Deep Dive

Deep Dive 20 May 2025 - 10 min read

AMI CPD: 1

Kahneman subverted: Behavioural economics weaponised as dark patterns pump ecom, platform profits – prepare for legal change, warns Consumer Policy Research Centre

By Paul McIntyre & Brendan Coyne

Lawmakers around the world are setting their sights on ‘dark patterns’, the way consumer choice is manipulated wholesale by companies for profit – either directly by upselling and herding them into higher yielding decisions, or locking them into services, or “data grabs” that can be monetised indirectly. Australia is next off the rank, and businesses should take action now, starting with UX design, according to Chandni Gupta, Deputy CEO of influential think tank the Consumer Policy Research Centre, who’s work underpins key planks of the ACCC’s regulatory overhauls and which holds sway in Canberra. While business lobby groups are already pushing back against Federal Government plans to beef-up consumer law, Gupta advises businesses not to wait to get fined or caught up in class actions – and make good on claims of customer-centricity.

Feature 16 May 2025 - 3 min read

The marketing terms our top 10 CMOs of the Year wish we’d stop using

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

Marketing is full of buzzwords, phrases that might mean something to the performance team but set up the backs of the brand marketers, borrowed generic terms that have been latched on to marketing practices but mask less-than-ideal processes, and terminology that will have your CEO and CFOs eyes glazing over. As we called on this year’s CMOs to present us with a commercial narrative of marketing impact in their CMO Awards submissions, we also took the opportunity to ask them: If there was a term you could wipe out of the marketing lexicon, what would it be? Here are the surprising choices from marketing chiefs from Uber, Telstra, Tourism Australia, Blackmores, IAG, Commonwealth Bank and more.

CMO Awards judging 15 May 2025 - 5 min read

AMI CPD: 0.5

Explaining the why, not just what, articulating the commercial outcome and capability development catch-up: What the CMO Awards judges valued most in this year’s CMO of the Year entries

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

A incredibly insightful element of the CMO Awards judges meetings is when judges shares their overarching thoughts about what they have read across submissions, what they value and why, and what it all says about marketing leadership. Whether it’s the trends – and buzzwords – they pick up as they go along, what heartened and disheartened them in how CMOs are approaching what’s evidently an ever-diverse remit, the strategic, leadership and capability building aspects required for improvement, and how this all feeds into the way marketers delivered programs of work – all of it came to bear on how they scored entrants’ submissions this year. Here are some highlights from that main CMO of the Year judges discussion.

Deep Dive Library

Feature 29 Apr 2025 - 8 min read

AMI CPD: 1

The CMO Awards podcast ep3: ‘Brand is the unit of value creation’: Lion co-MD Anubha Sahasrabuddhe, McCain growth chief Olivia Dickinson, SiteMinder’s Trent Innes on chief growth recipes – and pitfalls to avoid

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

Lion co-MD Anubha Sahasrabuddhe launched a 500-day growth sprint in 2023. Time’s up, so what has she achieved? A promotion

Feature 22 Apr 2025 - 8 min read

AMI CPD: 1

The CMO Awards podcast Ep2: Tourism Australia, Google and ABC marketing chiefs on how they have won friends and influenced people – from CEO and exec stakeholders to staff

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

Being able to convince others is the most critical skill marketers need to possess – the whole job of marketing is to

Deep Dive 31 Mar 2025 - 9 min read

AMI CPD: 1

‘A powerful unlock for the team’: How Freedom Furniture, Wesfarmers Health, REA Group CMOs are riding marketing’s capability crunch, and next for the Australian Marketing Institute’s skills assessment tool and Competency program

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

The accelerating slew of challenges and pressure coming at marketing teams mean many are fearful of admitting capability gaps

Deep Dive 25 Mar 2025 - 15 min read

AMI CPD: 1

‘Clients in on it, boatloads of cash, complex, opaque corporate structures’: Principal media arbitrage trading spreads to TV, out of home, audio as holdcos, retail media pile in; ex-IPG, GroupM, Omnicom execs on fixes

By Paul McIntyre & Brendan Coyne

Media agency holding company CEOs are openly acknowledging the importance of arbitrage-based principal trading to their

Deep Dive 13 Mar 2025 - 8 min read

AMI CPD: 0.5

Untold story: How Uber Eats and Special Group ANZ killed their killer ‘I’ll be eating’ brand platform and took ‘Almost, almost anything’ to 17 international markets

By Paul McIntyre & Brendan Coyne

Kim Kardashian ordering chicken schnitty powered Uber Eats to market dominance, eating rivals' lunch via a powerfully

Feature 11 Mar 2025 - 6 min read

AMI CPD: 0.5

The CMO Awards podcast ep1: 'Boards and CEOs are asking CMOs to rethink their marketing models - do it before they get a consultant in': ex-Westfield, Audi and Kimberly-Clark CMOs on when to say no and when to move faster

By Nadia Cameron - Editor - Marketing | Associate Publisher

CMO Awards: "Look at the world the CEO and board is facing into. Markets are relentless. If you're not delivering an increase

Deep Dive 11 Mar 2025 - 12 min read

AMI CPD: 0.5

Performance, lower funnel marketing costs surge, more price hikes forecast as Google Pmax, Meta Advantage+ let AI decide where ads land for conversions

By Brendan Coyne & Paul McIntyre

Call it performance, lower funnel or response-driven marketing – however one defines it, year-on-year and even quarterly

Deep Dive 24 Feb 2025 - 12 min read

CDP payoffs and pitfalls: Australian brands slash customer acquisition costs, gain behavioural insights, AI-readiness via CDPs – but PTSD for some

By Andrew Birmingham - Martech | Ecom | CX Editor

Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) were martech’s next big thing, promising unified customer views, slashed acquisition costs,

Deep Dive 11 Feb 2025 - 15 min read

AMI CPD: 1

Retail media outlook: $3bn market, race for scale and 50% inventory surge forecast as big guns resist standardisation, Amazon wedges broader BVOD market

By Brendan Coyne, Paul McIntyre & Nadia Cameron

Australia's retail media market is set for "50 per cent more inventory and revenue" as more big players pile in – Aus Post