When Kristy Rutherford stepped into the role of marketing director for Pernod Ricard ANZ in July 2023, the business was at a crossroads. Innovation was faltering, market share was slipping, and a siloed culture was stalling success. But where others saw a crisis, Rutherford saw opportunity. 

“Our team was overwhelmed with resource-heavy and inefficient work. This was driven by a culture built on silos - with separate reporting lines for Marketing, Trade marketing AU, NZ, digital, insights and media. We were also saying yes to every ‘opportunity’ and launching too many brands or campaigns without adequate plans to make them successful.” 

Her bold vision, “Do LESS to unleash our power and impact MORE”, has since redefined how Pernod Ricard approaches marketing across Australia and New Zealand. 

“When I became CMO, I spearheaded a new initiative called 'More IMPACT'. I set a dynamic vision: “To become the #1 marketing team in Australia & New Zealand, by doing less and impacting more”. The goal was to unleash the power already in our organisation by making decisions based on the impact they would have, not what everyone was used to doing, and through this transform our culture.”  

A standout example of its ‘More IMPACT’ approach was the powerful three-way partnership between St Hugo Wine, Daniel Ricciardo, and Dan Murphy’s.

“St Hugo has been releasing co-created wine with the F1 superstar since 2021. But in 2024/25, my team approached this differently using ‘MORE IMPACT.’ 

“Working seamlessly between the marketing, trade and sales teams, we pitched to Dan Murphy’s [the #1 wine retailer in Australia] to execute the ‘Greatest wine takeover in History’. They went for it – and we achieved never-before-seen integration between three brands. Dan Murphy’s re-named their stores ‘Dan Ricciardo’s’, and swapped Daniel’s face onto their iconic logo. 

“We had people flocking to stores to take photos, taste St Hugo, and then flood social media. We then surpassed this in 2025 by launching a new Rosé and re-naming the store ‘Dan Murphé’, then executing a social-first campaign featuring Daniel that garnered 6.6 million views, and +3,400 comments. We achieved 230 pieces of PR coverage representing 18.5 million in reach. Win-win-win.” 

Certainly, achieving the vision of ‘doing less and impacting more’ and achieving cultural change required re-imagining almost every process and inspiring people to think differently about decision-making, Rutherford admits. 

To bring the vision to life, she led the Marketing Leadership Team (MLT) in developing a strategic framework called ‘IMPACT More in ’24’. 

She introduced 10 core principles to drive sharper decision-making and cultural change across the business. These included challenging legacy thinking with ideas like the ‘Death of the 360 Wheel’ – focusing on fewer, high-impact initiatives instead of overloaded plans – and ‘One Great Is Better Than 50 Boring’, which encouraged standout content over high-volume, always-on activity. 

“To ensure the vision and principles embedded into the work, I then lead a monthly meeting called ‘More IMPACT’. The MLT presented inspiring topics relating to creativity and the 10 principles, and the team presented their work, demonstrating to their peers how they had employed the principles to create greater impact.   

Through a relentless focus on impact (over volume) we transformed into a culture focused on growth.   

This initiative has been transformative. We are now winning share in all four business segments. And we are delivering our most strategic and impactful work ever, even on legacy brands – a significant example is G.H.Mumm. We have been the champagne partner of the Melbourne Cup for fifteen years. 

In 2024 we managed to increase social/digital reach (a key indicator of growth) by +28% to 10.3 million assisted by the addition of a Vogue media partnership, better (& less) content creation and greater focus on facilitating User Generated Content.” 

Discerning decision making

Rutherford doesn’t believe that ‘doing less’ means playing it safe. In fact, her leadership is marked by knowing when to break the rules and go big.

At the heart of More IMPACT is the art of making strategic trade-offs. It’s not about doing less for the sake of it, it’s about doing less of what doesn’t matter and more of what truly moves the needle. As one of our guiding principles puts it: “Don’t be afraid to go ALL IN.” Sometimes the right call is to double down, back big ideas, and invest in work that actually gets noticed.

That mindset came to life with The Glenlivet. The brand had all the ingredients to win –strong margins, heritage, and a fresh global positioning (‘Live Original’) – and it was slated to be a major commercial focus. The problem? US-led comms hindered by the conservative tone of that market.

