Driving penetration and trial while lifting purchase frequency – and love – across its existing customer base are the driving forces between Chobani’s latest activewear campaign, its brand marketing chief says.

Bringing merchandising, loyalty and marketing strategies and insights ever-closer together to improve customer service is the name of the game for West Australia’s Liquor Barons liquor retailer as it brings on a fresh promotional planning platform.

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.

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.

One of the staples of our editorial calendar is our profiles of chief marketing officers locally and internationally. And boy has it been an interesting year for these interviews.

​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.

​One of the interesting things to come out of this year’s unprecedented market conditions was a rethink around external partnerships and collaborations by local and global brands. Here, we highlight a few of the more unusual, unlikely pairings we saw during 2020 and why they were explored by the brands engaging in them.

Grapevines may be incredibly fickle plants, but as 2020 has shown, grape growers cannot afford to be so demanding.

You’d be hard pressed to find a single CMO who hasn’t been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 global pandemic – positively, negatively or otherwise.

Digital bank 86 400 has teamed up with Tamarama Surf Life Saving Club (TSLSC) to raise money for the renovation of the Sydney clubhouse, pencilled in for early next year. To help the club meet its fundraising target, 86 400 has pledged $25,000 towards the redevelopment project and will also donate an extra $10 for every new customer who tries 86 400 during the partnership using a special code.

With a history that stretches back over 100 years, SPC has been a familiar brand in Australian pantries and on supermarket shelves. But the company had languished in recent years following its acquisition by Coca Cola Amatil in 2005, recording falling sales and significant losses.

The world of 2021 marketing and commercial growth will be driven by human connection and the overarching need for organisations to not only be trusted but also embraced by the customers they’re striving to engage with. That was the overarching takeaway of Deloitte’s recent 2021 Global Marketing Trends report, which was explored practically this week through the experiences of trio of leading Australian chief marketing officers from Coles, ANZ and Telstra.

It’s by tapping into data for decision making, rather than concentrating on data from marketing actions, that will enable CMOs to identify new paths to growth and revenue, Constellation Research VP and analyst, Liz Miller, says.

Want to know how to disrupt the CMO playbook? How brands such as Audible are balancing human intuition and data science? Or why marketing chiefs from the likes of RMIT, Realestate.com.au and Hexagon are turning to agile ways of working? These are just some of the sessions from our recent CMO Momentum 2020 virtual event, and they’re now available to you on-demand for the next 30 days, thanks to our sponsor, Sitecore.

Growing emphasis on soft skills, empathy and team resiliency, along with better data and customer behavioural insight, are just some of the ways modern marketing leaders are looking to strengthen the commercial muscle of their functions right now.

It’s just a week until our CMO Momentum 2020 virtual event debuts, and we’re delighted to confirm our final tranche of brilliant speakers in our line-up!

​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.

Utilising new social channels such as Tiktok and partnering with surprising ambassadors is key to bringing WW wider brand story around health and wellness to life to new audiences, its local marketing chief says.

CMOs will need to drive customer obsession within their firms, rather than simply guiding ad procurement and promotions, according to Forrester’s 2021 prediction. This means marketing teams will need to put the customer at the center of everything they do, including leadership, strategy and operations.

Rebranding a company is rarely easy, and that task can be made even more difficult when you are also trying to change perceptions of the category within which you operate. But then to do that in an economy already been buffeted by COVID-19 lockdowns and a looming recession?

Planning, embracing change and transforming familiar approaches will be critical to success for B2B leaders, according to Forrester's SiriusDecisions research team​. And leaders across the revenue engine will need to accelerate the shift toward digitisation, buyer-centricity and customer obsession.