Brands have to stay humble, stay hungry and stay relevant - so what does this mean for brands with decades of legacy to their name that have failed to move with culture? How do you balance the sacredness of brand DNA with the need to innovate to create cultural capital?

Lion’s Chief Growth Officer, Anubha Sahasrabuddhe, will discuss why innovation in the context of iconic brands such as Lion’s XXXX beer brand, begins with curiosity and then requires courage and conviction - in spades.

• Understanding the cultural context in which your brand is operating.
• How is your brand showing up?
• Sustainability, diversity, advocacy: What do you give a XXXX about?
• Market like you give a damn.

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About Anubha

Anubha Sahasrabuddhe is a global consumer leader having led some of the world’s most loved brands from Coca-Cola and M&M’s through to Australian icons like Toohey’s and XXXX. Anubha has extensive experience cross-culturally in both emerging as well as developed markets with a high speed of change and volatility.

After more than 20 years away from her native Australia, in 2021 Anubha joined Lion Beverages as CMO and has recently taken on the role of CGO bringing strategy, consumer brands, ventures, data, analytics, and core technology together to drive growth.

Prior to joining Lion, Anubha held senior leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company and Mars Wrigley.

Anubha’s passion is business transformation through a creative, cultural, and technology lens and she has a track record of leading turnaround businesses through a consumer-led growth agenda and building high-performing diverse teams.

75% of Australian business owners believe that Australia has a negative culture of cutting down successful people, businesses, and entrepreneurs – commonly referred to as ‘tall poppy syndrome’.

How do you encourage big thinking, taking risks, and being creative in a culture designed to cut you down.  Using ‘tall poppy’ the work created with CGU Insurance (part of IAG), a wildly ambitious creative campaign, Adam will share how to change the narrative and encourage big thinking.  

Tall poppy was created with the Jim Henson Company (creators of The Muppets and one of the best storytellers in the world) for a short film, created Australia’s first 3D full motion billboard, and pushed the boundaries with both their social and media approach.

We are delighted to have Adam Ferrier founder of Thinkerbell join us to take us behind the scenes of ‘Tall Poppy work and other big ideas that have broken through the poppy ceiling.

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About Adam

Adam is one of Australia's leading creative strategists, and a consumer psychologist. Adam began work life as a criminal psychologist, before becoming a cool hunter (and completing his masters in psychology in ‘Identifying the Underlying Constructs of Cool People’) and then co-founding Naked Communications APAC. Naked was a wild trip and became one of Australia’s most audacious and successful agencies, embracing a strategically focused behavioural change model.

Following that, Adam co-founded Thinkerbell - where they practices 'Measured Magic' - bringing together marketing science and hardcore creativity. After just 3 years Thinkerbell was officially recognised as Mumbrella’s 2021 Creative, Full Service, and PR Agency of the Year - the first time one agency has won all three awards, and is the 2021 B&T PR Agency of The Year
 
In other news Adam is also the author of two books “The Advertising Effect” (Oxford), and 'Stop Listening to the Customer' (Wiley). Adam co-hosts the potentially multi-awarding winning podcast ‘Black T-Shirts’, and is a regular media commentator on Sunrise and The Project (and served his time on the panel of Gruen for 6 years). Adam is married to Anna and has two sons Asterix and Arturo (like the Kardashians but with an ‘A’).

The Australian Federal Government took a leap of faith in recent offshore marketing efforts. And reaped huge reward.

Clint Bratton, a returning Kiwi marketer and architect of the campaign, will share how digital media, personalised messaging and a tailored customer experience exposed Australia to a targeted audience of 200-million people and drove more than 90-million digital interactions.

The raw numbers of this campaign are staggering. But with success, came some unintended consequences.

• The campaign was subject to political interference claims from foreign governments.
• The platform was the subject of government cyber-intelligence investigations
• The social impact of huge audiences from specific markets drove political debate; and
• The downstream impacts contributed to the current Australian housing crisis.

All of NZ Enterprise and Government can learn from this example.

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About Clint

Clint is a proud Kiwi marketer fixated on creative use of data to power more effective marketing. He introduced email marketing to NZ, invented Virtual Rugby, built NZ’s first mobile website and once sent 2-metre fenceposts to farmers - and called it direct mail.

During the past 20-years in Australia he’s automated sales processes for the largest residential property developer, designed customer programs for quick service restaurants and invented Australia’s biggest fuel loyalty program – from scratch. He’s back in NZ to help local businesses drive more capability.

27% of our population were born overseas. For brands, first and second-generation New Zealanders are a significant group of audiences. But how well do you know them? And how well are you meeting their needs?