“But we are a more open society,” she says. “And the growth opportunity was too big for us to miss due to a lack of assets.” 

So, she made the call to brief a local agency, Emotive, for a bold, social-first campaign that spoke to Australian sensibilities. The result? Obey the Rules, Miss all the Fun – a punchy, progressive idea fronted by Oscar-winner Anna Paquin, designed to challenge whisky’s traditional rules. With lines like “Best enjoyed however the $#! you want”* and “Whisky doesn’t care what’s between your legs,” the campaign resonated powerfully with a new generation of drinkers.

It paid off. The Glenlivet surged – and more than doubled the category – and the campaign has now run for over three years.

“I am a huge advocate for maximising working dollars by using global assets on 90 per cent of occasions. However, you need to know when to step away from rules, be brave, and invest in creative. This experience has given me more confidence to be bolder in future decisions and drive this mindset with my team,” says Rutherford.

Business influence 

Rutherford will be the first to tell you: “Never waste a good crisis – or a good restructure.”

That mindset defined her first major act as CMO: Leading an initiative as a member of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). The task was clear but challenging: Reshape the marketing function for a more agile, fit-for-purpose future. But where others might have seen constraints, Rutherford saw a rare opportunity to rewire not just her department, but the wider business.

“I saw this as an incredible opportunity. I had the ability to shape the business and make us more efficient and agile, and it also gifted me a platform to establish myself as a new leader with a new agenda and accelerate the shifts that I was aiming to make to the team’s thinking,” she says. 

Her impact extended beyond marketing. “I influenced changes to cross-functional structures to make decision-making more agile and release tensions across teams. 

That change wasn’t just operational; it was cultural. It allowed two key principles of the company’s ‘IMPACT More in ‘24’ strategy to take root: “Create NZ plans as though you live there” – thanks to tighter trans-Tasman integration – and “Set budgets based on objective”, now possible with consolidated budget ownership.

Inside the marketing team, Rutherford removed unnecessary layers and redefined every role to be broader and more accountable. This eliminated the kind of “busywork” that can creep into under-optimised teams, and instead instilled a laser focus on work that truly moved the business forward. The changes were supported by the introduction of a unifying vision, ‘More IMPACT’, which helped her team rally around a clear purpose even as they adjusted to a leaner structure.

“Within marketing, I also removed layers and made every role bigger and more important. This reversed the behaviour of people filling their time with work whether it would have a business impact or not. Any reduction in headcount can be tough to adjust to, however I facilitated this transition by combining it with the launch of ‘More IMPACT’, demonstrating how the new vision and principles could make us more productive and successful, even though we had less people.” 

The results speak volumes. Despite the headcount reduction, productivity rose. So did morale. Just three months after the restructure, engagement scores had soared. 

“I’m most proud of that,” Rutherford says, proving that having people laser-focused on impact can drive business results. 

Data-driven decision making 

When asked, “Data or creative first?” Rutherford doesn’t hesitate: “Creative 100 per cent – the human brain responds to magic more than logic.” 

That said, she’s clear-eyed about the power of data. Behind the scenes, data-driven segmentation is enabling the business to punch well above its weight, ensuring every creative move is backed by precision targeting and insight.

“We don’t have the marketing budgets of the largest players, therefore if we can’t win at ‘Share of Investment’ we need to punch above our weight in ‘Share of Impact’ and ‘Share of Intelligence’.” 

As a result, she initiated a Usage & Attitudes study in 2024 on the Alcoholic Beverages sector. 

“The data segmented the market into ‘need states and occasions’ and determined the biggest growth opportunities over the next five years. This data has proven extremely powerful. It has given us one consistent data source that we are using across the business - from prioritisation and setting our three-year business strategy, to engaging external customers, and writing insights for our ‘Better Briefs’.” 

This highlights that one of the most powerful shifts under Rutherford’s leadership has been the move from brand-by-brand execution to a more strategic, data-led portfolio approach. By grouping brands based on shared consumer targets and need states, the business unlocked new levels of efficiency and creativity.

