Over the last 12 months, McMillan Shakespeare Group chief customer officer, Julia Edwards-Smith, has worked with the executive leadership team, internal teams and external partners to realign the company purpose to focus on its ‘why’. The program of work, the first company vision project of her career, has seen her working to define a vision grounded in how MMS can improve the financial wellbeing of its customers.

As an organisation used to dealing with disasters, Australian Red Cross’ ability to shift thinking, pivot campaigns and focus resources on the issues of the moment is an incredibly important skill, says director of engage and support, Belinda Dimovski.

For Freedom Furniture’s GM marketing, Jason Piggott, the highlight of theyear has been the ‘root and branch’ reinvigoration of the Freedom brand.

For Anand Surujpal, one of the highlights of this year has been achieving all-time record market shares for Patties brands across retail channels. To make this happen, Surujpal and the team have embraced agility and continuously monitoring the external environment and then moving quickly to respond to opportunities.

One of the unique aspects of the past year has been finding ways to keep team culture alive without forcing it in an environment of remote working.

When Mel Hopkins met her new CEO, Kelly Rosmarin, for the first time, she posed a direct question: What’s one thing I can do to demonstrate I’m a key player on your management team?

Fabian Marrone’s number one ally at Monash University is the chief information officer. “We work in unison to implement the digital experience, delight our audiences and delivery for Monash,” the CMO says

Xero marketing director for Australia, Vladka Kazda, was quick to recognise the land-grab opportunity the ATO created overnight in 2019 when announced Single Touch Payroll (STP) for small businesses which are the accounting software platform’s audience.

This past year represented a true digital tipping point for the Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) business, according to CMO, Nikki Clarkson. A new corporate strategy launched in July 2020 required a significant pivot to aggressively and “unapologetically” adopting a digital audio-first approach.

It may feel like an oxymoron given the lack of market and consumer consistency travel and tourism bodies and operators have faced over the last two years, but “clever consistency” is a key mantra for Tourism Australia’s Susan Coghill.

In the past 18 months, Fiona Le Brocq has learned to manage the blending of work and home life. “I’ve presented differently as a leader, not just acknowledging the spontaneity of a less controlled environment but embracing it. I’ve openly shared personal moments of joy, fear, celebration and exhaustion,” she comments.

There aren’t too many organisations that can claim every single person in Australia as a customer. But that’s exactly why Australia Post CMO, Amber Collins, is so set on putting customer thinking front and centre in every strategic choice and decision she and the group make.

For WW’s Nicole McInnes, marketing is not a set of specialist teams that vie off digital versus broadcast or brand versus performance.

In the past year, Tara Heath and her team have faced massive change in health tech market conditions, requiring a significant shift in strategy across the Healthengine business. The pace and the need to align the team towards a new direction was critical to success.

A lot of production this past year was done remotely or under severe Covid restrictions, meaning limited people on set or fully remote oversight. Rosemary Martin admits this was a little nerve wracking for her team at flybuys at times, but the results have spoken for themselves.

The trend for brands to become the publishers of the future is already a reality at Adore Beauty. Each week, Adore publishes between seven and ten articles online, a few 10-to-20 minute videos on Youtube and hundreds of social media posts as well as multiple high-rating podcasts.

If there’s one hefty learning Paul Connell has picked up about marketing effectiveness since joining Naked Wines, it’s to reject binary arguments of performance versus brand, functional versus emotional.

It’s safe to say before last year, Kate Whitney had never had to manually pack meal kits. “When our Melbourne facility shut down for a few weeks and we moved all of our production to Sydney, teams were asked to close their computers and help pack boxes for customers in our facility,” the Marley Spoon chief marketing and growth officer says.

It’s been a momentous 18 months for Carolyn Bendall, starting in a new CMO role in a completely new sector, while locked down and working completely remote for almost the entire time.

Every inch of Jeremy Nicholas’ CMO50 submission this year showcases the cross-functional collaboration, influence and trust he’s built as Telstra’s chief marketing officer. From brand repositioning to work progressing the telco’s sustainability agenda, personalisation across the customer journey and the decision to make payphones across Australia free to use, connection across the organisation is the fuel firing marketing successes.

Online auction house Grays sells wide-ranging goods, from wine to electrical, home, cars, caravans and boats, industrial equipment and real estate.