September 2019
- Exclusive
- Media & marketing
Brand and people drive business: Yum! CEO
This CEO is a rare modern example of a boss who is still obsessive about how brands – and brand building – delivers business results.
July 2019
Brands face a 'moral obligation' to society with social media
The CEO of the powerful World Federation of Advertisers, Stephan Loerke, says brand owners have been "late to the party" accepting their moral obligations to society by backing unregulated social media platforms and not supporting quality news and media. Things are about to change.
Arnott's frenzied innovation outlined before private equity sale
As a $3 billion sale looms, Arnott's chief marketing officer David McNeil unveils a "massive and meaningful" innovation program, under way for 18 months, aimed at taking on multinational rivals like Nestle, Mars and Mondelez, and start-up "insurgent brands".
NTT slashes 28 global units into one brand and invests
Business-to-business marketing strategies are forging closer to their consumer marketing peers, says NTT's new global CMO, Ruth Rowen.
CEOs future is engaging punters on social media
The c-suite doesn't always like the idea but "the people" want to hear directly from transparent and authentic CEOs.
June 2019
NRMA shifted from tech to people, signed up 1.5m members
The NRMA needed to reinvent its near ubiqitous member program, long defined by its roadside service, and discovered real people, not systems, delivered the magic it needed.
Australia outstrips global spend on martech, customer experience
Australian companies are outpacing global investment in marketing and customer experience technology just as a new report shows consumers here have the highest customer experience expectations in the world. But 'martech' pressures are mounting.
First all-women tech tour tips AI ethics, customers as next wave
CMO Brief spoke to a roundtable of women-only delegates from a study tour of Silicon Valley about the big trends they're bringing back.
AI the next flashpoint for marketing, after social media
AI could unleash more damage on society than the marketing industry's underwriting of social media platforms and needs regulation before it's too late, says the CEO of a $2billion AI company, LivePerson.
May 2019
Coles, Woolies rush to create media units in Google, Facebook attack
Australian retailers are rapidly following their global retail peers in building media units to compete with Google, Facebook and Amazon. Their secret sauce is a vast trail of customer data and proximity to the point of purchase. Advertisers are voting with their marketing budgets.
Why a Unilever-owned challenger brand is making ads for Pornhub
Just as Procter & Gamble launched its hotly debated ad campaign for Gillette challenging traditional masculinity, a Unilever challenger brand was on Pornhub getting rave reviews – and sales – from blokes.
AI-led ‘conversational commerce’ to kill brand websites in five years
The lead engineer behind Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, Alex Spinelli, says websites and apps have failed business because they are not "natural human experiences" - conversational commerce will win.
UBS banker: invest in brand before IPO
UBS investment banking boss Luke Bentvelzen says emerging direct-to-consumer companies have to invest in brand-building to reduce reliance on Google and Facebook for customer growth.
Webjet CEO avoids Google search for building brand
Webjet's boss John Guscic says the company was zigging when everyone was zagging for online performance ads and search optimisation. "We built a brand", he says.
Advisers race to fuse customer with marcomms
Publicis' $3.7 billion acquisition of Sapient in 2015 was a 'train wreck'. But the French group and its rivals are learning lessons fast.
Digital transformation warning: it's too narrow
Morteza Mahjour was Lloyds Group CIO when it was teetering and pins the turnaround on a complete overhaul of company’s mindset, systems and capabilities to focus on the customer experience.
April 2019
Accenture: Product-led companies falter, CEOs lag on customers
Australian CEOs lag their global peers with industrial scale reinvention of customer experience and personalisation blueprints. Hello consultants.
- Analysis
- CMO brief
Sentiment flips on performance marketing
Performance marketing has been flying high, pushed by marketing and advertising technology companies that have created fast and fancy metrics. It will remain an important tactic but longer-term brand building is back on the radar.
Digital metrics blocking business value creation
Jetstar’s former CEO and founder of a touted Australian tech unicorn, Bruce Buchanan, says companies are looking to long-term brand-building strategies.
Boomtown sells brand owners easier growth
Millennials are hot, regionals are not (yet). Woolworths, Coles and McDonald's are tapping easier growth in regional economies because of urban marketing bias, which an unlikely alliance aims to bust.