Navarro moves on after nearly a decade at Norman Disney and Young

After an amazing tenure at Norman Disney and Young, repeat CMO50 alumni, Ric Navarro, has accepted a new role as vice president of marketing and business development at Nucleus Network.

Navarro was the global director of marketing and communications at Norman Disney and Young for more than nine years.

Navarro featured on the CMO50 list in 2016, 2017, and 2018, reaching number six in 2018, for his successful creation and marketing of a number of unique and innovative digital solutions for clients, including the use of Unity gaming technology, and AR/VR/mixed reality technology.

“By utilising Unity as our base, a software technology typically reserved for the games industry, we have created a tool that empowers our staff and clients with a level of interactivity and realism new to the market," Navarro told CMO in 2018. 

“The application of such technology includes real-time automated services layouts, design verification, shortest path calculations and project costing accuracy. Through my content marketing strategy, we increased the understanding and uptake of this technology via an appropriate go-to market communications targeted to relevant clients."

This targeted EDM campaign achieved a 61 per cent open rate, and 48 per cent click rate, far outpacing the average for consulting service companies of 25 per cent open and 5 per cent, respectively. Offering ‘virtual tours’ to support sales and marketing activities before construction, was a significant advancement for the firm's business and clients. Through utilisation of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) media, Navarro said he'd shaped marketing campaigns targeting user groups with compelling visual data and overlaid with tailored narrative storyboards.

Navarro said he enjoyed his time at Norman Disney and Young (NDY) and the greenfield opportunity it provided him. He said the longer tenure was necessary to ensure trust within the organisation, something he said the shorter marketing tenure trend cannot achieve.

“I was at NDY for nine years and had a good tenure there. Over this time I became an internal trusted advisor, and you need time to build this as a CMO. These shorter tenures mean you don’t get to build trust internally, or see the real long term value marketing can achieve.

“Marketers need to think not just short term, but long term as well, you need to grit to hang in there to achieve this,” he told CMO. 

Navarro also told CMO he is excited about the challenges his new role offers, particularly working on the front line to prevent disease. 

“Nucleus Network is Australia’s largest clinical research organisation which conducts phase one clinical trials. Its clients are big pharma and bio tech companies,” he explained.

“The role is interesting because of its focus on strategic growth as a priority in Asia. It is another greenfield opportunity for me, focusing on growth, and utilising my B2B experience.

“The appeals for me include advancing health care and finding solutions for curing, treating and preventing diseases, and getting to work internationally. It’s quite a big role and I am part of the executive team.”

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