TRA’s in-depth research study has gained a more nuanced understanding of the unique cultural mindset of these New Zealanders. We know that this is a group who want to feel they belong without losing their cultural roots – yet many brands are failing to empathise with and understand this experience.

First and second-generation New Zealanders will play a significant role in our country's economic future, not just as customers but also as employees. This workshop will explore this group's experiences, helping marketers understand how to listen, speak, and deliver authentic brand narratives to them in a way that resonates.

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About Colleen

With a strategic and curious mindset shaped by over 40 years of experience across Europe, North America, and APAC countries, Colleen is a pioneering force in the field of insights and planning. As the founder of TRBI, an international research and strategy agency based in the UK, Colleen championed the implementation of insights to guide creative and innovative strategies for clients.

Today, at TRA, Colleen leverages advancements in knowledge across multiple disciplines including cultural sociology, social psychology, behavioural science, and cultural analysis to bring breakthrough insights to bear on brand strategy, creative development, and customer centricity.

Her work helps clients achieve their goals by developing strategies that truly resonate with their audiences.

Spark NZ was an early adopter of AI and continues to lean into AI innovation. With a stated purpose to help all New Zealanders win big in digital world, the team at Spark NZ is committed to democratising access to AI knowledge and helping smaller organisations accelerate the uptake of this new technology.

Spark NZ’s Director of Marketing and Data, Matt Bain, is widely regarded as one of NZ’s most knowledgeable marketers when it comes to AI. He will discuss the latest developments in AI, the innovative work Spark NZ has been doing in this space, and lessons from Spark’s multi-award-winning Made For You Review campaign.

• Leaning into AI disruption responsibly.
• Using AI and ML to achieve personalised marketing and comms at scale.
• Improving conversions by only showing up in the moments that matter.
• Putting data-driven insights into the hands of the consumer
• Taking friction of customer experiences.

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About Matt

As Marketing Director, Matt is responsible for Sparks Brand Experience, Experience optimisation, Marketing, and data analytics teams at Spark, and Qrious – Sparks Data Analytics consultancy.

Matt was previously based in Amsterdam as European Managing Director for agency AKQA – one of the world’s leading innovation and brand experience agencies, with responsibility for 700+ consultants and makers across five countries.

Over a 24-year career Matt has built an impeccable international reputation with some of the world’s greatest brands – Nike, Heineken, Mini, Rolls Royce, Siemens, EA Sports, Audi, Phillips, Tommy Hilfiger and KLM amongst others.

People equate the need for blood with national emergencies, natural disasters, mass shootings or other cataclysmic events. But NZ Blood face the equivalent need of these events every day - we just don’t see them. "Unseen Emergencies" woke New Zealanders up to the fact that any person, any time, in any place, could be faced with a life-threatening situation that required blood – and they happen every hour, every day.  

This is the story of how reframing daily events as unseen emergencies created the largest donor jump in 5 years. The campaign was so successful that it was considered one of the most effective campaigns globally and shortlisted for a Global Effies ‘Best of the Best’.

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About Scott

Scott is a skilled creative leader with 20 years' experience working in North America, London and New Zealand.

The epitome of a modern creative at the intersection of story and tech, his work has been recognized globally for both its effectiveness and creativity. 

From product recalls, to floods, power outages, bomb threats, racism and sexism, crisis management on social media is no joke. Find out what your brand should do differently when communicating across social media and why it’s time to change up the traditional comms approach to put the community at the centre.

Thompson Spencer’s Community Management team worked with Auckland Airport, New World, IAG and Counties Energy during last year's floods and Cyclone Gabrielle and join us to share some very real lessons on brand risk, comment moderation, and social listening.  

This is not a press release posted up on social media. This is real expertise at knowing how to humanise communication on social media when s*it hits the fan and before things get out of control.

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About Melanie

Melanie has had nearly 20 years’ experience as a senior marketer in Sydney and Auckland with heavyweight clients in retail, property, banking, FMCG, food & beverage, aviation and fashion.

Thompson Spencer help organisations thrive in this dynamic digital world and do this by using social media to bring a brand’s DNA to life, creating loyal customers, communities and driving commercial outcomes.

27% of our population were born overseas. For brands, first and second-generation New Zealanders are a significant group of audiences. But how well do you know them? And how well are you meeting their needs?

TRA’s in-depth research study has gained a more nuanced understanding of the unique cultural mindset of these New Zealanders. We know that this is a group who want to feel they belong without losing their cultural roots – yet many brands are failing to empathise with and understand this experience.

First and second-generation New Zealanders will play a significant role in our country's economic future, not just as customers but also as employees. This workshop will explore this group's experiences, helping marketers understand how to listen, speak, and deliver authentic brand narratives to them in a way that resonates.

