At first glance, most of us would think a pure-play brand like The Iconic was better positioned than many retailers lagging behind in digital when confronted with the COVID-19 crisis. Yet marketing chief, Alexander Meyer, is the first to admit the lockdowns put a lot of strain onto the business, its employees and customers.

Leading a breadth of initiatives beyond traditional definitions of marketing, from CX programs to customer self-service initiatives and product redesign, has given Stuart Tucker plenty of opportunity to inform growth at online tradies marketplace, Hipages.

​This year has proven to Tony Quarmby his marketing team is even more resilient than he hoped. "Working in an industry that’s on its knees due to COVID-19 and coming in to work every day single-mindedly focused on supporting local businesses, who employ one in eight Territorians, has been a challenge but with new campaign approaches, incentive sales schemes and business support programs they have reacted stoically," he told CMO. "Even when their roles have changed and uncertainty has permeated the office they have remained focused on delivering the necessary outcomes."

In today’s world, it is paramount marketers respond quickly to a changing context, be it a weather event such as a bushfire or flood or pandemic, says Suncorp’s Mim Haysom. “Gauging consumer sentiment and needs and responding in a relevant and timely manner is critical to our customers’ experience and ultimately our success,” she says.

If there’s one lesson to be learnt from 2020, it’s that Tourism and Events Queensland (TEQ)’s marketing team has the ability to manage and deal with ambiguity, says its CMO, Michael Branagh.

Sometimes doing the right thing for your customers means stepping outside of the conventional practices of the organisation you represent. Daniel McDermott is one marketer who has taken on this challenge in the past year. As the marketing director for A/NZ at IT security company, Mimecast, he leads a team of 15 dedicated to building the Mimecast brand and driving sales opportunities.

In the last 12 months Yves Calmette did something she’s never done before, shifting the entire business to a single mission and focus overnight when the bushfire crisis peaked in the first days of 2020. “We stopped everything to allocate all our resources, energy and passion to save, rescue and protect wildlife. All marketing activities pivoted in 48 hours,” Calmette said.

The legal sector is not commonly renowned for being a hotbed of innovation, let alone for progressive marketing thinking. But when LegalVision was founded in 2012 it was done so with the objective of turning that perception on its head and disrupting an otherwise staid industry.

While the rest of the world was cancelling events earlier this year, Bianca Bryson had a different idea.

Since taking up the marketing chief’s reins at Fitness First Australia 18 months ago, Matt Fletcher has worked hard to break down business silos.

Marketers often talk about building a deep connection with their customers. But for marketers in the pet care sector, they also need to take into account the deep connections that already exist between owners and their pets. At Mars, this relationship resides at the core of all decisions made by marketing director Emma Dowling and her team, and is reflected in the way her customers are referred to as ‘pet parents’.

The challenge marketers in many organisations continue to face is stakeholders who have very low expectations of them, says ANZ’s Sweta Mehra. The answer, she says, is to embrace the technology and tools that allow modern marketers to truly drive growth.

Examination of the composition of many marketing teams will often show a skew towards a younger working population. It’s not until you get into the senior roles you start seeing people in the 40s and 50s, and those roles by design are somewhat scare. This can of course cause problems when your target audience resides in a demographic more akin to the parents of your team members.

Loyalty and customer evangelism is driven through a deep understanding and focus upon every step of their journey, regardless of channel or level of relationship. Which is why Sweat’s marketing chief, Mike Scott, was so determined to foster customer journey building as a skill across his team at the Australian-born online health and wellbeing app.

‘Defy barriers to progress’ is Samsung’s purpose. So it was fitting the mantra also became the catch cry supporting marketing transformation locally, says Australian CMO, Josh Grace.

​In this latest episode of our conversations over a cuppa with CMO, we catch up with the delightful Pip Arthur, Microsoft Australia's chief marketing officer and communications director, to talk about thinking differently, delivering on B2B connection in the crisis, brand purpose and marketing transformation.

At its most basic, innovation is the introduction of something new. And in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the process of innovating has flourished across Australian marketing and customer teams as they strive to keep up with the rapidly evolving crisis and its impact on customers, business models and market dynamics. CMO caught up with five marketing leaders from the 2019 CMO50 list of Australia’s most innovative and effective marketing leaders to find out more.

Sonder has a new head of marketing, with former American Express’ former marketer director taking up the local reins.

​It’s a process Maria Robinson has applied to every new role she’s held as a marketer since cutting her teeth in the dotcom era: The no-fly zone. And it’s one that’s particularly useful when you’re the first CMO appointed to a company like Nitro, looking to ride the rapid growth opportunity presented by COVID-19.

McDonald’s Australia has appointed Chris Brown as VP and CMO for the iconic fast food business. With over 23 years’ experience leading creative and digital agencies in Australia and overseas, Chris will join the McDonald’s Australia senior leadership team, reporting directly to CEO, Andrew Gregory.

Every marketing leader is endeavouring to transform their marketing organisation to be more customer-led. But what does it really take to disrupt your approach to achieve success?Mastercard global CMO, Raja Rajamannar, has done just that, and he’s going to share his very valuable insights at this year’s CMO Momentum conference, reimagined as a virtual event and taking place 11-12 November 2020.