Author: admin

Even as its approach to personalisation gains sophistication through AI and predictive methods of tailoring communications with customers, MYOB has chosen to dial back personalisation in the early stages of its customer journey efforts. Why? Trust and value, says COO, Dean Chadwick. Over at Suncorp, customer segments have just been reviewed, and it’s adjusted the algorithms to tweak personalisation practices using customer data. That’s because of customer preferences, along with the growing responsibility marketers have to ensure their use of personal information fits within the frame of what customers value and expect, says Suncorp EGM of marketing and customer engagement, Mim Haysom. While personalisation brings meaning and often value to the customer’s lifecycle journey with a business, it’s also critical marketers know when to turn it on and off. Because not only is it the customers asking brands for this, Australia’s Privacy Commissioner, Carly Kind, is also not shying away from using her expanded regulatory powers to get brands back into line as we await a possible onslaught of change with tranche 2 of Australia’s Privacy Laws.

In one camp, we have those who view gen AI running end-to-end creative ideation and production as a derivative action, akin to trying to replace Michelangelo with machines. Yes, AI will do in the lower end of the funnel where the need for content is insatiable, and accelerated production processes are vital, they say. And it can help expedite the briefing process – or at least make you more succinct. But don’t bring it into strategy or emotive work, they cry. In the other camp: Tech platforms and AI agent-based solutions coming out of companies like research consultancy, Forethought, that claim to be producing creative work autonomously that’s testing as well as the top two or three campaigns brands have tested to date. Stuck somewhere in the middle are the curious marketers like those from Swinburne University and Specsavers. These CMOs are looking for data-driven effectiveness, better briefing processes, a way of feeling more confident about the investments they’re putting behind creative work and campaigns – but they also believe brand and human creative ingenuity remain vital in the mix. At Australia Post, meanwhile, the marketing team is using AI to transform operations, not replace creativity and has formed an internal AI council to keep pace with governance. Conversations about whether AI can, and should, be replacing humans throughout the creative supply chain is only in the early stages, and it’s already dividing the industry, as Mi3 discovers.

If you’re looking for a revolution, look elsewhere. At Australia Post and creative production agency BRX, AI isn’t rewriting the rules of marketing;  it’s finally enforcing them. The two organisations have embedded generative tools not to invent campaigns, but to systematise them. That means codifying brand guidelines, automating asset production, and auditing every prompt. At Aus Post, that’s led to bottom-of-funnel automation at scale and a 30 per cent efficiency dividend – and the firm, rather than cutting fees, is using those gains to do more. 

When Anchorage Capital bought David Jones in 2023 for circa 5 per cent paid by Woolworths Holdings less than a decade earlier, it was a $100m bet on customer data as much as flagship stores. The private equity firm’s thesis was simple but radical: get smarter, use the customer data trove to unlock buried value. That meant stripping back legacy systems and federating intelligence across the business. Two and a half years later, David Jones is on a path towards a business that looks more like a data platform with a luxury retail layer on top, though rooted in brand and curated customer experiences. If Anchorage’s bet pays off, the strategy could rewrite the playbook for how private equity values – and acquires and ultimately sells – old brands.