“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 has spent more than 20 years in social media and is the leading voice in government social media balancing garnering engagement with reputation building and driving behavioural change.

Jess joins Special from New Zealand Police, where she shaped one of New Zealand's most distinctive, popular and talked about public-sector social presences. Under her leadership, the Police’s channels have grown to over 2.8 million – a following built on a rare combination of sharp instinct, humour and a genuine understanding of platform and audience.

She has 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 strategy, execution, design and production and firmly believes the best social strategy is brave, human and a little bit bold.

Jess is a regular speaker at social marketing conferences. She led the New Zealand Police to be named Marketing and Communications Team of the Year in 2026, and Jess was named Social Media Marketer of the Year in 2021.

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.

In the last 12 months, Christchurch has transformed with a revitalised central city and a renewed sense of identity. This session unpacks how ChristchurchNZ's marketing, brand and comms team leveraged this moment for measurable growth and shares key lessons for other marketers.

Hear how the ‘Winter Different’ campaign beat targets in the Australian low season and is now scaling into Discover Different for 2026, and ‘Made for It’, which shifted the city's positioning from gateway to leading destination. 

Behind both sits a bigger story: equipping stakeholders with practical tools to move from fragmented storytelling to one cohesive city-wide voice, and marketing's case for itself as a driver of growth, not a downstream function.

What you’ll learn: 

• Ride the moment, don't just report on it - real city or brand transformation creates a window; marketing's job is to convert it into measurable growth.
• Co-designed beats top-down - cross-team and regional collaboration was what let Winter Different exceed expectations. 
• Consistency scales - arming stakeholders with practical tools and assets turns one team's story into a whole city's voice, without needing everyone to be a marketer. 
• Position marketing as growth infrastructure, not support - the strongest argument for budget and influence is proof that marketing drove visitor growth, brand strength, and resident pride, not just awareness.

About Dan

Dan Terris is Head of Marketing & Brand at ChristchurchNZ and a marketing leader with more than 20 years’ experience across the public and private sectors. He leads the implementation of Christchurch’s city narrative and place brand, helping shape how the city is positioned to residents, visitors, investors and talent.

Dan has led the marketing and branding of major civic assets including He Puna Taimoana and Tūranga Central Library, and delivered marketing activity for international events such as Rugby World Cup 2011 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

He is passionate about place branding, collaboration and creating positive community impact.

In the last 12 months, Christchurch has transformed with a revitalised central city and a renewed sense of identity. This session unpacks how ChristchurchNZ's marketing, brand and comms team leveraged this moment for measurable growth and shares key lessons for other marketers.

Hear how the ‘Winter Different’ campaign beat targets in the Australian low season and is now scaling into Discover Different for 2026, and ‘Made for It’, which shifted the city's positioning from gateway to leading destination. 

Behind both sits a bigger story: equipping stakeholders with practical tools to move from fragmented storytelling to one cohesive city-wide voice, and marketing's case for itself as a driver of growth, not a downstream function.

What you’ll learn: 

• Ride the moment, don't just report on it - real city or brand transformation creates a window; marketing's job is to convert it into measurable growth.
• Co-designed beats top-down - cross-team and regional collaboration was what let Winter Different exceed expectations. 
• Consistency scales - arming stakeholders with practical tools and assets turns one team's story into a whole city's voice, without needing everyone to be a marketer. 
• Position marketing as growth infrastructure, not support - the strongest argument for budget and influence is proof that marketing drove visitor growth, brand strength, and resident pride, not just awareness.

About Steve

Steve Backe-Hansen is ChristchurchNZ’s General Manager of Marketing, Brand and Communications. He leads a team of communication, marketing and digital professionals to curate, promote and market the city’s story. Together with his team, he strives to solidify the brand of both ChristchurchNZ and Christchurch City, ensures stakeholders are well informed, and sells the dream of Ōtautahi Christchurch through marketing campaigns and activity.

“It is an absolute privilege to be in a role that plays a part in changing perceptions of our beautiful city. My goal is to get others across New Zealand and abroad to see just how amazing Ōtautahi Christchurch really is!"

Steve has worked across a number of sectors ranging from private to tertiary and local government. He has held various positions including strategic and tactical marketing, digital and e-commerce and customer experience.

Your CE forwards you a LinkedIn post: "SEO is dead. It's all GEO now." But an agency article says GEO is nothing but SEO dressed up while a new software tool promises 'AI visibility' and AEO recommendations at a premium. 

AI acronyms have multiplied faster than the answers. SEO, GEO, AEO, AI SEO: some of it overlaps, some of it is genuinely a different beast, and almost nobody will tell you which is which. Still, as the marketing manager, everyone expects you to know and decide. It’s your name on the tin. 

In plain human-speak, but without oversimplifying - because this is complicated – this practical, myth-busting session will untangle where these disciplines overlap, where they split, which deserve your time and budget right now, and which you can ignore without losing (too much) sleep. 

There are no big-budget case studies here, but rather real examples and learnings from South Island B2C and B2B businesses that have seen significant AI search traction. 

You'll leave with:

• A plain-English 'workable' map of SEO, GEO and AEO in 2026 (and beyond): what each one actually does, and where the overlap ends
• A 'reasonably' straight answer on which deserve budget for a medium sized business, and what you can ignore for now
• Real South Island examples at realistic budgets: the challenge, the fix, what changed
• The ability to explain the difference to your CE or exec team without blinking

About Santosh

Santosh is the CEO of Ridiculous Digital, Ōtautahi's beloved and 'ridiculously' technically advanced digital agency building rocket ships for Aoteroa's businesses and organisations. A strategist, entrepreneur, and aircraft design engineer turned digital strategist, Santosh has been in marketing, tech, digital, and advertising for over 16 years. His agency, Ridiculous, was one of the fastest in New Zealand to achieve Google Partner status and manages digital and AI strategy and execution for some of New Zealand’s most respected organisations, businesses, and institutions.

A sought-after speaker who's presented at the Marketing Association's Brainy Breakfasts and Digital Day Out Conference, and other international conferences in the past, Santosh tackles marketing's tough questions in his LinkedIn posts. He has a knack for explaining complicated concepts to people in a way that they come out of the 'too-hard' basket.

When he is not in front of a screen, or knee deep in strategy, he is either paragliding, motorcycling, or serving his two Burmese feline masters!