Elevating for the Future: Simplify, humanise, and build for the long term

This year’s ADMA Global Forum was jam-packed with insights from some of the world’s leading marketing experts. If you didn’t manage to come along, this is a snapshot of some of the insights shared on stage.

As marketers, we are often swept up in a tide of data, digital transformation, and the constant evolution of consumer behaviour. But at this year’s ADMA Global Forum, the message was clear: it’s time to simplify, refocus on human connections, and invest in the skills that will carry us into the future.

This year’s forum brought together some of the industry's most influential voices to challenge the status quo and inspire a more thoughtful approach to marketing. The line up included some of the biggest names in marketing, such as Professor Scott Galloway, iconoclastic consultant Mark Ritson, futurist Tom Goodwin, Uber’s Lucinda Barlow, THE ICONIC’s Joanna Robinson, and more.

If you didn’t manage to snag yourself a ticket this year, and missed the online livestream, these are the key takeaways from the day.

Simplify: Focus on what truly matters

While the official theme of this year’s Global Forum was "Elevate for the Future," the underlying call to action might well have been, as Commonwealth Bank’s CMO Jo Boundy aptly put it, to “be kinder to ourselves” by simplifying how we approach marketing.

“Maybe we don't need to jump on every trend, and maybe we need to just really get educated on the basics,” she said. “At the end of the day, if it all feels too overwhelming, you only need to remember two things: the customer, because at the end of the day, what's good for the customer is good for your business, and the law, because the law is there to protect the customers, and it's also there to protect you.”

In an era where marketing has become increasingly granular and specific, the urge to simplify was a recurring theme among the speakers. Tom Goodwin, futurist and founder of consultancy ‘All We Have Is Now’, captured this sentiment when he urged marketers to take a step back and focus on the fundamentals.

He said: "We absolutely need to recognize that our jobs are very hard, but I don't believe they are necessarily complex or complicated... Now is a good time to take a step back and focus on the small changes and the things that really, really matter."

Goodwin continued to criticise the industry's obsession with complexity and constant change, arguing that many current digital marketing practices have drifted far from what is genuinely effective. He reminded us that marketing doesn’t need to be convoluted to be successful.

Professor of Marketing at the NYU Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway, also echoed this sentiment by spotlighting the burden of choice that marketers sometimes impose on their customers, and stressing the need for simplicity.

Galloway explained: "The biggest mistake we make in marketing is believing that choice is a good thing. It isn’t. Choice is a tax - consumers don’t want more choice; they want to be more confident in the choices presented."

Humans at the core: Technology enhances, but doesn’t replace

While technology will always play a central role in marketing, the speakers at the forum emphasised the irreplaceable value of human connection. Tom Goodwin made a point of reminding us that at its core, marketing is about people, not algorithms.

As he puts it: "As humans, we need to fall in love with the consumer, we need to fall in love with common sense, we need to fall in love with some of the principles of branding."

This is something Lucinda Barlow, Senior Director, Head of International Marketing at Uber, touched on in her appearance at Global Forum. She shared how humour and self-deprecation, innately human traits, can be powerful tools in building a brand, especially in a market like Australia where these qualities are highly valued.

“There is so much power in laughing at yourself. It's a great leveller, it breaks down barriers, it brings people in on the joke,” Barlow said. “Self deprecation is a shortcut to humility and likeability, and so Uber Eats leverage shameless, good old Aussie self deprecation brought to life by celebrities willing to laugh at themselves and laugh at the very tropes and constructs of advertising.”

Another powerful human trait that was highlighted at Global Forum was intuition, and it’s something Michelle Klein, Chief Customer Officer of IAG, spoke about in depth.

Klein particularly underscored the importance of intuition in customer experience, explaining that while data and surveys are valuable, there’s no substitute for the human intuition that comes from truly understanding your customer’s needs.

Klein explained: “In our business, where you're meeting somebody at their worst moment in their life, you have to be helpful, supportive, and compassionate to help them get through that. You're not going to put together a survey to measure that experience. You're going to know intuitively how you can support that customer to get back on their feet.”

Skills will pay the bills: The need for continued learning

As marketing continues to evolve, the skills we bring to the table must also grow and adapt. Professor Mark Ritson highlighted the importance of continuous learning through initiatives like the recently-launched ADMA Capability Compass, which highlights which skills marketers will need to navigate the complex and ever-changing landscape based on their business’ goals.

He said: “I don't think we have to fix marketing like it's a charity, but we have to allow good marketers to get good training and let the market forces fix the day. The good marketers that have been trained well will rise to the top and train others.”

