Andy Lark is a globally recognised and awarded marketer and leader in social and digital technologies. For the past two decades, he has worked alongside CEOs and their leadership teams to define – and then attain – digital and brand greatness for their institutions.

During his career he has worked and lived in the majority of the world’s major markets and developed a reputation as a highly creative executive, marketing turn-around specialist, entrepreneur and authority on social media. He is a prolific writer, blogger and speaker on marketing, technology and Web 2.0.

Andy is the chief marketing officer the Foxtel and Chair of Group Lark as well as Simple the Marketing Performance Platform. Prior to being appointed to Foxtel, he held the positions of chief marketing officer of New Zealand technology company Xero and Chief Marketing and Online Officer for Australia’s leading financial institution, the Commonwealth Bank.

He previously held senior positions at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Dell, LogLogic, Sun Microsystems, Nortel Networks and Fleishman-Hillard International.

Varun Verma, L'Oréal Australia and New Zealand Chief Data Analytics Officer, 40 under 40 Data Scientist 2024 and Top AI and Data Analytics Leader of the Year joins us to talk about the data-driven transformation at L'Oréal.

He will share how he is bringing a stronger and more collaborative data culture into the organisation and embracing new ways of working with AI and ML. We will hear how L'Oréal is democratising access to data and insights, and how data is helping shape the future of the business.

In his talk, Varun will cover:

• Why data democratisation starts with understanding the right business objectives.
• Getting the rest of the company to start consuming data for the purpose of decision making.
• Finding out what is relevant for different profiles and personas.
• Data curiosity + agility – and the challenges of changing mindsets.
• Our data ecosystem and how AI is helping us overcome data silos.
• Successful use cases: How L'Oréal is using data and AI in marketing.

Once complete in 2026, Te Kaha – One New Zealand Stadium will be one of Aotearoa’s largest events venues, with stadium seating for over 30,000 and flexible spaces to host all kinds of events. 

Get ready for an engaging chat between Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge, Venues Ōtautahi CEO Caroline Harvie-Teare and Plato CEO Nick Harvey.

Through a mix of directed questions, open discussion and audience Q&A, they’ll cover their commercial partnership and look at:

• Innovation at the intersection of sport, venues, and brand
• The cultural and economic impact – using the home of the Crusaders as a platform to promote Christchurch
  Communicating the narrative behind the stadium’s construction
• How to leverage commercial partnerships for mutual growth.

About Caroline

Caroline is the Chief Executive of Venues Ōtautahi. Venues Ōtautahi own the Christchurch Town Hall and Wolfbrook Arena and manage Apollo Projects Stadium, Hagley Oval, the Airforce Museum of New Zealand and One New Zealand Stadium, Canterbury’s new Stadium due to open in April 2026. Caroline joined Venues Ōtautahi as Chief Executive in May 2020.

Prior to this Caroline held senior executive leadership positions across a range of disciplines at Christchurch International Airport, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, Vbase and PGG Wrightson.

Caroline is a born and bred Cantabrian and feels privileged to play a role in looking after the city’s most iconic assets on behalf of the community.

Once complete in 2026, Te Kaha – One New Zealand Stadium will be one of Aotearoa’s largest events venues, with stadium seating for over 30,000 and flexible spaces to host all kinds of events. 

Get ready for an engaging chat between Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge, Venues Ōtautahi CEO Caroline Harvie-Teare and Plato CEO Nick Harvey.

Through a mix of directed questions, open discussion and audience Q&A, they’ll cover their commercial partnership and look at:

• Innovation at the intersection of sport, venues, and brand
• The cultural and economic impact – using the home of the Crusaders as a platform to promote Christchurch
  Communicating the narrative behind the stadium’s construction
• How to leverage commercial partnerships for mutual growth.

About Colin

Colin is CEO at the Crusaders, Australasia’s most successful professional sporting franchise in the last 25 years and arguably best professional rugby club in the world. Colin’s a Crusaders tragic but prior to joining them was Head of Agribusiness for BNZ, working with the bank and its customers on how to progress in a world with more discerning and demanding consumers and less natural resources.

Colin’s worked in banking, particularly strategy and leadership, in the UK, Australia, SE Asia and NZ. Colin’s best learning has come from learning to communicate on the Board of an overseas listed Bank where English was not the spoken language. 

Discover how AJ Hackett Bungy NZ transformed their team from day-to-day Crew members to social media content creators.
This session delves into AJ Hackett's Creator Programme, a scalable solution that enables Crew to produce engaging social media content, significantly boosting reach and engagement.

Learn about the strategies, successes, and the benefits of harnessing internal talent to drive our social media presence.

About Heather

Heather Cosentino is a digital native with over a decade of experience in social media, content strategy, and ecommerce.

As the Digital Marketing Manager for AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand, Heather has led the creation of AJ Hackett's Creator Programme - a first of its kind. 

Once complete in 2026, Te Kaha – One New Zealand Stadium will be one of Aotearoa’s largest events venues, with stadium seating for over 30,000 and flexible spaces to host all kinds of events. 

Get ready for an engaging chat between Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge, Venues Ōtautahi CEO Caroline Harvie-Teare and Plato CEO Nick Harvey.

Through a mix of directed questions, open discussion and audience Q&A, they’ll cover their commercial partnership and look at:

• Innovation at the intersection of sport, venues, and brand
• The cultural and economic impact – using the home of the Crusaders as a platform to promote Christchurch
  Communicating the narrative behind the stadium’s construction
• How to leverage commercial partnerships for mutual growth.

