From graduate to global marketer: NAB’s Natalie Lockwood on curiosity, commercial acumen and leading through change

In this ADMA CMO Spotlight, NAB’s Natalie Lockwood reflects on the experiences that shaped her leadership, the importance of commercial acumen and how marketers can balance short-term results with long-term brand building in an AI-driven world.

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

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had a rewarding career largely across banking, payments and financial services. I began as a graduate trainee in marketing at Westpac, and I genuinely attribute a lot of my career foundation to that early experience.

Over the years, my career has taken me across Australia, Singapore and Vietnam, and I’ve had the opportunity to work on marketing strategies in both emerging and developed markets. A significant chapter was my time at Mastercard, where I spent close to 12 years and ultimately led regional marketing across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

When I reflect on my career, one of the biggest personal highlights has been the people. I’ve built enduring friendships across every chapter, and many of those relationships began through work.

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

My time at Mastercard stands out as a defining professional highlight. Working across so many markets and cultures, and launching the Priceless platform regionally, was an extraordinary experience.

Another highlight was actually stepping out of traditional corporate marketing roles. I spent time working in a data, digital and direct agency in Vietnam, which gave me a completely different perspective and sharpened my skills significantly. I also took on a relationship-management and sales-focused role at Visa before returning to marketing.

Those experiences – both agency-side and commercial roles – made me a better marketer. They helped me become deeply customer-obsessed and taught me how to grow businesses, not just brands. Looking back, those chapters outside of “pure” marketing were instrumental.

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

It’s absolutely critical. Continuous learning is essential. No one is ever fully on top of everything, particularly given the pace of change in marketing.

Capability planning is a major focus at NAB. We invest heavily in learning and development, supported by structured workforce planning and capability frameworks. We partner closely with ADMA and use the Capability Compass as a core tool to assess skills and shape our learning agenda.

That work directly informs our capability priorities year on year. More recently, we’ve also piloted a new ADMA course – Insights, Strategy and Action! – which focuses on translating insight into strategy and execution.

The areas we need to focus on may evolve- it used to be martech and platforms, and now AI is front and centre – but the commitment to continuously building capability remains constant.

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

I wish I’d stepped out of my comfort zone earlier.

There were roles I stayed in longer than I probably should have because I was comfortable and confident. But when I lookback, the moments of greatest growth came from stepping into the unknown – such as moving to Singapore to take on a regional role, shifting from corporate into agency life in Vietnam, taking on a commercial role at Visa and now stepping into the CMO role at NAB.

Those moments were uncomfortable, but they were also transformative. I wish I’d learned earlier that growth lives on the other side of comfort.

What is going to have the biggest impact on marketing over the next few years, and how are you preparing for that change?

AI will have the biggest impact – without question. It affects every part of the marketing function, from search and productivity to creative development, content, research and campaign delivery.

The opportunity lies in using AI to be better marketers, while preserving the power of human creativity, judgment and connection. Getting that balance right – alongside managing ethics, trust and authenticity – will be critical.

There’s also a significant workforce implication. We need to understand how AI will reshape roles and capabilities by 2030 and work backwards to ensure our teams are prepared. The pace of change will be faster than anything we’ve experienced before.

What do you see as the biggest challenges confronting marketers today?

Cutting through is a major challenge. Audiences are overwhelmed by content and channel fragmentation, making it harder than ever to shift perceptions or drive action.

Another challenge is balancing short-term performance expectations with the responsibility to build long-term, sustainable brands. Marketers are constantly navigating that tension.

Finally, there’s the challenge of optimising for today while innovating for tomorrow. There’s a pressure to deliver results now, while also needing to invest time and energy into experimentation and future capability, particularly with AI.

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

Develop strong commercial acumen alongside your marketing skills.

The marketers who stand out from the pack are those who understand their organisation’s strategy, how the business makes money and how marketing enables that. Focusing solely on your craft without understanding commercial impact is a missed opportunity.

An obsession with customers, combined with an understanding of business performance, is what allows marketing to truly drive growth.

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

The industry is evolving constantly, and ADMA plays a critical role in helping marketers keep pace with that change.

First, through capability development – ensuring marketers have access to the knowledge, learning and tools they need. Second, through advocacy – giving marketers a voice in the regulatory environment and helping the industry navigate policy and compliance changes.

And finally, through community. ADMA creates meaningful connections and a sense that marketers are navigating this change together, which is incredibly valuable.

Is there a data-driven campaign or partnership you’ve admired recently?

One campaign that really stood out was ‘Vaseline Verified’. This campaign tapped into rich behavioural data to understand how people were really using the product, rather than relying on what people said in surveys.

They analysed thousands of real-world use cases shared online, turned those insights into structured experimentation and built a highly engaging global campaign around validation rather than control. It revitalised the brand, drove results and was a powerful example of using data in a creative, unexpected way.

And finally, what do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I love spending time with my husband and our two Labradoodles, getting outdoors and travelling when we can. We’re also studying Italian together, which has been a fun way to learn something completely outside of marketing.

I’m a big fan of horse racing – there’s something about the data, form and analysis that really appeals to me. I also love cooking, entertaining and socialising, often with friends I’ve made throughout my career, alongside long-standing friendships from earlier chapters of life.