Want to know the secret to a good marketer? Well, according to KFC’s CMO, Kristi Woolrych, it’s a helluva lot more than just problem solving. 

A great - not merely good - marketer not only solves problems but “uncovers new opportunities and creates the future!”

Bold stuff! Woolrych adds: “[Great marketers] are curious, intuitive and think holistically about what’s going on, which allows them to draw out insights that others might miss.”

Like many marketers, Woolrych started agency side - a work experience stint at Clems Brisbane in her first year of uni.

“For me, it’s never been about a title,” she says of her career journey. “I’ve always believed in following my heart and going as far as my career could take me. When I started that first job at the agency, my biggest ambition was to learn new things and have fun. That thinking remains today.”

For Woolrych, too many marketers focus on cost and efficiency when, she argues, the secret to marketing is investing in growth.

“To fully realise the value of marketing in an organisation, you need to embrace a growth mindset and be prepared to take some calculated risks,” Woolrych says. “And that’s a way more exciting proposition for attracting new talent into the industry.”

As has been overly documented, today’s marketers are often bombarded with new technology and are either too confused by it, or too scared to commit to it, for fear of missing the “next big thing”.

To that, Woolrych offers this sage advice: “The best advice I ever received from my friends in IT was to focus on how the process needs to change, not how the tech is changing. 

“The tech is just the enabler, but the real gold comes from reimagining the experience we want to deliver – and, as a marketer, that’s much easier for me to lean into than all the technology jargon out there.”

And KFC’s best marketing tool? Woolrych says it’s simple maths for the fast food brand - “Nothing beats the joy of that first bite of Kentucky Fried Chicken!”

“We’re actually really lucky to have a range of channels that work for KFC, including PR, social, TV/VOD, OOH, sponsorships, print, CRM and digital activity. 

“For me, it’s less about the channel and more about being super clear around your brand and the outcomes you want to achieve. When you get this right, you can make nearly any channel work for you,” she says.

And lastly, what does Woolrych think the marketer of the future will look?

“Curious, creative, high EQ, intuitive and courageous,” she says.

Despite having one of the most coveted - dare we say demanding? - marketing roles in the country, Woolworth’s CMO Andrew Hicks concedes his career could’ve veered down a wholly other creative path.

Despite a degree in marketing and psychology, a love of TV ads had a young Hicks, at one stage, contemplating a career as an advertising copywriter!

“Growing up, I was one of those rare individuals that enjoyed watching the ads more than the TV programs,” he tells B&T. “I loved the storytelling in ads; how it could connect with you and move you. I actually went back and studied advertising and copywriting for two years.”

However, marketing ultimately won the day and after a four-year stint at Dan Murphy’s, Hicks has now been with the Woolies Group for a decade, just shy of three of those as its CMO.

And Hicks says great marketers have a lot in common with great ad people - creative thinking, problem solving, empathy, an ability to look at problems through a different lens and then deliver often unusual and remarkable solutions.

When pressed, Hicks reveals his most admired brand is outdoor outfitter, Patagonia. “It’s an unbelievable brand,” he says, “it’s so profound and clear in what it stands for. It’s done that for decades, it has this wonderful sense of community and it’s just so honest and sincere. And when it makes a mistake, it admits it made a mistake.”

So how keen an eye does Hicks keep on his high spending (Coles), and highly disruptive (ALDI) competitors? 

“Obviously you have to,” he reveals. “Our perspective is always be aware what the competition is doing but in terms of how it’s affecting our customers. Our focus is always on the Woolworths customer, not the competition. But you can always learn from anyone, including your competitors. 

“Most marketers would admit to having once said, ‘I wish I’d done that.' And that thinking should be embraced, we should keep learning, keep doing things differently. Everyone should be trying to lift the benchmark, set a new benchmark with the marketing efforts that we have.” 

Lastly, what did Hicks make of the famous loo roll fist fight in the Woolies aisle (at the height of COVID); footage of which went global?