A standout example is its partnership with the ASB Classic, New Zealand’s premier international tennis tournament. Rather than investing in a single-brand activation, Rutherford led the negotiation and strategy behind a partnership that brought three brands – G.H.Mumm Champagne, Stoneleigh wine, and Altos tequila – under one integrated platform.

“These brands shared common target consumers, yet sat in different need states and could successfully activate against different occasions within the one platform. G.H.Mumm’s role [Discern needstate] was elevation celebration +  owning VIP spaces. Stoneleigh’s role [Bond & Connect] was enabling friends to connect and enjoy the tennis together. Altos [Release] got the Margarita’s flowing and brought fun vibes in the higher-energy section of the precinct.” 

She says it went beyond the event itself. “We leveraged the partnership to drive sales. One trade marketing budget, driving three brands instead of one, all powered by data and analytics.” 

Commercial delivery

Rutherford had an ambition to gain share from the big players while growing the category. 

It was a bold goal, given Jameson was the newcomer in a ready-to-drink (RTD) segment dominated by veterans like ‘Jack’ (Daniels), ‘Jim’ (Beam), and ‘Woody’ (Woodstock), each with a ~20-year head start. 

But rather than being daunted by the gap, Rutherford saw opportunity in focus, simplification, and smart, high-impact execution.

“We had spent years launching disjointed innovation that resulted in nine different products in market, with only 2 >80 per cent distribution. We needed to simplify to become more sophisticated.” 

Rutherford developed a new strategy, centred on doing three things extremely well for More IMPACT including: Simplified and differentiation brand architecture; building awareness through one platform (AFL); and leveraging its power as a culturally magnetic brand. 

Under the strategy, she streamlined the Jameson RTD range by de-listing five SKUs and focusing its efforts behind the top four, which represented 79 per cent of the opportunity. To secure shelf space, she introduced 4-packs, offering a lower RRP during the cost-of-living crunch while increasing margin per can. 

“This differentiated us and allowed us to sell at a lower RRP (but higher price/can) than competitors, which was appealing to retailers during the cost-of-living crisis. Boom – we were in.” 

At the same time, to build awareness and trial of the RTD, we went all-in on the AFL with a broadcast sponsorship and an MCG commercial partnership, allowing the team to sell and activate at games. The team also leaned into Jameson’s cultural cachet by getting branded merch onto the right people, turning fans into walking advocates and amplifying the brand’s presence on the street.

People leadership 

Rutherford knew that for ‘More IMPACT’ to be more than a slogan, it had to be lived and felt across the team, and be sustained by learning, capability building, and a sense of shared belief. 

“‘More IMPACT’ could only take hold and drive cultural change if it was sustained by a learning and development program that supported everyone across the marketing function to engage in, and truly believe, that they could do less and have more impact,” she says. 

That meant creating space for inspiration, skill-building, and connection. Alongside the Marketing Leadership Team (MLT), she launched a structured program to fuel both mindset and mastery.

At the heart of it was Uncorked, a yearly offsite designed to bring the outside in, with thought-provoking speakers and training that introduced fresh perspectives and energy. She also redefined how the team approached creative work, engaging the “magnificent” Pieter-Paul and Matt from Better Briefs to run workshops on how to craft truly effective briefs. “This completely revolutionised the quality of our briefs, and improved relationships and outputs from all of our agencies -– I couldn’t recommend them highly enough,” Rutherford says.

Another bold move was putting every marketer through the Mark Ritson Mini MBA. Rather than approve ad-hoc enrolments, she saw greater value in taking the team through it together. 

“We didn’t have the budget to do it all at once, but I asked my MLT, ‘What would have more impact on morale: Doing the course, or more dinners and drinks this year?’ Everyone said the course.” She funded it by trimming the travel and entertainment budget, embodying the very mindset she was instilling – focus on what matters most.

Through clarity, conviction and the belief that less really can be more, she’s turned a marketing team under pressure into a business unit that’s now winning share in every segment.

In a world that often celebrates doing more, I’ve learned that true marketing impact comes from clarity, focus, and love – for the craft, for the team, and for the story we’re here to tell. 

“Or, as I like to say, the three words that define my style as a CMO: Drive. Impact. Love,” adds Rutherford.