Leadership News, Features, and Interviews

As a young girl, Joanne Katsos would marvel at the strength of the timbersports competitors at the Royal Melbourne Show as they chopped and sawed their way to glory. Little did she know that as an adult she would find herself in the role of marketing director for the Australian operations of an organisation that is one of the world’s key supporters of timbersports.

Tourism Australia’s effort to emulate the success of its ‘Dundee’ campaign has been temporarily derailed by the bushfire crisis.

Seismic has made a raft of senior appointments, including marketing, to bolster its local and Asia Pacific (APAC) operations and accelerate its growth.

This year has seen the mission of marketing turn its attention to the customer, through creating an internal customer culture and a laser focus on the customer and customer advocacy, while elsewhere the marketing mandate has become disruptive.

​Change, disruption, uncertainty and engagement on the customer’s terms – looking at this year’s list of most-read stories on CMO, you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d actively sought out these topics as areas to focus on. Yet it’s clear the transformation of marketing from broadcast to two-way engagement, thanks to the ongoing disruptive impact of digital and connectivity, has continued to dominate marketing industry discussions and thinking in 2019.

We’ve all seen it happen: You spend months creating an ad or a marketing campaign. Blood, sweat and tears have gone into it, the boardroom applauds it, and yet it results in no discernible uptick in sales or brand awareness. Or worse, it gives a competitor, who may be better known in the space, a free kick.

It’s been another year of disruption, change and transformation for chief marketing officers. And as we reach the end of 2019 and take a break to recharge before assuming the modern marketing mantle once more in 2020, it’s a good time to reflect on what’s happened, what’s been achieved, and what experiences can inform better decision making in the New Year.

Commonwealth Bank has brought on Optus former brand manager, Dianne Everett, as its new general manager of brand.

Digital technology is transforming work, yet Australian workers don’t feel equipped for the changes because of a lack of training, according to new Swinburne research.

The Australian Government’s carbon neutral certification has recently been renamed, rebranded and relaunched as 'Climate Active', all with the aim of becoming the ‘Heart Foundation tick’ of climate action.

Building a brand from a blank sheet of paper can be a difficult ask, especially when the product you are selling is mostly made from blank sheets of paper.

The Workability Index, a new corporate culture transparency rating platform, has just launched by an Australian culturetech startup.

UBank is embracing the industry shift to Open Data through a partnership with Australian fintech, Basiq, leveraging machine learning (ML) to give customers a more complete picture of their finances.

“If there are two sources of truth, there is no truth.” It’s a comment that screams common sense. Yet when you look at the state of the relationship between marketing and sales teams, it’s still not often the case, agrees Salesforce SVP and GM of Pardot, Michael Kostow.

Seven West Media has confirmed Pacific Magazines chief, Gereurd Roberts, as its group chief digital officer.

Traditional media from across the TV, outdoor, print, premium digital and radio industries have joined forces on what they’re claiming is the biggest combined campaign in this country’s history to encourage c-level executives to put their dollars behind advertising.

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) has appointed Australian marketer and business leader, Ben Dollard, as its new president of company operations in the Americas.

WPP announced it has completed 90 per cent of the transaction to sell 60 per cent of Kantar, its global data, research, consulting and analytics business, to Bain Capital Private Equity, in a deal worth around £2.4 billion.

The leader of GM Holden’s commercial operations, Kristian Aquilina, has been appointed interim chairman and managing director, GM Holden, succeeding Dave Buttner, who is leaving the company for personal reasons.

In February this year, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority banned two television commercials. While far from being the first ads to ever be banned, they were the first found to violate new rules prohibiting the depiction of men and women in gender-stereotypical activities.

​Commonwealth Bank’s online trading division, CommSec, has confirmed it’s brought on its first GM of marketing and strategy.