“That wasn’t about toilet paper, that was about continuity of supply, the needs around security, confidence and faith in the brand. It was all about empathy for us, communicating to our customers that we know it was a difficult time, a confusing time, it was the unknown. 

“We are collectively facing something that we haven’t been through before and our response was to be there for our customers on an emotional level. It was about being transparent and having to say that we don’t have all the answers, while giving confidence and a sense of calm,” he says.

Susan Coghill is the CMO for Tourism Australia. Coghill came to marketing via a long career in creative agencies across the world. Big names like TBWA in Los Angeles and the fabled Campaign Palace here in Australia. 

Coghill’s career goals have always been centred around doing great work for brands that she loves and believes in. When she realised she’d have more influence in the process if she was on the client-side of things she moved into marketing. This move has really allowed Coghill to shine and lean into what she’s passionate about. This passion has helped get her through working in travel during the pandemic. 

Coghill says: “For a long time I viewed myself as ‘best supporting actress’ rather than ‘best actress’ – really passionate about driving the outcomes, but not putting myself in the spotlight. 

“It took my then CEO, John O’Sullivan, saying he would absolutely consider me for the role of CMO to force me to reappraise my own ability.” 

Truthfully, the idea of Coghill being a support act is laughable. The reality is Coghill has managed to support her team through one of the toughest times ever for the travel industry. Coghill found that the pandemic meant that she, and her team, were churning out more work than ever and working hard to maintain quality. 

Coghill adds: ” I am most proud of my team. They are, hands down, the best in the business. They rose to every challenge, every opportunity, and every request to pivot and they did it with smarts, grace and style.

“In responding to the rapidly changing needs of both our domestic and international markets, we have probably produced more campaigns and more work in the last 18 months than we have in the last five years combined, and we have maintained the high quality of work and delivered results for the tourism industry.” 

So how does one survive a pandemic and continue to create work? Coghill thinks the answer is simple - go back to basics and don’t overthink it and create a marketing plan. She says: "Diagnosis, strategy, and tactics – as Mark Ritson so eloquently summarises it. There is increasingly more data available to us to help with the diagnosis, and more channels and better technology available to us to help execute our tactics, but the fundamentals of good marketing remain the same.” 

It’s also about knowing the avenues that work. Coghill explains: “With a product as beautiful as ours, moving pictures in all its forms! TV, online video, social video, cinema are our bread and butter. Australia is a big, beautiful country with wonderful characters and a way of life that inspires people around the world. We are at our best and most successful when we use the power of video to share our story with potential travellers."

Of course, that doesn’t mean ignoring print. "Print media is absolutely an effective channel, especially when coupled with digital counterparts. Print media lends credibility and heft to a story or to content, that then gets picked up and amplified in digital channels. I think print and digital have a symbiotic relationship,” Coghill says.

Coghill is also hopeful that the pandemic has taught businesses the value in investing in a CMO rather than chopping and changing, “I think more businesses understand the value of marketing now than they did at the start of the pandemic.”

Ronson has always been interested in consumer behaviour dating back to her university days where she preferred her marketing classes over commerce. 

Ronson started her career in Carlton United Breweries in sales and marketing and she found the experience so inspiring that it made her want to go on and become a CMO. Ronson says: “It was progressive in the way it backed marketing, it really looked at it as an engine for growth rather than a cost centre.” 

Ronson sees marketing as a priority and growth driver for businesses that shouldn’t be treated just as an expensive cost. Ronson says: “Marketing is a driver for growth and those companies that treat it as such always do better than those that don’t.” 

The accomplished marketer also believes marketing always comes back to the customer and that creativity should underpin how you connect with them. She explains, ”Great marketers need to have a great understanding of the customer and continually being curious about the information you are getting. You need to get underneath what’s driving that brand. 

“But for me it’s also about creativity, innovation and bravery and working very closely with great partners and people you trust.” 

