The digitisation and transformation of marketing, power of the personal, building and retaining customer trust, and striving for online retail relevancy are just some of the big themes to dominate the news this year.

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.

A new experiential activation by WWF-Australia in Sydney showing what the state would look like sans koalas is just one a strategic plan to get more weight behind deforestation, its CMO says.

Marketing and strategy leaders at Arlo & Co, Tourism WA and Qantas along with several agency chiefs are among the top marketing and professionals viewed on LinkedIn this year.

In the era of audience fragmentation, marketers should be leaving no stone unturned when it comes to reaching their intended targets. And it turns out one of the most effective social marketing tools could actually be hiding in plain sight.

In an age where consumer trust in banking couldn’t be lower, Bank of Queensland is leading the way by embracing social media and making itself more available to its customers.

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.

Over the past 12 months, Lenovo has been on a mission to boost customer centricity, creating a discrete global CX entity of 150 people dedicated to looking at customer journeys and finding ways to improve them.

It was the death of close friend, Dwayne Lally, by suicide in 2013 that led Casey Lyons and Sam Webb to come together in business. Neither had been aware of the extent of Rally’s battle with depression and bipolar disorder.

It’s 70 years this year since Sportsgirl opened its doors in Australia. And in all that time, its core demographic – the 16-24 year-old transitioning from girlhood to womanhood – has remained constant, national marketing manager, Kate Rees, says.

Friction is costing Australian businesses $29 billion a year, according to Facebook head of global brand partnerships, Marco Corsi.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Oracle, Maritz Loyalty, Nugit, Vendasta, QuanticMind, Sprout Social, Qubit, and OneTrust.

From an at-home side hustle started with $100, to a multi-million dollar, international fashion brand, it’s not every business that can claim Misha Collection’s exponential growth over the past five years.

The UK’s Information Commission Office has fined Facebook £500,000 million and called for a new statutory Code of Practice for use of personal information in political activity following its investment into the practice of using data analytics in political campaigns.

Guzman Y Gomez’s agile approach to marketing and its strong growth trajectory has seen the brand chalk up a significant social media win, trial Google drones food delivery and now invest in its biggest out-of-home campaign ever.

Unilever CMO, Keith Weed, has been crowned the world’s most influential CMO, followed by GE’s Linda Boff and Twitter’s Leslie Berland, all key figures driving transformational change within and outside their organisations.

All the latest martech and adtech news this week from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Zendesk and more.

​Medibank has launched a WeChat channel to better connect with the growing Australian-Chinese population.

Lego is a brand synonymous with play. Indeed, its name is derived from the Danish words for ‘play well’ – leg godt. So it is perhaps not surprising to hear senior global director at Lego Group, Lars Silberbauer, uses similar language when referring to his own job.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and target specific consumer groups via social media insights and loyalty data has seen Australian chocolateria, San Churro, chalk up 6.6 per cent return on investment and a predicted $500,000 in additional in-store spend.

Facebook has seen advertising revenues leap 50 per cent year-on-year to US$11.79 billion, although dip compared to Q4, as it battles ongoing media, political and legal scrutiny around consumer data and privacy practices.