Monday 22 May 2023

The Effectiveness Masterclass: insights from top marketers

“Creativity and emotion are the two key ingredients of marketing that create future demand, and when combined, lead to the most profitable campaigns,” James Hurman, advertising effectiveness expert.

As part of ACA and the AANA’s Effectiveness Masterclass last week, guests packed Telstra in Sydney CBD to hear from a respected panel of top marketers and advertising effectiveness experts.

Keynote speaker James Hurman combined marketing theories and concepts to build a brilliant case for investing in creative effectiveness and driving future demand, no matter the size or age of a brand.

Panellists Alison Tilling, Chris Brown, Brent Smart and moderator Fran Clayton then put theory into context, sharing actionable tips on how to consistently execute strategy with conviction and patience using “maths, magic and moments.”

Key takeaways from the session:

James Hurman, effectiveness expert and Founder, Previously Unavailable: “What’s the role of brand building in adding commercial value? It makes people – who aren’t in the market yet – familiar with and emotionally invested in a brand. When they come to enter the market, they gravitate towards that brand and they pay more for it. That’s a simple explanation of why we should invest in long-term brand-building and marketing initiatives that don’t show up in immediate sales data. We need to think more about how we drive long-term ROI and future demand, and not just focus on short-term marketing that only converts existing demand.”

Brent Smart, CMO, Telstra: “The hardest thing about going on this journey as a marketer is that you need conviction and patience. You need enormous conviction to go to a leadership team and sell in an emotive and creativity-driven brand transformation because many people don’t understand it. And then you need the conviction to convince them it’s the right thing to do when you don’t have any data at the start of the journey. It won’t look great in the first six months, as you’re taking money out of performance marketing to support long-term brand growth, and you’re going to see a change in your current performance. That first year will be really hard.”

Alison Tilling, Chief Strategy Officer, VMLY&R: “Language and how we talk about future demand is really important. We can’t be blinded by marketing science. Instead, we need to make it accessible for our team, clients and stakeholders. We need to find ways to talk about long-term brand building that makes it easy for others to understand and invest in. Instead of talking about maths and science, talk about memory and moments, which is really what we’re talking about when we talk about effectiveness. We need to frame it in ways that clients and stakeholders can understand and be part of.”

Chris Brown, Chief Customer Officer, McDonalds: “Recognising the conversations and influence you need to have with your stakeholders is key. They’re operating in a very dynamic marketplace, which is why being a patient marketer is critical, as is being disciplined. Bringing a brand marketing approach that recognises the power of the long-term and the importance of the short-term to market is going to be massively influenced by the context of the day, as are the stakeholders you engage with.”

Thanks to everyone who came along to The EffectIveness Masterclass hosted by ACA and the AANA. The Effie Awards – APAC’s premier marketing effectiveness awards program – are open until 1 June. Make sure you get your entries in .

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