Of course, that doesn’t mean marketers should always play it safe and Ronson is known for her ability take a calculated risk. “In some situations you do play it safe. If it’s work that isn’t going to change consumer behaviours and it is more of an information message, you don’t want to be brave with things like that. But in terms of things you know are really going to shift customer perceptions and emotions and their behaviour then you owe it to the brand and the organisation that you work in to really push the boundaries because you can always push it back.”

So what agencies does a brand like Coles rely on to help take these risks? Ronson explains: “I look for really talented people that are doing work that you have a good culturally fit with and the ones that will really challenge you. 

“I think it’s important to work through a thorough and fair process when doing an agency pitch. When I say fair, I mean you start where you want to finish, you pay agencies for their time and make sure that the brief is a good, solid, quality brief that they are responding too. I do think clients get the work they deserve.” 

Being the CMO for Coles means that Ronson’s role means constantly working with a slew of different channels, but interestingly print is still a standout. Ronson says: “Our Coles magazine - it’s always been a household favourite. For Coles, because we are such an important role in the community just using one channel wouldn’t do it justice. 

“But with Coles Magazine I think the content is inspirational, practical recipes, it’s hacks. It’s the diversity of the messages in the magazine that really resonate and we can’t put all our different messages in channels like we do in Coles Magazine.” 

Of course having a clear marketing message helped the brand sale through the pandemic. Ronson adds: “For us knowing our place in society and leaning into and stepping in to help our customers and team when they are feeling anxious, like our safety messaging. What it did was repositioned us in the community by being essential workers that were there everyday. 

“And that leads to us launching 'Value The Australian Way' last year as a nod to the role we play in Australian community.”

Originally wanting to be a lawyer, IAG’s Brent Smart opted to be a decent human being instead and joined renowned Melbourne agency, George Patts, as a junior account.

After working in the ad business across Australia, New Zealand and the United States, Smart became frustrated with clients who didn’t buy the work he felt was right. To rectify this, Smart became a CMO himself and never looked back.

For Smart, marketing achieves something no other industry does.

“It creates future demand,” he says. “By building the brand with people who don’t even know they want the product today, they become more likely to buy it from you in the future. That’s the magic of marketing.”

Taking after his idol, (now ex-Burger King’s) Fernando Marchado, Smart believes the difference between a good marketer and a great marketer is simply “making great work”.

However, Smart admits times have been tough for the industry, amidst a perceived “marketer shortage”.

“I think we’re like the plumber with a leaky sink – we do a terrible job of marketing our profession,” he says.

“Let’s celebrate what makes marketing so magical. The balance of creativity and commerciality, left brain and right brain. Maybe then more kids would want to be marketers when they grow up.”

For Smart, the marketing sector must reckon with its contemporary “short-termism”, and perceived lack of long-term strategy.

He also sees tech as another challenge, albeit one marketers shouldn’t have to go at alone.

“I don’t buy the narrative that marketers need to be technologists. Marketers need to be great at the craft of marketing and partner with technology people who are as great at their craft,” he says.

“It shouldn’t be the tech that makes a marketer more accountable – it should be the marketer’s desire to deliver commercial value.”

Notwithstanding, Smart says his team at IAG have done well to push through these recent, challenging years, owing to their continued use of television, as well as their shifting media tactics which aim to be timeless instead of “COVID cliché”.

And despite feeling pride in his own work, as they say, game still recognises game.

“I absolutely love the latest Burberry ‘Open Spaces’ film. It is beautiful, original, and magical,” he says, while also commending McDonald’s Australia for “nailing it” with the ‘Famous Orders’ campaign.

While Smart’s mission continues to be that of making consumers care about brands, he sees the future marketer as someone who looks more like the people they’re trying to sell products to, and less like a “middle-aged white guy in a suit.”

After he couldn’t decide on a career path that would satisfy his parents and appease both the mathematical and creative parts of his brain, Menulog’s CMO, Simon Cheng, flung himself into marketing. Cheng believes marketing is perfect for him, because the nature of it is not just about creativity anymore. He thinks that marketing is a creative discipline that requires high analytical demands, particularly nowadays with the heavy data and tech focus. When he began his career he knew he wanted to be a senior leader in the discipline but he didn’t even think the CMO position existed.