About Nick

Nick Harvey is the CEO of Plato, the South Island's largest creative agency. With two decades of international brand expertise. He’s passionate about creating highly productive working environments that result in outstanding creative and strategic work. His approach is simple and transparent and, most importantly, it’s driven by an obsessive desire to consistently exceed client expectations.

Nick prides himself in creating strong team cultures and ongoing client relationships both based on a shared common vision. More than just overseeing the day-to-day work execution, Nick’s aim is to grow the Plato brand, reinforce the Plato vision, and empower its team to create truly exceptional work.

Nelson cult brand Proper Crisps will share a fascinating story of dealing with the unexpected.

Find out how the brand turned the impact of adverse weather events into an opportunity to not only support local producers, but also to cement their brand’s purpose and position as a truly local NZ brand. 

Cyclone Gabrielle left Proper Crisps without one of their top selling SKUs after wiping out all their kumara crops in Northland. Brand Manager Hayley Lewis will share how they pivoted quickly to hold their shelf space, managed through disruption, and relaunched the product with an emotional campaign earlier this year.

About Hayley

Hayley joined the Proper Crisps team in 2023 after 5 years self-employment; exploring the ups and downs of hospitality. Hayley and her husband, opened a small suburban café in 2020 and then two years later chose to also purchase and renovate a small motel in Nelson.  
 
Prior to this she specialised in loyalty marketing combining her creativity with her interest in analytics and reporting. In her current role with Proper Crisps she wears many hats looking after all marketing activity for New Zealand and Australia as well as leading new product development for the premium crisp brand.

Colenso BBDO New Zealand stole the spotlight at Cannes 2024 with its Adoptable campaign, setting a new benchmark for creative AI innovation in marketing. 
 
Worldwide, 12 million dogs are in shelters waiting for their forever home. Pedigree has been supporting dog adoption for nearly two decades. Now, thanks to AI and machine learning, that support can reach a scale that was previously unfeasible.
 
The Cannes Lions Grand Prix winning ‘Adoptable’ campaign used a first-of-its-kind machine-learning model to create personalised ads featuring real dogs from local shelters. Using geotargeting and first-party data from social media profiles, it matches potential pet owners with adoptable dogs and turns every Pedigree ad into an ad for a shelter dog. 
 
Colenso BBDO Chief Creative Officer, Simon Vicars, joins us at Marketing South 2024 to show how AI can amplify the reach, effectiveness and social impact of creative ideas.

About Simon

Simon is New Zealand’s most globally awarded Creative. His 16 year career started in Aotearoa and then took him to London, where he led Virgin Media, Mars petcare, and adidas football at the global hotshop adam & eve DDB.

His work has won Grand Prixs in effectiveness and creativity, and has resulted in two people getting tattoos. He is currently Chief Creative Officer at Colenso BBDO.

The second-to-last session of a full-day conference. By this point, you might be starting to feel like you’re in the middle of a marathon.

Brett Colliver, Chief Creative Officer at dentsu, will share the story of ‘Aid Aisle’, a supermarket aisle placed 50km into one of the toughest and most remote ultramarathons in the world – South Island’s Kepler Challenge.

The ‘Aid Aisle’ was stocked with everything runners needed, so Brett’s presentation will be stocked with everything marketers need.

• How ‘Aid Aisle’ reinforced FreshChoice's new brand platform, 'That’s Shopping Different’
• Reimagining sponsorship: lessons from the year’s most talked about brand experience
• Making each touchpoint count
• Amplifying the activation through media and social
• The results
• Plus a little something to get you to the conference finish line.

About Brett

Brett is Chief Creative Officer at dentsu. With an extensive background across the advertising landscape, he’s worked on a wide mix of clients that range from beer to banking, across New Zealand, Australia and the US.

His work has seen him and his clients awarded at the highest levels, including a Black Pencil at D&AD, a Titanium Lion and Grand Prix at Cannes, and the Grand Effie and Sustained Effectiveness award at the New Zealand Effies.

In a rather busy first 12 months at dentsu he’s been part of developing new brand platforms for Pizza Hut, nib, and Tegel. And in June the agency – and the Woolworths Group – won their first ever Cannes Lions for FreshChoice’s ‘Aid Aisle’.

About Rob

The ZURU Group is one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive companies in the world.

Rob is ZURUs Head of Digital — a marketing expert with 15 years of experience in building and transforming global brands for the modern world.

A sought-after speaker and thought leader, Rob is passionate about harnessing the power of data to build and execute impactful ZURU Toys and FMCG brands that stand out (and work hard!) in an ever-evolving media landscape.

Rob leads the global digital and data agenda across all of The ZURU Group: FMCG & Toys.

Shane has 20+ years leading brand, data, and digital transformation strategies in the UK, Australia and NZ.  His passion lies in creating strategic brand platforms to drive growth and innovation.

His career began in Melbourne, where he joined the Australia Post grad programme from Otago University. After a stint travelling and working on construction sites, he spent three years freelancing in creative agencies in London. This led to a great role on the global rebrand of Aviva before he headed home to NZ to lead the marketing for ASB.

Shane counts himself fortunate to have received 150+ creative awards for the work he has been involved with, including recognition as NZ's Marketer of the Year in 2021.
In May 2022, he joined the SBS Group as Chief Transformation Officer (strategy, product, data, brand, payments, digital, engineering, architecture, delivery) to help drive an ambitious growth plan and to bring his family back to his home town of Invercargill.