By Joanne Smith, Chief Brand, Innovation, and Communications Officer, Blackmores Group

Winning an Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) Award is an incredible honour, granted by our leading industry body with over 90 years of industry representation.

What Winning Meant to Me

The AMI Awards celebrate the best in Australian marketing, and to be recognised among other outstanding peers is humbling and inspiring.

Being recognised as a finalist and later awarded National Winner – Chief Marketing Officer of the Year at the 2024 Awards is not an individual achievement – it’s a recognition of the broader team who were all a part of this award: the entire marketing team, product development, the cross-functional teams, and our agency partners. My AMI Awards win was a testament to the incredible team I work with at Blackmores and our shared vision for the brands.

The Impact Since Winning

Winning the AMI award was a culmination of the previous five years of working on the Blackmores brand for myself and our team. It takes time and sustained and consistent effort to successfully build brands, so this award strongly reinforced this for myself and my team.

My Experience with the Awards Process

The AMI Awards process was an opportunity to reflect on and capture the journey we have taken as a team in building the Blackmores brand and the incredible results we have delivered. I appreciated the rigour of the judging process – being recognised by a panel of esteemed industry experts made the achievement all the more meaningful. It reinforced that the work we’re doing at Blackmores is not only innovative but also delivering measurable impact.

Advice for Future Nominees

For anyone considering entering the AMI Awards in the future, my biggest piece of advice is to be clear about the impact the work has created, demonstrating how strategy and activation have meaningfully influenced brand perception, consumer behaviour, and business performance.

Looking Ahead

Winning an AMI Award has been an unforgettable milestone in my career which I am very grateful for. It was a time to also reflect on the years of experience that came before this award and how all of those experiences played a role in this acknowledgement from the AMI. I’m so grateful to the AMI for this recognition. Marketing and evidence-based brand building has the power to transform businesses, influence culture, and create lasting impact – and that’s always something worth celebrating.

Think your work deserves the spotlight?

Join Joanne and other marketing leaders in celebrating excellence. Entries for the 2025 AMI Marketing Excellence Awards are now open.
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