As a leader, Cheng looks for a good business sense in his marketers. He says that this is because understanding the customer is not just about seeing them from one point of view, but from all aspects of their experience. What truly distinguishes a great marketer from a good marketer, for Cheng, is that great marketers are good at business, while good marketers are good at marketing.

As the marketing industry grows, Cheng expects future-proof marketers to have five main attributes: tech savviness, data driven mentality, a strong commercial acumen, creativity and communication skills. This ever broadening scope of marketing is something that the Menulog CMO feels in his position, saying it’s the second most demanding in the C-suite.

“You’re often expected to be the creative guys in the team and now you're also expected to be the data guy, and you're expected to be the tech guy, as well. You've got to have a strong ability to absorb lots of different types of information, and be able to connect the dots to apply strategies to be successful.”

This multifaceted approach to marketing was something Cheng and the team at Menulog capitalised on during the pandemic. By launching the Snoop Dogg campaign in the middle of the pandemic, the company grew brand awareness during a time when its business model could thrive. The company took risks by spending big on promotions and investment to drive demand, which helped to grow the company's market share.

Risk-taking is a big factor in the world of marketing and Cheng feels torn on the issue. He believes it is the agency’s job to push brand marketers outside their comfort zone. However, he thinks that some agencies don’t do enough to truly understand the client’s business and its constraints. The sometimes tentative nature between businesses and agencies is why Cheng believes that agencies should basically be part of the marketing team. A real and true passion for the business, good cultural fit, and strong capability in their area of expertise is the simple formula for how Cheng looks for in an agency, either internal or external.

Andy Morley always had a passion for entrepreneurship and found marketing to be the closest function to this in business. While every business has a different perspective that changes marketing’s scope of accountability, Morley is steadfast in that marketing’s role is to deeply understand the customer. Having this understanding shapes product offerings and value propositions. It also allows for the execution of the best engagement strategies across the full funnel.

For marketers looking to make the jump from good to great, Morley recommends four things. Customer centricity and curiosity for creating strategies that truly solve consumer problems. A growth mindset to learn and adapt at pace (an especially important quality given express industry changes.) Simplicity, taking huge complexity and distilling it down into inspiring strategies. And bravery to stand out and get noticed, to build ideas and boldly invest in them.

As adtech continues to proliferate, Morley sees great opportunities but also huge complexities ahead. One challenge that Morley immediately indicated was the degree of difficulty of properly valuing digital media platforms and formats. Morley also mentionss that marketing organisations required more specialised creative and media roles.

As marketers roles continue to integrate with tech, Morley only moderately agreed that this development will produce more performance accountability. He remains unconvinced that adequate attribution models exist, especially in the case of fast-growing businesses. Morley also says that tech could lead organisations to focus too much on short-term behavioural metrics, which don’t always show true incrementality.

Although tech is enabling stronger learning agendas, the most successful brands are still abiding to core marketing principles to build their brands over the short and long term. Morley still sees a plethora of value which can still be extracted from simple tools like brand health trackers.

“Brand health trackers are still the most useful to assess the overall performance of a brand and gain insights needed to continue building a great brand.”

It goes without saying that Uber has been uber successful in its marketing campaigns. Though when asked about the company’s failsafe channel, Morley countered that no one channel has ever been super effective on its own. Rather it’s always a mix which makes the biggest difference. Generally speaking, the more channels activated, the greater the reach and the greater the impact.

For every campaign you notice and remember, Morley knows there’s probably a thousand that didn’t even register. Conscious that people have a huge amount of choice for the content they consume, Morley champions the multi-channel approach as well as more daring campaigns. If marketers aren’t doing something brave which makes you laugh, cheer or cry, you won’t even get noticed.

After finishing university, Jeremy Nicholas barely paused for breath before he found himself in the UK working for brand consultancy Red Spider.

Before long, Nicholas would jump over to the agency side where he spent time with Campaign magazine’s 1990s ‘Agency of the Decade’, HHCL, prior to returning Down Under for a twelve-year tenure with BMF Sydney.

