A fresh report on voice usage in Australia shows 1.35 million Australians now have a smart speaker with voice activated assistant at home, 200 per cent growth in just four months.

Tip Top held its first ever pop-up café this week to mark its 60th birthday in an experiential event designed to meld new with nostalgia to keep the iconic brand top of mind.

Holden’s Kristian Aquilina is the first to admit the situation he finds himself in as brand promoter isn’t one you’ll find in a marketing textbook.

Tea, cheese and tapioca are three ingredients not normally associated in the standard western palate – and certainly not mixed into a beverage. But they are also three of the key ingredients behind a rapidly-emerging force in Australia’s quick-service food and beverage category.

Ensuring a sense of brand purpose and value from the top down, respecting consumers and building an empowered enterprise are vital ingredients in surviving the onslaught of modern customer expectations, a panel of industry representative claims.

Kraft Heinz might be an iconic brand in Australia, but the company is certainly not resting on its laurels. Instead, Shalabh Atray, Kraft Heinz Australia CMO, said it is continuing on its mission to connect to the soul of consumers in Australia with research, insights, and innovation.

When it comes to the digital transformation of your organisation, who would you rather trust – an organisation that has helped others to transform, or one that has also transformed itself?

Slack’s inaugural Australian out-of-home brand campaign is just one step in a wider multi-channel, hyper-local strategy aimed at taking the collaboration platform to the masses, its global VP of marketing has told CMO.

Vocus general manager of consumer and digital, Stu French, believes the only way to drive transformation home is to literally start changing things, then ask for forgiveness later. ​So that’s the approach he’s adopted as he strives to digitise the ASX-listed company’s ailing Dodo $800 million consumer telecoms and energy consumer business

If you ask a brand what their visual brand assets are, there is no doubt they could rattle off a list as long as your arm, down to the colours, sizes of logos and even their offices.

It was four years ago when Nav Salimian overheard the conversation that would reset the direction of his working life, and thrust a small independent fashion label into the digital spotlight.

The decision by Nike to feature controversial American footballer, Colin Kaepernick, in a campaign to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Just Do It’ took what might have been a strong but potentially forgettable creative and elevated it into the global dialogue. But would any Australian brand dare to do something similar?

In September, Ray White launched the first brand campaign in its 116-year history. Following up from the news, and in the style of CMO’s ongoing c-suite perspective series, we caught up with Ray White director, Dan White, to understand how the broader executive team perceives the role of marketing and the CMO today,

For ABC director of audience and marketing, Leisa Bacon, modern CMO leadership is an art in influencing and working more collaboratively with other parts of the organisation as well as the increasingly diverse marketing function.

Marketing working closely with sales and category teams is key to success, Suzanne Harman, general manager, marketing of Simplot Australia, believes.

​There are not many marketers who can take a brand disaster and turn into around into a brand success, and then be willing to be open and talk about it frankly.

Since taking up the CMO mantle at ANZ last July, Sweta Mehra has been striving to go well beyond commercialisation and focus on building capabilities that will future-proof the bank. These, she says, are rooted firmly in the financial services group’s purpose across three levels: Enterprise, divisions and marketing.

​Carlton and United Breweries (CUB) has undergone a stunning transformation in challenging trading times, and marketing has been central to this achievement.

“Marketing can be all pervasive today, so focus on what matters and where you can make a difference.”

“Consumers are not rational and never will be,” National Heart Foundation’s Chris Taylor says. “Connect on an emotional level and you’re half-way there.”

Over the last two years, Nicole Papoutsis has led the brand development of Genea Horizon, Australia’s first egg freezing clinic.