Allan Collins
Domino's Pizza Enterprises
Group chief marketing officer
CMO50 2016
Marketing's collective transformation
Change is the name of the game for our 2016, and whether it's customers, digital, connectivity or culture, marketers are looking to own it. Here, we present our 2016 top 50
CMO50 2016
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1
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2 
Anna Reid
Sydney Opera House
Chief marketing officer
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3 
Steve Brennen
eBay A/NZ
CMO, senior director advertising sales and retail innovation
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4 
Lisa Winn
Coca-Cola South Pacific
Marketing director
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5 
Vittoria Shortt
Commonwealth Bank
Group executive, marketing and strategy
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6 
Craig Davis
Sendle
Co-founder and CMO
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7 
Trisca Scott-Branagan
Deakin University
Executive director, marketing
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8 
Carolyn Bendall
ANZ
Head of marketing
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9 
Jon Amery
Vocus Communications
General manager, marketing and customer experience
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10 
Renee McGowan
Mercer
Chief customer and marketing officer, Pacific
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11 
Robert Ambler-Fraser
The Good Guys
Chief marketing officer
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12 
Rebecca James
ME
Chief marketing officer
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13 
Andy Lark
Xero
Chief marketing and business officer
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14 
Tyron Hayes
Curtin University
Chief marketing officer
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15 
Leisa Bacon
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Director, audience and marketing
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16 
Jonathan Kerr
Auto & General
Director, marketing and digital
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17 
Brad Cramb
Toyota
Divisional manager, national marketing (CMO)
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18 
Jane Merrick
IAG
General manager, marketing and customer experience
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19 
Vanessa Lyons
AUB Group
Group head of marketing
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20 
Joe Pollard
Telstra
Chief marketing officer and group executive, media
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21 
Lisa Ronson
Tourism Australia
Chief marketing officer
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22 
Nicole Brasz
Save the Children
Director of marketing and fundraising
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23 
Nick Reynolds
Lenovo
Chief marketing officer, Asia-Pacific
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24 
Barni Evans
Sportsbet
Chief marketing officer
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25 
Michael Laxton
Fairfax Media
Director of customer marketing and growth
26 - 50 (In alphabetical order)
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Amanda McGregor
SBS
Director of marketing
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Andrea Turley
Australian Catholic University
Director, marketing and external relations
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Ben Allen
Stockland
General manager, group marketing
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Christopher Coyne
Crown Resorts
Chief marketing officer
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Col Kennedy
Cotton On
Global head of marketing and ecommerce
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Darren Needham-Walker
HP
Head of marketing, South Pacific
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Georgina Williams
AustralianSuper
Group executive, engagement, advocacy and brand
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Jamie McDonald
Federation University Australia
Director of marketing, advancement and community engagement
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Jenny Williams
HCF
Chief marketing officer
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John Moore
Bupa A/NZ
Director of marketing
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Kent Heffernan
nbn
Executive general manager, marketing and community affairs
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Kylie Smith
Perpetual
General manager, marketing and communications
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Melina Cruickshank
Domain Group
Chief editorial and marketing officer
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Mitchell Mackey
Ansell
Asia-Pacific marketing director
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Mohit Bhargava
Village Cinemas Australia
General manager - sales and marketing
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Paige Gibbs
RSPCA NSW
Executive manager, marketing, fundraising and communications
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Paul Stern
Kathmandu
General manager, marketing, online and international
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Renae Smith
AIA Australia
Chief marketing officer
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Ric Navarro
Norman Disney & Young
Global director, marketing and communications
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Richard Oppy
Carlton & United Brewery
Marketing director
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Richard Burns
Aussie Home Loans
General manager, customer experience and technology
