The COVID-19 pandemic has altered sports sponsorship, accelerating trends already in play such as the growth of hybrid events, rising importance of player advocacy and popularity of esports, according to the Nielsen Sports 2021 Global Sports Marketing Trends report.

Trust is at an all-time high across Australia’s government, media and corporate institutions according to the latest Edelman Barometer Index - even as the trust-inequality gap remains significantly larger here than globally.

In 2020 political division and instability shocked the world, and it came in a year with protests and a new movement for racial equality, all while the world grappled with the coronavirus pandemic. The events of last year have thrown the role of brands into sharp relief as many people looked to them for their support and leadership on these health, social, racial and progressive crises.

Customer purchasing patterns may have changed off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Domino’s is confident it can continue to deliver strong performance by sticking to its existing strategy for the next decade.

Consumer confidence is the biggest hurdle to the recovery of the travel industry, according to a panel of Australia's top travel sector chiefs.

Electrical brand, Alco, has opted for humour in its latest campaign, ’52 Weeks of Alco’, which features ‘Russ the Sparky’, a fictional electrician trying to be a social media influencer.

Clubhouse is the latest social hit, an invite-only audio chat app that just seems to be the right thing at the right time. And having Tesla’s Elon Musk tweeting about it to his 40 million followers doesn’t hurt. Marketers need to know they’ll probably learn more about Clubhouse by reading about it than by using it, at least to begin with. But nonetheless it pays to be ahead of the curve.

CMO asks four marketing leaders about where do we go from here and what can be expect now that’s it’s 2021 and whether we continue to operate in short timelines and get backer to longer term planning.

Over the last eight years BlackBerry has gone through a huge transformation, from a consumer brand selling hardware to an enterprise brand focused on software. “We still have a focus on what we’re good at - productivity, security, mission critical systems - we’ve never moved away from that, BlackBerry CMO, Mark Wilson, says. And recently, building off the idea of ‘intelligent security, everywhere’ the company is unveiling a new campaign aimed at securing all businesses across the globe, regardless of their location, workforce or user device.

An end-of-year surge shows digital ad spend recovering from the COVID-induced ad recession and overall ad spend up 2 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest Standard Media Index results.

The global marketing industry grew despite almost a year of decline during the pandemic, according to the WARC Global Marketing Index 2020 review.

The Australian retail sector has now overtaken banking in overall brand value, accounting for 25 per cent of total brand value in the Brand Finance Australia 100 2021 ranking, according to the latest Brand Finance report. Among Australian brands,

This past year upended how people work, are entertained, consume and transact. Yet most of these trends aren’t being disrupted, they are accelerating in a direction already anticipated pre-COVID-19.

As the new year dawns, marketers need an updated playbook to connect with consumers is the new and changing landscape. In this CES panel, three marketing chiefs share their advice and predictions on making sense of the new normal.

The ACCC’s decision to pursue Lorna Jane through the courts for alleging its anti-virus activewear can protect consumers from COVID shows the concerning state of health-related marketing in Australia right now, a leading plastic surgeon has told CMO.

Recognition Australians are better dealing with adversity when they stand united and that we all need a laugh to kick off 2021 lies at the heart of Meat and Livestock Australia’s latest lamb summer campaign, its market manager says.

​Building Australian consumer confidence lies at the heart of the Federal Government’s $24 million advertising campaign to support the rollout of the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccination program.

Recognising the devastating impact of COVID-19 on community psyche will inform how Ad Standards investigates a fresh advertisement from retailer, BCF, featuring a man eating a bat sandwich.

Highly engaged local and international audiences and influencers, strategic marketing content and an appreciation for the power of online engagement are just a few legacies La Trobe City Council has secured after delivering its annual rose festival virtually.

Pivoting marketing and customer efforts to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic clearly took centre stage this year, as this year’s CMO list of most read stories in 2020 shows.

​In 2021, brands will need to go further than ever with CX to attract and retain customers and incentivise loyalty. Coming to grips with the newly digital consumer while also finding purpose and empathy to connect with those consumers looking for authentic brands are just some of the challenges. Finding the tools to bridge offline and online will create new challenges, while rising demands for privacy willneed to be balance against the benefits of personalisation.