Byron Sharp and SA marketing experts to present brand growth strategies at Mastering Marketing event
Professor Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute says the power of marketing science has the ability to drive innovation, creativity and measurable success in today’s competitive marketplace. He will be discussing this and more as one of the industry leaders speaking at the upcoming Mastering Marketing on 21 May.
Some of South Australia’s best marketers and practitioners are coming together to share case studies and insights to winning strategies for growing brands at Mastering Marketing, a special one-day event at The Drive in Adelaide.
Organised by the Australian Marketing Institute South Australia, the seminar will showcase best practice and the latest marketing developments that are ensuring some of our most well-known brands excel.
Keynote speaker Sharp is one of the world’s most cited advertising researchers and his book, How Brands Grow, is widely regarded as the most impactful marketing text today.
He is a professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia, which is the world’s largest centre for research into marketing.
At Mastering Marketing, Sharp will explore why marketing science is not only essential but incredibly exciting for modern marketers.
Drawing from his extensive research and decades of empirical studies, he will highlight how scientific principles can revolutionise brand strategy and deliver tangible results.
Also speaking at the event will be South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) executive director of marketing Erik de Roos, G’Day Discovery Parks Group chief marketing officer (CMO) Lahnee White, RAA CMO Michael Healy, Peregrine Corporation CMO Dewald du Plooy, Flinders University CMO Bev Bury and Carat’s head of media strategy Siobhan Hatchard.
Erik de Roos will be discussing the importance of leadership in marketing success.
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In his 20-plus year career, de Roos has moved sides from agency to client. Before taking on the role at SATC, de Roos led the marketing team for Australian icon San Remo.
When making the leap between industry sectors and organisations, the fundamentals of marketing don’t change, he said.
“What also doesn’t change is that marketing always has people at the heart of it – both the consumers whose behaviour we aim to influence, as well as the many people around us that we need to bring along with us to bring new marketing campaigns to market.
“Ultimately, good marketing comes with a level of creative risk taking and that means you need to be able to build trust and confidence with the right influencers and decision makers in and around your organisation.
“As such, stakeholder management and the ability to listen to people and really understand their needs and concerns is key to being a successful marketing leader, I think.”
G’Day Discovery Parks CMO Lahnee White will be sharing how the last five years have seen the company go on an “incredible growth journey”, taking its holding to more than 90 holiday parks and resorts collectively worth $2 billion in property, which she said has been underpinned by strategic digital transformation.
In the last 12 months, her marketing team has launched the WikiCamps and G’Day Parks apps, plus new websites for Discovery Parks and El Questro – and achieved “well over double digit growth” in digital revenues and record customer numbers.
“On the efficiency side, we’ve also been a keen adopter of generative AI technologies to manage operational complexity, accelerate speed to market, and enhance customer experiences […] including the development and adoption of a proprietary AI campaign management tool,” White said.
As head of media strategy for Carat, Siobhan Hatchard ’s role is to connect brands with communities, partners and people. Traditionally trained and a digital native, she is an expert media planner, strategist and negotiator.
At Mastering Marketing, Hatchard will be talking about how changes in media since broadcast TV dominated have led to the industry becoming serious about measurement and conversion, but also “diluted” the optimal balance between short-term and long-term grown.
“Fast forward to now, where algorithms increasingly govern the distribution of information, not just in our social feeds but across every single media touchpoint,” Hatchard said.
“In the algorithmic era, the tried and tested ‘brand building’ principles of mental and physical availability still apply, but today ‘media availability’ is built through culture and community, and ‘physical availability’ is built online as much as offline, through commerce.”
She added that the challenge for marketers is not about gaining reach, but “stopping the swipe” and holding attention.
“To play in culture is not to be visible to fewer, but to be relevant to more.”
One of the areas Flinders University CMO Bev Bury will address at Mastering Marketing is identifying and capitalising on ‘micro-moments’ across a brand’s touchpoints.
“When you focus on ten of those, as we’ve seen in [Flinders University’s] own results … the sum of all those things, equates to business growth,” Bury said.
“It’s just flipping the script a little bit on brands.”
At Flinders University, one of those micro-moments has seen a change in the way prospective students book a one-on-one meeting with a student advisor.
Simplifying the process from five steps to one step, and providing immediate confirmation, increased the number of meetings by 280 per cent, helping to also increase the conversion rate.
Another of the expert speakers at the event, RAA CMO Michael Healy will be sharing insights behind the huge success of the Trev bee campaign; and On The Run CMO Dewald du Plooy will discuss finding the important balance between logic and data versus gut feel and courage.
Just a small number of tickets remain for the seminar, which is open to members and non-members of the Australian Marketing Institute.
It offers industry executives and marketers an opportunity to enhance their knowledge, stay up to date with the latest trends and best practice from marketing leaders and network with peers and like-minded professionals.