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Simon Marton
Treasury Wine Estates
Chief marketing officer
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Suzana Ristevski
GE
Head of strategy and growth, A/NZ and Papua New Guinea (retains CMO role)
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Tim Tez
MetLife
Chief product and marketing officer
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Tori Starkey
VMware
Chief marketing officer
Ones to Watch
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Melinda Madigan
The Star, Sydney
General manager, marketing and entertainment
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Jee Moon
Luxottica
Vice-president of marketing
1 |
Allan Collins | Group chief marketing officer | Domino's Pizza Enterprises |
2 |
Anna Reid | Chief marketing officer | Sydney Opera House |
3 |
Steve Brennen | CMO, senior director advertising sales and retail innovation | eBay A/NZ |
4 |
Lisa Winn | Marketing director | Coca-Cola South Pacific |
5 |
Vittoria Shortt | Group executive, marketing and strategy | Commonwealth Bank |
6 |
Craig Davis | Co-founder and CMO | Sendle |
7 |
Trisca Scott-Branagan | Executive director, marketing | Deakin University |
8 |
Carolyn Bendall | Head of marketing | ANZ |
9 |
Jon Amery | General manager, marketing and customer experience | Vocus Communications |
10 |
Renee McGowan | Chief customer and marketing officer, Pacific | Mercer |
11 |
Robert Ambler-Fraser | Chief marketing officer | The Good Guys |
12 |
Rebecca James | Chief marketing officer | ME |
13 |
Andy Lark | Chief marketing and business officer | Xero |
14 |
Tyron Hayes | Chief marketing officer | Curtin University |
15 |
Leisa Bacon | Director, audience and marketing | Australian Broadcasting Corporation |
16 |
Jonathan Kerr | Director, marketing and digital | Auto & General |
17 |
Brad Cramb | Divisional manager, national marketing (CMO) | Toyota |
18 |
Jane Merrick | General manager, marketing and customer experience | IAG |
19 |
Vanessa Lyons | Group head of marketing | AUB Group |
20 |
Joe Pollard | Chief marketing officer and group executive, media | Telstra |
21 |
Lisa Ronson | Chief marketing officer | Tourism Australia |
22 |
Nicole Brasz | Director of marketing and fundraising | Save the Children |
23 |
Nick Reynolds | Chief marketing officer, Asia-Pacific | Lenovo |
24 |
Barni Evans | Chief marketing officer | Sportsbet |
25 |
Michael Laxton | Director of customer marketing and growth | Fairfax Media |
26 - 50 (In alphabetical order)
| Ben Allen | General manager, group marketing | Stockland |
| Mohit Bhargava | General manager - sales and marketing | Village Cinemas Australia |
| Richard Burns | General manager, customer experience and technology | Aussie Home Loans |
| Christopher Coyne | Chief marketing officer | Crown Resorts |
| Melina Cruickshank | Chief editorial and marketing officer | Domain Group |
| Paige Gibbs | Executive manager, marketing, fundraising and communications | RSPCA NSW |
| Kent Heffernan | Executive general manager, marketing and community affairs | nbn |
| Col Kennedy | Global head of marketing and ecommerce | Cotton On |
| Mitchell Mackey | Asia-Pacific marketing director | Ansell |
| Simon Marton | Chief marketing officer | Treasury Wine Estates |
| Jamie McDonald | Director of marketing, advancement and community engagement | Federation University Australia |
| Amanda McGregor | Director of marketing | SBS |
| John Moore | Director of marketing | Bupa A/NZ |
| Ric Navarro | Global director, marketing and communications | Norman Disney & Young |
| Darren Needham-Walker | Head of marketing, South Pacific | HP |
| Richard Oppy | Marketing director | Carlton & United Brewery |
| Suzana Ristevski | Head of strategy and growth, A/NZ and Papua New Guinea (retains CMO role) | GE |
| Kylie Smith | General manager, marketing and communications | Perpetual |
| Renae Smith | Chief marketing officer | AIA Australia |
| Tori Starkey | Chief marketing officer | VMware |
| Paul Stern | General manager, marketing, online and international | Kathmandu |
| Tim Tez | Chief product and marketing officer | MetLife |
| Andrea Turley | Director, marketing and external relations | Australian Catholic University |
| Georgina Williams | Group executive, engagement, advocacy and brand | AustralianSuper |
| Jenny Williams | Chief marketing officer | HCF |
Ones to watch
| Melinda Madigan | General manager, marketing and entertainment | The Star, Sydney |
| Jee Moon | Vice-president of marketing | Luxottica |
Change is the name of the game for our CMO50 in 2016, and whether it’s customers, digital, connectivity or culture, marketers are looking to own it.
If you wanted proof marketing is undergoing systematic transformation, then this year’s CMO50 is it.
Now in its second year, the CMO50 is an annual list celebrating Australia’s most innovative marketers. Specifically, it’s designed to highlight core pillars of modern marketing, such as effecting business change and growth, improving customer engagement, demonstrating data- and technology-led strategic thinking and creativity.
Change was a recurring theme across every submission this year, and it’s clear Australian marketing leaders are taking up this mantle with gusto. Popular transformational programs include harnessing and on-boarding real-time customer insights for campaign optimisation and frontline engagement, marketing technology investment, customer journey and personalisation strategies and strategic division restructuring bringing together traditional above-the-line and below-the-line teams.
This ability to effect change is a sign of marketing’s steady rise up the executive ranks as a core strategic contributor, rather than just a communications tool. But there’s a way to go yet.