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About Karin

Karin has over 25 years of experience solving problems for businesses. She has a background in innovation, research, and change management.

Her skills have been honed at prestigious communications agencies as well as companies like Lion and Nestle where she has held senior roles in strategy, innovation and planning.

ANZ is well-known for its customer-centric, data-led approach to marketing. Brooke is part of the team that is driving the innovative and disruptive work happening behind the scenes to make this happen. As Personalisation Program Lead, she focuses on the organisational change and capabilities needed to deliver relevant one-to-one engagement with the bank’s customers in ways that meet their customer care guidelines. 

She joins us to share how they are building the capabilities that will underpin data driven marketing now and into the future. Brooke will show:

• A data revolution – start by focusing on the customer outcomes  
• Understanding your competitive advantage (and your constraints) 
• Marketing technology as an enabler not a distraction
• Transferable lessons for other organisations and sectors.

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About Brooke

Brooke is passionate about organisational transformation and understanding the technology that underpins marketing now and in the future.

At ANZ she works to increase the team’s data and technological capabilities, looking at what’s needed to get the change desired 
She has been with the bank for almost 9 years, working in roles across capability development, transformation, data, and personalisation. Prior to this, she worked as a Consultant for Deloitte and as a Researcher at Victoria University.

In 2023, Whānau Ora launched a campaign via Motion Sickness, to increase Census numbers, particularly from underrepresented communities in Tāmaki Makaurau. ‘Rep Your Suburb’ centres around community engagement and presence, emphasising the fact that you can’t be represented if you aren’t counted.

To connect people with their local pride, Motion Sickness created a bespoke pop-up store, decked out with exclusive merch for each area code — none of which were available or for sale anywhere else. The only way people could get a piece of gear and rep their suburb was by completing their Census form.

Kātene Durie-Doherty joins us to share the kaupapa of the campaign, the importance of kanohi ki te kanohi kōrero, and how it all ties in with the ‘by Māori, for Māori’ approach at the heart of Whānau Ora.

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About Kātene

Kātene holds multiple roles including Head of Māori Culture (Kaitaunaki Māori) at Motion Sickness advertising agency, Strategy Director of Whānau Ora, Vice President of the Designers Institute of New Zealand, and a parliamentary political advisor.

His endeavours are concentrated on the connection of Te Ao Māori into the fabric of brands and institutions across Aotearoa. With a transformative influence, Kātene orchestrates impactful campaigns resonating profoundly with both Māori and non-Māori communities, thereby fostering engagement and empowerment. In his capacity as Vice President of the Designers Institute of New Zealand, he champions creativity and design excellence on a global platform.

He strategically cultivates partnerships within diplomatic circles, propelling Māori innovation and indigenous leadership to international prominence. Noteworthy is the recent accolade bestowed upon the "Rep Your Suburb" initiative, which garnered 13 prestigious Axis Awards, including distinctions such as Client of the Year and Idea of the Year.

Come find yourself | Huraina tō mata 
Ko tēnei whenua, tōku kāinga | This land, my home

One of the key action areas identified in the Horowhenua 2040 Blueprint was to attract more visitors by creating a strong district identity. Adopted in May 2022, the Council set out to transform the brand narrative, and develop a visual identity that paid respect to Horowhenua’s enduring natural elements – the whenua. Part of the mission was to shed the old brand found to be culturally insensitive and a point of friction between Council, iwi partners and the community.

In this Fireside Chat with Lisa Campbell, Strategic Communications Manager at Horowhenua District Council, we will explore how they started from scratch, engaging meaningfully with iwi partners from the outset to uncover a unique cultural narrative, and the brand ‘tale’ that emerged as a brand beacon for tomorrow.

Come find yourself | Huraina tō mata 
Ko tēnei whenua, tōku kāinga | This land, my home

One of the key action areas identified in the Horowhenua 2040 Blueprint was to attract more visitors by creating a strong district identity. Adopted in May 2022, the Council set out to transform the brand narrative, and develop a visual identity that paid respect to Horowhenua’s enduring natural elements – the whenua. Part of the mission was to shed the old brand found to be culturally insensitive and a point of friction between Council, iwi partners and the community.

In this Fireside Chat with Lisa Campbell, Strategic Communications Manager at Horowhenua District Council, we will explore how they started from scratch, engaging meaningfully with iwi partners from the outset to uncover a unique cultural narrative, and the brand ‘tale’ that emerged as a brand beacon for tomorrow.

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About Lisa

For the last 20 years, Lisa has worked in marketing and communication roles across various industries.

A solo māmā to two beautiful girls and passionate community advocate, Lisa's current role as Horowhenua District Council's Strategic Communications Manager has allowed her to return back to her roots and serve the community that raised her.