Author: admin

Cracking America is the mark of any great brand. Leigh Barnes, Americas President and Chief Customer Officer at global Australian travel firm Intrepid is relocating his family – literally today – to Seattle, home of grunge, and walking a tightrope as a DEI, purpose-driven B Corp business in the age of Maga corporate. He’s getting “slapped around the head” a little and is working through what adjustments he may need to make in a sensitive political environment. Still, Intrepid in the US is cutting a contrarian brand-powered swathe through the performance-driven marketing echelons and it’s working. Organic search is through the roof as a “cocktail” of traditional above-the-line brand advertising and PR storytelling rapidly moves the needle, though AI chatbots may have a hand. Direct business is working so well that Barnes must now build out US partnerships akin to its early ANZ work with Flight Centre or risk over-reliance on fickle online platform gatekeepers. But, to the chagrin of “Russian bot farms”. he’s confident Intrepid will soon be a billion dollar company.

Brands will soon be confronted with a choice: Employ AI to make cheaper, more plentiful ad creative so you can keep chasing a prospect with iterative messaging until they finally click yes, or risk pissing off said consumer while doing it, says The Coca-Cola Company’s chairman and CEO, James Quincey. Speaking today at this year’s Adobe Summit, the beverage giant chief has no immediate plans to remove the real humans from its advertising, even after attaining cost and efficiency gains from its first generative AI-made holiday campaign at Christmas. But he admits the enticement of cheaper, faster, infinitely more personalised campaign creative at scale using AI is a lure most marketers are going to be hard pressed not to swallow – and that could prove seriously problematic. The last great hope? Live events.

Three years ago, Australia was on “a CDP bender”, with marketers wooed by the prospect of a single source of truth linking disparate customer data and the ability to slash customer acquisition costs, activate more smartly and efficiently, delivering personalisation at scale while insulating against a twin pincer of a looming cookie cull and major privacy tightening. In other words, “invest in a CDP and – boom – the money rains down”, per one market observer. Three years on, the landscape has changed, use case development has often stuttered – and a lot of contracts are up for renewal. Sitecore CEO Dave O’Flanagan, mParticle CEO Michael Katz, Forrester’s Joe Stanhope, Adobe’s Gabbi Stubbs, Salesforce’s Leandro Perez and others weigh in on where next, and how.

The Australian Grand Prix (AGP) is done but F1 is flying – audiences are soaring and women are some of the fastest growing cohort. Hence more brands piling in – and getting serious traction – despite tier one sponsorship packages being almost instantly sewn-up. Marketers are therefore getting creative to find other ways in. Pernod Ricard’s St Hugo, four years into its partnership with driver Daniel Ricciardo, has recorded a 12 per cent YoY growth in sales, with a primarily owned and organic social media approach. TCL Electronics has also taken the local approach activating at Melbourne Alfred Park as an official AGP sponsor since 2022. Others, including Chivas Regal, and Australian tech start-ups Airtasker and Airwallex, are racing to grow globally with F1 team partnerships.