The first thing this year’s CMO50 judges commented on was the variance between ambition and effectiveness. While there was plenty of progress, commercial figures on impact weren’t always there to back it up. In addition, while most CMOs clearly realise marketing must change in order to retain relevance, there is still a gap around what form that needs to take and just how different it is to traditional marketing modus operandi.
For ADMA CEO, Jodie Sangster, a distinct line emerged between those still focused on campaigns, a more traditional form of marketing, and those fostering a customer-led approach based on insights, engagement and experience optimisation. Former director of marketing at Scentre Group, John Batistich, also highlighted effectiveness and marketing’s worth in the context of customer values.
CMO50 judges noted the digital investment occurring, with all nominees at least some way working towards digital enablement and sophistication. Some showed a real understanding of the data and technology required, while others had only just started. Those who made it to the top 50 all demonstrated an increasingly data- and technology-led approach.
Similarly, Inventium founder, Dr Amantha Imber, saw massive variance in building innovation that has an impact on wider customer or business success.
Former CMO and marketing leadership advisor, David Morgan, flagged process versus outcome as a key differentiator, particularly when it comes to digital transformation. With the sheer volume of change now being effected, he suggested CMOs must be process focused. However, fellow judge and former NAB CMO, Sandra de Castro, pointed out the emphasis will vary depending on company size. She also noted growing interest in more personalised and targeted marketing and how far organisations had come.
Publicis Australia CEO, Andrew Baxter, singled out the growing trend towards building strategic and unified teams as opposed to specialists, especially as digital and data pervade every aspect of marketing.
THIS YEAR'S CONTENDERS
Being in its second year, we fully expected the names and positioning to differ from 2015. More than half of this year’s top 50 are first-time entries, and we’re delighted to see so many new faces.
Adding to this is the significant movement across Australian marketing leadership ranks in the last 12 months. Nearly 30 per cent of the CMOs featured in 2015 left their position, were promoted locally or globally, or saw their roles expand during this time.
As a combined group, average tenure came in at about three years, down from the three-and-a-half years we saw in 2015, and there are significant discrepancies to factor in. Several marketers, for instance, have been promoted in the last 12-24 months, or have been with their organisation for more than five years.
And while similarities can be drawn from this year’s entries, there are distinct differences in how marketing is perceived depending on organisation and industry sector. Digital ownership is one major difference, and CMO50 contenders showed varying levels of ownership. Some, like the Sydney Opera House, Deakin University, Domino’s Pizza and IAG, have distinct digital teams overseeing and managing digital programs, some which report into marketing, some which do not.
Another is in how far marketing’s reach extends around end-to-end customer experience. You only have to look at the most recent financial reports from ASX-listed organisations to see how far ‘customer centricity’ as a principle has come.
It’s evident marketers take their role of chief customer custodian seriously, but again, the level of oversight and accountability varies. As we pointed out last year, a rising number of Australian CMOs are gaining responsibility for end-to-end customer engagement, most notably last year’s number 1, Mark Reinke, who was elevated to chief customer experience officer earlier this year.
Six of the 50 for 2016 officially have customer experience or engagement in their job title, and activities such as customer journey mapping, segmentation, and 360-degree customer insight dashboards were common on priority lists.
SKILLS AND STAFFING
Upskilling was another consistent theme, with all marketers investing heavily as a way of coping with new digital channels and technologies while building resilience for the future
Upskilling was another consistent theme, with all marketers investing heavily as a way of coping with new digital channels and technologies while building resilience for the future. There wasn’t a single nominee who wasn’t looking for more agility, and ways of working such as daily scrums, continuous and iterative learning loops, hackathons and customer co-creation were listed as ways of achieving this.
In larger organisations, such as the Commonwealth Bank, in-house marketing academies have been established to build up foundation skills now considered necessary in marketing. Importantly, these don’t just include data analytics but also change management.
Another trend is to use agencies and consulting partners to train staff, particularly around data and technology manipulation. Disrupting team thinking was also prevalent, and everything from partnering with startups to boot camps, participating in external conferences and cross-functional collaboration cropped up.
Data and analytics nevertheless topped the list of skills most in demand. Most CMOs have recruited data analytics and insights specialists. This, in turn, has triggered restructures to marketing insights, customer research and traditional below-the-line teams.
Others hired in skills, and several CMOs agreed diversity in thinking and bringing individuals from non-marketing backgrounds were vital. There is a growing trend towards bringing in in-house execution capabilities previously provided by agencies, such as creative and social media management, primarily for the purpose of improving responsiveness and optimisation.
Whatever form marketing takes from here, or the skillsets that need to be developed, what shone through this year’s CMO50 list is the importance of the people doing the work every day. Marketing is the ultimate team sport, and every CMO who entered recognised the importance of staff in accomplishing brand and strategic objectives now and into the future.
