-based Fallon, where he rose to managing partner and world on campaigns such as Cadbury’s ‘Gorilla’ and Sony’s ‘Balls’. In addition, Willingham had seven years with TBWA London as an account director, where he ran the pan-European PlayStation account and oversaw work such as the ‘Double Life’ and ‘Fun anyone’ campaigns.
Willingham steps into his new role in coming weeks. He replaces Mathew Hayward, who left RM Williams in March after spending four years in the CMO seat.
Speaking on his appointment, Willingham said he was looking forward to stewardship of a famous, culturally important brand and helping to drive the next phase of growth nationally and internationally. South Australia-based RM Williams is 89 years old this year and has recently undergone a change in ownership, being wholly acquired by Tattarang in 2020. The purchase marks the return of the brand to Australian hands.
“I bought my first pair of Craftsman boost when I travelled through Sydney during the 1990s and fell in love with RM Williams there and then,” Willingham commented. “This is a unique, once-in-a-career opportunity and it’ll be an absolute privilege to work together with the RM Williams team to lead the brand through the next stage of its evolution.”
Tattarang chief investment officer, John Hartman, welcomed the experienced brand leader to the team, noting his contribution will be critical in accelerating the brands’ new growth strategies across digital channels and international markets.
To help with these ambitions, RM Williams recently appointed media agency, Audience Precision, to provide insights, global media strategy and offline media buying across 12 markets including Australia, the US, Canada, the UK and several European markets.
You can also follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page
In our fifth and final episode, we delve into the relationship between retailer and supplier and how it drives and influences launch marketing strategies and success. To do that, we’re joined by Campbell Davies, group general manager of Associated Retailers Limited, and Kristin Viccars, marketing director A/NZ, Apex Tool Group. Also featured are Five by Five Global managing director, Matt Lawton, and CMO’s Nadia Cameron.
OK, so you’re probably thinking: “Here comes another article to badger me about living in my bubble.” And also, “I bet this bubble-bashing piece will go on to explain how I can achieve better results through some heady dose of new life experiences, new routines and annoyingly different opinions on social media.”
Every day, there are new predictions and studies on the future of work, the state of the economy and the unfolding global pandemic. All of which creates uncertainty and heightens the imperative of effective leadership.
I've worked in brand and marketing for more than 20 years. But there’s one area where I’ve found myself going around in circles and I must admit I'm becoming increasingly confused.
Great read. I agree that it should be a perfect balance between interacting with your customers and knowing your brand. As a business, yo...
Caroline Scott
7 ways CMOs can improve their customer engagement game
Very true. Team development helps improve collaboration among the team members. I was able to improve my team's collaboration skills by t...
Quent Sinder
Why empowering others can help make you a great leader
CRM is a very good software that can help you succeed in your business. In my company, this system has allowed me to improve customer rel...
Anna Janicka
Sensis rebrands to Thryv and brings business software to Australian SMBs
AI Leasing Assistants have finally arrived for the multifamily industry. With so many to choose from it can be hard to figure out which i...
Alice Labs Pte. Ltd.
CMO's top 8 martech stories for the week - 6 May 2021
Nowadays, when everything is being done online, it is good to know that someone is trying to make an improvement. As a company, you are o...
Marcus
10 lessons Telstra has learnt through its T22 transformation