Brand building, AI and speaking the language of the business: P&O Cruises’ Katie Malone on driving marketing success

In this ADMA Spotlight, we chat to Katie Malone, Marketing Director of P&O Cruises, on how she’s bridging the gap between brand and performance marketing and how she once orchestrated a Formula One stunt atop the Burj Al Arab.

To start off, can you tell us a little about your career to date?

I was privileged to work within the luxury and travel spaces from quite early in my career. 

My first travel role was with Singapore Airlines as a marketing exec. After Singapore Airlines, I worked with various luxury hotels and resort groups including Langham Hospitality Group, Jumeirah Group and St. Regis Hotels and Resorts across Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and New Zealand. I also spent a few years in the online travel eCommerce space with ZUJI (now Webjet). I’m now loving cruise industry as the Marketing Director for P&O Cruises.

In this role, I oversee the full marketing remit, including brand, digital, retail, social, content, and partnerships. 

What have been a few of your professional highlights along the journey?

Moving to Hong Kong in my 20s with Langham was definitely a career highlight. I had a fabulous team who taught me the ropes of living and working in Hong Kong along with how to utter profanities in Cantonese. It was a time that was fun and free and Langham is such a fabulous brand to work with. 

Another highlight was working for Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts at Dubai’s famed Burj Al Arab (colloquially). I remember one time, Red Bull Racing approached us following their Formula One Drivers’ Championship wanting to have David Coulthard spin donuts on our 24 metre wide helipad perched 210 metres over the sea - it was my job to make that happen.

I spent so many late nights over this project, and I did think to myself ‘I’m not going to keep my job over this’. But we made it happen, you can still Google it.

Another highlight, and definitely one of my proudest, is one closer to home. I came back to Australia in 2017 with the opportunity to build a portfolio of hospitality brands from scratch - hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars and spas under the parent company Crystalbrook Collection. Today Crystalbrook Collection is Australia’s largest independent five-star hotel group. I was approached to build the brand, its purpose, the sustainability positioning…every touchpoint. It was an honour and I got to work with such a vast group of brilliant people - from hoteliers, chefs, perfumers and artists through to interior designers, architects and local politicians.

How important is maintaining and growing your marketing skill set in today’s marketing environment? How do you approach this for you and your team? 

It’s absolutely essential. I try to lean into other teams within the business in order to improve my marketing skill set and that of my team. I love a good debate with finance leaders on the value of marketing and the evolving landscape of media and the return to the business. I always come out of the debate richer, even if I lost (never happens!).

I encourage my team to experiment - always! Be curious and never settle for good enough. I always want a team culture where mistakes can be celebrated just like wins as there are always learnings which will make us do it better next time.

I believe in finding mentors and inspiration off the trodden path - don’t just look at what other marketers are doing in your industry but engage with as many marketers from opposite industries and learn what their challenges are and how they overcame them. Learn from data experts, from entrepreneurs, from behavioural scientists, from revenue experts - they all have something to make you a sharper marketer.

ADMA is also a great asset. They help my team to grow their marketing skill sets, and are a go-to source for proposed legislation and regulatory changes along with data and privacy compliance.

What is the one thing you wish you’d learned earlier in your career?

Always back yourself and know your worth. Too many of us hesitate to truly believe in our own worth. We're far more capable than we give ourselves credit for. 

What is going to have the biggest impact on marketing over the next few years? How are you preparing for those changes? 

AI. Sorry, I had to say it. When you think about it, AI has been around since the 1950s. We’ve all been working with it for a long time - it’s like it’s just these last few years got a name.

My focus with AI is looking at how we can use it to remove the mundane and time consuming, allowing us more time to think and really explore and try new things.

What do you think are the biggest challenges confronting marketers today?

Marketers need to be able to speak the language of the business in a very clear and concise way to ensure that marketing, at all stages of the funnel, is understood to be a crucial driver to the business’ success and commercial performance. 

I see too many businesses that have become addicted to performance media and not fully understanding or valuing the importance of brand marketing. I think that’s dangerous. The improvements in MMM is crucial in helping illustrate the value brand plays in conversion.

What’s the best piece of advice you would give to a university graduate starting their first role in marketing?

I would say, be hungry, be curious, and always keep your hand up. If you're the one volunteering, you're the one that's going to get the opportunities. Learn from those who have come before you, and then add your own twist and improve on what they did. 

Another one is, don't pigeonhole yourself into one area of marketing. Learn and involve yourself in the full marketing funnel. Understand brand, understand consideration, understand conversion and dive in to the data.

Finally, I’d like to say - your journey will be long and bumpy. There's going to be ups and downs, curveballs and hills that you don't think you can climb, and rivers that you think you will drown in. But you won't. We all go through the tough parts of our careers, and that's when we learn the most.

Why are organisations like ADMA so important for the wider media and marketing industry?

I think it's great to have a united voice. ADMA is extremely helpful at cutting through noise surrounding regulatory changes. It provides clear, concise and accurate information.

The sense of community is also really nice. We work in an industry that gets pointed at quite a lot, and I think it's comforting to know that there is a group there that has your back, that has your voice and that will support you.

Is there an example of a really well executed data-driven campaign (or partnership) that you admire? What made it stand out for you?

I recently really liked the Shift 20 campaign. I thought it was a really good example of data use for transformation. It’s a campaign that is aimed to normalise disability and advertising, and used a key data point, that 20% of Australians live with a disability, and only 1% of ads show people with a disability.

That campaign is targeted at CMOs and marketing leaders, and is a collective movement between some leading Australian brands. I thought that was a very clever use of data to show the prevalence of disability, and using smart partnerships to bring it to life.

Last of all, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Having not grown up in Sydney, I love exploring different cuisines of different suburbs with my family. It’s like being able to travel the world without leaving the city - from Vietnamese, to Italian to Middle Eastern to Cantonese - all in one weekend. I love living in a city that is so culturally diverse.

I'm also an avid reader, so typically have a fiction, a non-fiction along with an Audible on the go at any one time. Other than that, you can probably find me at the beach, at yoga or sleeping.