Almost two decades into his career, Nicholas would finally go client-side and score his dream job in San Francisco as Visa’s head of global football, running their sponsorships and partnership with the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He would eventually return home in 2016 and join Telstra as its new CMO.

And while it reads as quite the odyssey, Nicholas admits nothing in his career was “particularly planned or goal-driven”.

“I have always done work that I was passionate about at companies where I believed in the purpose... and it has worked out,” he adds

With a CV as extensive as his, it’s no surprise Nicholas isn’t short on advice and strategies for marketers, particularly in the midst of staff shortages and other pressing issues.

“Bring talent through your business. Promote from within and train people so they grow in their roles,” he says.

“A focus on growing and developing your talent is key. Create a flexible, hybrid working style and give them the tools and resources to work from anywhere. Create a strong, values-based culture.

“Do all these things and your will retain your people and not be impacted by the [staff] shortage.”

Unsurprisingly, Telstra’s CMO couldn’t be happier with his current position, which he has held for over five years.

“I find it hugely beneficial,” he says. “It provides consistency of leadership, brand direction, strong partnership with your peers across the organisation and retention of team.”

And despite the criticisms often traded between agencies and clients, Nicholas remains certain good work will continue to result from mutual understanding between the two parties.

“Clients have to live with their advertising every single moment of every single day and face the rest of their company and the public on the work. Agencies get to go back to their office after a meeting and focus on another client or their next project.

“This creates bolder advice from the agencies and a deeper understanding of the benefits and risks from the client.

“If there is trust and mutual respect between the agency and their client, this difference in position can create healthy discussion, debate and great work.”

Harbouring a stockpile of experience and knowledge, Nicholas is the embodiment of what separates a good marketer, from a great marketer.

“Good marketers have great growth strategies and ideas. Great marketers get them made," he muses.

A Dutch import with a lot to say and a lot to show, L’Oréal’s CMO Matthijs van der Putten utilised his interest in advertising and creative to put himself on the map as one of Australia’s most interesting marketing players. By combining his studies in business administration and advertising, van der Putten has ridden the boom of digitalisation, ecommerce, data and analytics into L’Oréal’s top marketing spot after years working in New York, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and now Melbourne.

For van der Putten, the fundamentals of marketing have not changed. The L’Oréal CMO believes that marketers still need to have a super interesting proposition, and either a product or a service, or a combination of both, with very good consistent storytelling across all touchpoints. However those˜ touchpoints are rapidly changing. Van der Putten points to the beauty industry as an example of this. He believes that while print is still an effective marketing channel, it’s no longer appropriate for the beauty industry because it’s been overtaken by paid social media posts and influencers. Van der Putten says that while the fundamentals are the same, the nature of marketing has changed since he started.

One of marketing's core values for van der Putten, that was critical during the pandemic, is focusing on bringing brands back and the storytelling around brands. Marketing is all about the brand and not the person behind it, says the L’Oréal CMO, and the work that a group provides as a team. He believes that you can rotate the figurehead of a marketing team or agency, and as long as the underlying team is stable, there’s not too much to change. This brings van der Putten to what he believes a good agency is.

“A good agency is the agency that can find the whitespace. So what is the whitespace? First, it is my competitors because the beauty industry is a mature market, with lots of competitors. So where can I compete that no one else is competing? What channel is emerging that I can see that my competitors haven't exploited yet? Or what is a storyline that others haven't used yet that really matches with my brand values?”

While the world of tech ravages marketing and marketers struggle to find the whitespace, van der Putten still believes that a TV ad is the most effective and efficient advertising style. He believes it is the best way to reach a mass audience in a western market due to its succinct nature. But he also values the ability to combine art and science in the modern adtech world to tell a great brand story. This is what the L’Oréal CMO believes is critical for an excellent future-proof marketer.