Ritson also highlighted another critical issue: marketing teams are increasingly focused on just one aspect of execution - communications - while neglecting or being disintermediated from the other crucial elements of marketing.

He referenced the four P’s of marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, lamenting: "We're not talking about just doing these at the expense of strategy and insight. What we're talking about is only doing one of the P's, the promotional P, comms and advertising. We don't do the others as much as we used to, partly because we have no training or background."

This focus on execution without a strategic foundation is a critical gap that the ADMA Capability Compass aims to address. Andrea Martens, CEO of ADMA, noted the importance of this tool in empowering marketing leaders to build teams that are not only skilled in execution but also strategically equipped to navigate the complexities of modern marketing.

As Martens explained: "Skills don’t stay stagnant, especially not if you want to remain relevant in this industry. The ADMA Capability Compass will identify valuable insights which will enable your team to adapt and thrive. It has been built by industry, for industry.”

The ADMA Capability Compass offers a comprehensive view of functional marketing skills, allowing leaders to identify strengths and areas for development within their teams.

By aligning these insights with strategic goals, it helps ensure that marketing efforts are not just tactical but are grounded in a well-rounded understanding of the discipline. This is crucial for restoring a balance between execution and strategy in marketing.

Less is more when it comes to data

In an industry awash with data, the challenge is no longer about acquiring information, but about being more specific in terms of what data you need and utilising it effectively. Galloway delivered a sharp critique of the current data landscape:

He explained: "If information is the new oil, then we’re really drowning in oil. Most big companies have an excess of information; they just don’t know how to refine it."

This commentary is also coming at a crucial juncture, with Australia in the midst of a massive privacy legislation overhaul. ADMA’s Director of Regulatory and Advocacy, Sarla Fernando, expanded on this in more depth at Global Forum, highlighting what marketers exactly need to know in order to prepare.

In her presentation, she stressed the crucial role marketers will have to play in the implementation of the updated privacy legislation: “I genuinely think you should start in the marketing team when it comes to driving work within an organisation on data reform and responsibility. I believe marketing really needs to have a voice in this space.

“If you don’t, the decision will be made by the compliance teams, the IT teams, or everyone else in government teams. If marketing doesn’t speak up and speak to the value of this data, how this data is needed and how it’s going to deliver growth, then we’re not going to have a really broad aspect for the business,” Fernando added.

She also emphasised that now is the time for marketers to recalibrate their approach to data. She encouraged marketers to view upcoming changes in data regulation not as a burden, but as an opportunity for a fresh start.

Fernando said: "What’s really important is for us to see what’s coming as an opportunity for marketers to have an amnesty. We’ve been doing wrong things for a while. We’ve made mistakes, and it’s not on purpose, but it’s an opportunity to get investment from your business, because we have to become compliant. Learn what we need to learn. Start from scratch."

The long and longer of it: The power of brand longevity

Finally, the importance of brand building took centre stage at the ADMA Global Forum, with Joanna Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer of THE ICONIC, sharing insights on how the retailer’s shift from a performance-focused mindset to upper funnel has paid dividends.

Robinson illustrated that in times of uncertainty, it is the brands with strong equity that will be best placed to flourish.

She said: "I’m a proud brand builder, I believe that brands should be both memorable and measurable. And I really believe in the last five years, a lot of brands forgot about the power of storytelling, forgot about the need to really connect with an audience that far transcends anything that's all about price or discounts.

“Thinking about how we move consumers is something that's really compelled me for my near 28 years of working within marketing - the psychological challenge of really getting people to feel something about your brand,” Robinson continued.

Uber’s Lucinda Barlow also reinforced this by explaining how Uber has invested in long-term brand equity, with humour being one of the main ways the company has done so.

Barlow explained: "It’s been categorically proven that popularity beats purpose, and one of the best ways to make your brand popular is to make people laugh - and it makes people feel good. People actually want to be entertained. They don't want to lecture about how great your brand is. So ‘funny’ can work really hard for you.

“Yes, times are tough. Yes, there is a cost of living crisis. Yes, many of these issues are still there, but we can all have some fun again. And ‘funny’ works hard,” Barlow added.

For marketers considering the merits of embedding humour into their brand, Barlow also had a few tips: “If you are going to lean in on humour, you need a consistent tone of voice. Understand that it’s something you have to be willing to keep building for multiple campaigns over multiple years, because something like a self-deprecating tone of voice can become a distinctive brand asset that is incredibly powerful.”

These insights are just a glimpse into the wealth of knowledge and forward-thinking perspectives shared at this year’s ADMA Global Forum. As we move forward, towards the end of the year and beyond, simplifying our strategies, refocusing on human connections, and investing in long-term brand building will be key to thriving in an increasingly complex landscape.