Our latest CMO 2022 readiness episode on the great resignation and staff motivation and leadership is now live!
CMO’s new video series focuses on delivering marketing impact in the next normal and in the shadow of the Covid-19 hangover.
In this third episode, we delve into the great resignation and ongoing challenges CMOs face as functional and business leaders, driving staff and team leadership and motivation.
We’re also going to look at what are marketers and customer leaders are doing to ready their teams, improve their ways of working and foster employee resiliency and wellbeing in the ongoing pandemic conditions.
Megan Keleher, chief customer officer, Great Southern Bank
Megan is a business strategy and marketing specialist with experience across finance, technology, media and telecommunications. She is currently chief customer officer of Great Southern Bank, Australia’s largest customer-owned bank. Prior to this, she was VP of strategy and marketing for global technology firm, Fujitsu Oceania. Megan has held executive positions in Telstra, Foxtel and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and has also successfully managed her own consulting business, specialising in brand strategy and marketing.
Megan has previously served as a non-executive director of the Australian Association of National Advertisers and is currently a non-executive director of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, and member of the Griffith Business School Strategic Advisory Board. Her expertise has been recognised with her inclusion in the 2021 CMO50 list of Australian’s most effective and innovative marketing leaders.
Ben Hill, marketing director, Mars Wrigley
Ben leads the marketing function of the organisation from Mars Wrigley Australia’s Melbourne headquarters, with responsibility for the growth of its 17 iconic brands distributed across the Australian market and abroad, including Extra, Maltesers, M&M's, Marsa, Skittles and Eclipse.
Ben has more than 20 years’ experience in the FMCG industry and has built a wealth of expertise leading marketing, category, shopper insights and and activation within Mondelez, Coca-Cola Amatil, Nestlé and Unilever, working across Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Mars Wrigley Australia, Ben served as marketing, innovation and corporate affairs director at Bega Cheese, where he was instrumental in transitioning Vegemite back to Australian ownership, growing and future-proofing Bega’s brand portfolio and setting up a best-in-class marketing function for the business.
Ben was ranked 17th in the 2021 edition of the CMO50 list for his efforts at Mars Wrigley to date.
Nikki Clarkson, chief marketing officer, Southern Cross Austereo
Nikki Clarkson is an experienced marketing and communications executive with over 20 years of proven, award winning experience across multiple industries. Nikki is a member of SCA’s Leadership Team acting in the role of chief marketing officer. Nikki’s responsibility encompasses group marketing and communication activities for 99 radio stations, 125 original podcasts, 105 regional TV feeds, numerous social and Web publishing assets along with all corporate marketing and communication.
As CMO, Nikki is responsible for all marketing and communication strategy and execution, brand strategy, trade marketing, media strategy, planning and buying, creative strategy and development, PR and publicity, internal communication, group corporate communication and crisis management. The role also includes responsibility for all customer growth strategies relying heavily on a deep understanding of the evolving digital landscape, insight led consumer strategies and CRM, to implement successful customer acquisition and retention plans for SCA.
Prior to her appointment to CMO in January 2020, Nikki held the position of head of marketing and communication at SCA for 10 years and has also held senior executive positions in creative advertising agencies including Clemenger Harvie Edge, The Foundry and The Edge. She began her career as marketing manager of The Australian Marketing Institute. Nikki has also lectured in marketing and brand strategy for Melbourne Business School with Mark Ritson and for Swinburne University’s MBA program and is a regular judge on many industry awards. Nikki is also a member of Commercial Radio Australia’s Brand Committee.
And don’t forget to check out the first 2 episodes of this special series, now available on our website:
Episode 1: Supply Chain management
Featuring Australia Post’s Amber Collins, Baiada’s Yash Gandhi and The Arnott’s Group’s Jenni Dill
Episode 2: Being the customer champion
Featuring Telstra’s Jeremy Nicholas and Officeworks’ Jessica Richmond
As our customers exhibit growing desire to be recognised for their preferences and passion points, ...
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