Having found herself in marketing indirectly, Vladka Kazda emerged from the dotcom crash into marketing initially just to diversify her employment prospects. It was there that she found her sweet spot and passion – digital marketing. Beginning her career in SEO at a little known start-up called Carsales.com.au, Kazda capitalised on the company's exponential growth and finessed her marketing expertise as the company took off.

For Kazda, marketing today is all about creating a value exchange and orchestrating customer experiences. What used to be considered straightforward has become complex and multifaceted in the marketing game and this couldn’t be truer when it comes to customer expectations. This influences what the Xero CMO admires in a business person - an unrelenting passion and determination to create compelling customer value. For many CMOs and marketers, this requires “understanding the basic plumbing in order to manage stakeholder expectations around complexities and timeframes".

But while Kazda understands the complexities involved in marketing, she also emphasises the need to balance art and science when it comes to tackling the ever-changing adtech space.

“It can be challenging staying across the many solutions and deciphering which approach is right for a given business maturity and systems,” Kazda says.

“This is where cross-functional relationships with program, data and technology teams are so critical. As marketers, our role is to champion the use cases and work with specialists to create beautiful customer outcomes.”

However, the ever-blooming realm of adtech is not the be-all for Xero’s marketing as Kazda points to simple advocacy and word of mouth as the one marketing channel that’s always worked for Xero.

“There’s a flywheel effect of accountants and bookkeepers recommending Xero to their small business clients, and small businesses in turn using and promoting Xero to their own networks,” she says.

While Xero tried to maintain this same type of engagement online throughout the pandemic, it was never quite the same. But this brought Kazda down to what she believes is key for a good agency, service and strategy. A good agency, be they creative or media, should feel like an extension of your marketing team and show as much care and passion, according to Kazda. And this was so important during the pandemic.

Kazda says that in the face of some players pulling back during the pandemic, Xero doubled down, increasing its presence in-market and upping direct communications with customers, which paid off because the tech company saw an increase across all brand indicators and customer engagement. Kazda drives Xero’s marketing with this hands-on approach and by striking a creative balance and staying on strategy she pushes the company forward as an orchestrator of customer and brand experiences, digital and physical.

Josh Grace is the former CMO of Samsung and known for his fearless approach to marketing. Advertising is in his blood; his father Frank Grace was the CEO and chairman of Leo Burnett’s Asia Pacific and Grace grew up playing in the halls. 

Becoming a CMO wasn’t exactly his plan, at least not originally, but it was a role that seemed to be his destiny. Grace has always been courageous and bold in his marketing moves, so it was unsurprising that he told B&T that the best kind of marketing is done with “courage and tenacity". He believes marketers need to have the courage to create brave work and the tenacity to fight to protect it internally. This is why Grace cites Elon Musk as a brilliant marketer. 

Grace says: “He may deride advertising, but he is a brilliant marketer. He has a clearly stated mission to accelerate the world’s transition to renewable energy.” Grace also thinks brands need to make sure they aren’t overpromising or losing sight of what is clear messaging. He cites KFC as an example of a brand having fun with its marketing without overcomplicating things. 

He explains: “People just love to indulge. KFC have worked out you just need to make that fun and give them permission.” 

During his time at Samsung, Grace found that brand marketing was able to stay on track during the pandemic because it had consolidated its agency roster from a village of specialists to a group agency model. 

Grace explains: “Having one agency really helped us tighten up on brand consistency, create agility, transform our media model, with transparency improving our media buying efficiency enormously. So, when COVID hit, we could pivot to promoting products central to the work from home revolution, with a significant share of voice, despite the obvious budget constraints we all felt.” 

Of course, it can’t just be any old agency and it has to be one that is prepared to understand the brand and not just try and make a name for themselves. 

Grace adds: “Your creative partner needs to live and breathe the brand as much as the CMO and protect that consistent trajectory.  Not try and make their agency famous with one-off creative moon shots.” 

Grace is also honest about the pitfalls of being at the top, he explains: “Marketing is a strange profession; everyone believes they are a marketer and know best. Then marketers get held to account when things don’t happen overnight, forgetting it takes years to build a great brand and moments to destroy it.”