The Marketing Association interviewed Haley Featonby, the Marketing Manager - Brand & Creative at 2degrees and a participant in the 2024 Advanced Marketing Leadership Programme (AML). In the interview, Haley shares her extensive 15-year career in marketing, her enriching experiences during the AML programme, and her thoughts on leadership and the future of marketing.

Read the interview to gain insights into her journey, the valuable lessons she learned from the AML, and her vision for the evolving marketing landscape.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your career – how did you get to where you are today?

Hi, I'm Haley. Based in Auckland, I'm a marketing leader with 15 years of experience in brand strategy, campaign management, sponsorship, and media with iconic Kiwi companies like Stuff and 2degrees. I’m passionate about creative problem-solving and enjoy tackling challenges in innovative ways. In my career I've had a few highlights from launching new products, creating a reality TV show, collaborating with a UK Grime artist on online safety for kids, and delivering cheeky campaigns with everyone's favourite emojis. Currently I lead the Brand & Creative team at 2degrees overseeing brand management, content, copywriting, social media, and our internal design studio.

2. What made you want to sign up to the MA’s Advanced Marketing Leadership Programme?

I signed up for the Advanced Marketing Leadership Programme to enhance my strategic thinking and leadership skills in our fast paced marketing landscape. I was really impressed with the focus the programme put on learning directly from an incredible selection of industry experts, and it's rare you get the opportunity to have NZ's top CMO's in one place sharing their experiences with you while having the ability to ask any burning questions that can help you directly with your career. The opportunity for networking with fellow marketing leaders was also invaluable, I've made some amazing connections across a wide range of industries and skill sets.

3. Now that the programme is finished, looking back what were some stand-out highlights to you, and why?

It's hard to pick a stand out! One highlight for me was being able to take a break from my very busy day job, to spend some time focused on my development in a hands on way. The access we had to people like Dr Peter Wilton from UC Berkeley where we had engaging and thought provoking discussion on value disruption was priceless, and the skills I've learnt across a range of the workshops like Critical Thinking  with Carl Davidson, Influencing using Behavioural Science with Colleen Ryan and Presenting to Boards with Miriam Chancellor all gave me immediate skills that I've been able to apply to my work and my team.

4. What’s the best or most surprising thing you’ve learnt during Advanced Marketing Leadership?

One of the more commons themes that came out of the programme was as marketing leaders, we need to get up close and personal to drive influence with the CFO. Most CMO's on the panel across the programme drilled into the importance of this, and it was a great reminder that we should be constantly talking about the value of marketing right across our executive teams. We took away practical tips on how to do this authentically, to get the most value out of the relationships we build.

5. Tell us about the group project, you were essentially put with 4 other individuals, and you had to work together to come up with a full business plan for a charity. What were the highs and lows?

While it was tricky to manage our workloads along with a busy group project that required quite a bit of out of hours work, it was an amazing experience to work alongside a group of incredibly talented people all from different industries and experiences. Our group worked really well together, and we were proud of delivering a creative way of rethinking charity donations for Westpac Rescue which was deeply rooted in insight - we didn't quite take the win but came in close second which we were happy about!

6. Advanced marketing Leadership programme includes a lot of lessons on leadership. What do you personally think are the top leadership qualities someone could have, and why?

It was interesting to reframe our thinking of leadership into our technical careers and our leadership careers, and how to think about our development in each individually. As a leader I think the top qualities needed in todays environment are accountability, adaptability and a clear vision to help our teams thrive. It's also important to me to have empathy to build strong relationships and create a supportive and fun work environment where innovation thrives.

7. Where do you see marketing heading in the future? What big things will change (if any)?

We can't ignore the impact of the rapidly changing environment of AI, and I see it as an exciting opportunity to learn how we can enable hyper personalisation, enhance our customer experiences and use tools to scale content and creative. It is important however to remain sceptical as these are still such emerging technologies, and acknowledge challenges around privacy, algorithmic bias and quality of data.

8. Would you recommend other marketers to participate in Advanced Marketing Leadership?

Without a doubt. The programme gave me a real mix of hands on learning with skills I can immediately implement, inspirational lessons from NZ's top CMOs and some incredible international talent that we were lucky to engage with. Being part of the cohort is also a huge part of the experience - everyone is so engaged, supportive and fun so it's inspiring being surrounded by such a talented group of marketers.

9. Your favourite quote in life:

A great quote is from Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. 'This resonates with me because I feel strongly that the biggest driver in my career has been my ambition to always put my hand up for new opportunities, push myself into hard challenges, and not waiting for things to fall into place.

Source: Haley Featonby, 19 July 2024