“The more control you keep, the less culture you create.”

Vegemite doesn’t try to sound like a brand - it sounds like Australia. Instead of chasing trends or overproduced campaigns, the focus has been on cultural truth, real people and participation over perfection. Because on social, people don’t want marketing - they want to feel part of something.
Join Mary Stafford, the marketing leader behind Vegemite at Bega Group, as she shares how one of Australia’s most iconic brands has transformed how it shows up online and how it stays culturally relevant in a social-first world. 

What you’ll learn:

• Build ideas people want to join, not just watch

• Use UGC to drive relevance and scale

• Balance brand consistency with cultural flexibility

• Create content that feels human, not corporate

• Turn social into a two-way conversation, not a channel

• Learning in real time from social to drive brand objectives
  

About Mary

With a Master’s in Psychology and a lifelong fascination with human behaviour, Mary Stafford has built her marketing career on understanding what drives people. She began in FMCG at Fonterra and Coca-Cola Amatil nearly two decades ago gaining early experience on brands including Australian staples like Perfect Italiano cheese and SPC’s Baked Beans and Spaghetti.

Mary’s career-defining work came at Lion (now Bega) where she led marketing for White Milk before taking charge of Spreads and Water Ice in her current role as head of marketing. In these roles, she was instrumental in driving growth back into two of Australia’s most iconic legacy brands, Dairy Farmers and now Vegemite. Repositioning them with bold strategies that sets them up to sustainable, long-term growth. Combining consumer insight with strategic vision, Mary has transformed brands at scale while remaining deeply connected to the people they serve. Mary is an experienced digital storyteller, she believes the best social media marketing succeeds by understanding people first—and letting platforms follow.

During her time as Brand and Marketing Manager for New Zealand Police, Jess Bovey helped shape one of the most distinctive public-sector brands in Aotearoa. With her rare combination of sharp instinct, humour and a genuine understanding of platform and audience, she created ongoing social engagement and long-term goodwill.

In her new role as Head of Social at Special PR, Jess continues her ambition to do something different with social – and shows how creative risk-taking, real people and cultural timing drive results when the lines between earned, owned and social blur.

Drawing on her time at NZ Police mixed in with examples from Special PR’s most recent work, Jess will discuss:

• Creating shareable, talked-about social moments

• Showing your brand’s personality with behind-the-scenes content

• When humour works, when it doesn’t, and how to switch tone without breaking trust.

About Jess

Jess Bovey has spent more than 20 years in social media and is currently the Head of Social at Special New Zealand.

Previously, in her role as Brand & Marketing Manager at New Zealand Police, she led Police’s social media response to major national events including the March 15 terrorist attacks, the Whakaari / White Island eruption, COVID-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle, building a trusted, human voice under intense public scrutiny.

Under her leadership, Police’s channels have grown to more than 2.8 million followers. She’s known for sharp social instincts, smart risk-taking, and introducing #fridayfloof. Jess has  proven that even the most serious brands can earn attention (and affection) when they understand the platform and their audience.

Jess leads teams across social, marketing, recruitment, TV, design and video and firmly believes the best social strategy is brave, human and a little bit bold.

In a world obsessed with short-term metrics and instant visibility, the most powerful brands are built through sustained presence, emotional connection, and strategic patience. This talk explores what it really takes to build a brand that lasts - and why the brands that endure don't just show up in market, they become part of the places and communities where people actually live.

The launch of One New Zealand Stadium shows that venues like stadiums are far more than event spaces. From the energy of a crowd to the memory of a moment, stadiums create the kind of cultural imprint that no digital campaign can replicate.

This is a talk for brand leaders thinking beyond the campaign cycle and asking bigger questions about where their brand stands in five, ten, twenty years.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to think in brand time horizons - shifting your strategy from campaign thinking to long-term equity

• Why the brands winning in ten years are making decisions today that won't pay off until tomorrow - and how to build that discipline into your strategy

• Why your next big national opportunity might start in the regions

• How live shared moments can create emotional memory- and why that matters for how people feel about your brand long after they've left the stands.

About Susannah

Susannah was instrumental in guiding Vodafone’s evolution into One New Zealand, leading the team at the heart of one of the country’s most significant brand transformations. With over two decades of experience in brand and marketing—half of that immersed in the fast-moving world of telecommunications and digital services—she brings a sharp strategic lens and deep industry expertise.

Susannah is known for building high-performing teams and cultivating a values-led culture where people thrive. She’s a firm believer that long-term success starts with a relentless focus on the customer. 

In a world obsessed with short-term metrics and instant visibility, the most powerful brands are built through sustained presence, emotional connection, and strategic patience. This talk explores what it really takes to build a brand that lasts - and why the brands that endure don't just show up in market, they become part of the places and communities where people actually live.

The launch of One New Zealand Stadium shows that venues like stadiums are far more than event spaces. From the energy of a crowd to the memory of a moment, stadiums create the kind of cultural imprint that no digital campaign can replicate.

This is a talk for brand leaders thinking beyond the campaign cycle and asking bigger questions about where their brand stands in five, ten, twenty years.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to think in brand time horizons - shifting your strategy from campaign thinking to long-term equity

• Why the brands winning in ten years are making decisions today that won't pay off until tomorrow - and how to build that discipline into your strategy

• Why your next big national opportunity might start in the regions

• How live shared moments can create emotional memory- and why that matters for how people feel about your brand long after they've left the stands.

About Georgia

Before One NZ Georgia worked for a decade at VCCP helping the likes of T-Mobile, O2, easyJet, Google, Sonos, and Transport for London challenge the category or themselves.  She is a passionate and proud kiwi, who feels incredibly lucky to work with an awesome team every single day.

Every June 1, thousands of dairy farmers simultaneously relocate herds, families and businesses - and somewhere in that chaos, they also need to switch power providers. Known as "Moving Day," this date represents Meridian’s most significant commercial risk – but in 2025, the team turned this into a commercial reset.

Hear how Meridian Energy used disruptive creativity, precision targeting and behavioural insight to turn an overlooked admin task into a standout customer experience.

From the “Trojan Cow” creative platform to digitally led onboarding and high-attention media strategy, this session explores how marketers can cut through when audiences are overwhelmed, distracted and short on time - without relying on heavy discounting.

• Use creativity to interrupt stress and become the easiest brand to choose

• Replace mass reach with high-attention placements in trusted environments

• Build digital journeys around real customer behaviour, not assumptions

• Align marketing, sales and CX teams around one commercial growth goal.

About Shaun

Shaun is a senior marketer with a strong orientation toward strategic planning and creativity. A believer in marketing as a competitive advantage, he brings more than 12 years of experience delivering award-winning marketing projects across a mix of locally loved and internationally recognised brands.

Currently serving as Senior Go-To-Market Manager at Meridian Energy, Shaun previously worked with the Energy Innovation team to deliver new propositions to market. Prior to moving client-side, he built a successful track record in agency client services, guiding clients and internal teams through strategy, brand development, creative campaigns, media, and website projects.