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KPMG is muscling up in its own brand and marketing masterplan in a bid to distance itself from PwC’s tax leak scandal, “create a bit of space between us and our competitors” and remind the market that the big four consulting groups “are not all the same”, according to Sudeep Gohil. Taking on the broadening remit for the firm as “partner in charge of brand and marketing”, Gohil remains a partner in KPMG’s Customer unit and was a former creative agency strategy director with US-based Wieden & Kennedy and ex-CEO at Droga5 ANZ before it died and was resurrected by Accenture Song in recent weeks after its rebrand of The Monkeys.

NIB and University of Tasmania are two Australian organisations that have begun squaring up to the sustainability reckoning coming to marketers, agency and media publishers as legislated climate reporting ratchets up a notch and Scope 3 emissions become front and centre. With media and marketing emissions estimated at a whopping 59 per cent of total group emissions at NIB, marketing this year adopted GroupM’s Project Alpha reporting tool to start accurately measuring and optimising campaigns with immediate double-digit reductions effect. At Uni of Tas meanwhile, 30 per cent-plus reductions just by tackling the low-hanging fruit of digital advertising optimisation – largely programmatic display and made for advertising sites. Meanwhile switching out clicks to conversion metrics not only won over the c-suite, it’s cementing the education provider’s global number one position for climate action with prospective students, and led to a 264 per cent increase in conversions in early campaign trials.

Merry Boots GM James Smith came into the business as finance chief with zero marketing experience. But he could see over-reliance on social media for growth risked backfiring – and the power of a listicle article in The New York Times spruiking its rainboots as some of the best around gave the brand confidence affiliate marketing wasn’t just a dirty word or about discounting. Today, partnerships account for over 10 per cent of revenue in the US and high single-digits in the UK – one-third of total revenue for the business – and have proven a critical way of building not only brand discovery but credibility outside Australia, says Smith. Even as it steps into cashback offers to win over younger demos, he’s insistent there isn’t a reduced-price boot yet in sight.