Right message, right time, right person: Zuni’s Mike Zeederberg on keeping digital simple

In the latest Capability Spotlight, Zuni Managing Director and ADMA instructor Mike Zeederberg reflects on launching the iPod in Australia, building one of ADMA’s first digital marketing courses and why the principle of 'right message, right time, right person, right channel' still anchors modern marketing.

To start, could you share a little about your career to date?

I started work in digital marketing back in 1997, which used to be impressive, but now I'm just old! I’ve always worked on the agency side in campaign development, but I’ve worked across multiple markets from London to Singapore and then Sydney.

Initially, I was centered very much in the production space; building websites, creating better campaigns, that sort of thing. But for the last 15 years, I’ve focused on digital marketing strategy, primarily helping clients make their digital marketing content and activity work better together and drive the right business outcomes.

What have been some of the professional highlights along the journey so far?

I've had the opportunity to work with some amazing brands, doing work that's really moved the needle.

I was part of the team that launched the iPod in Australia, which meant we had the opportunity to do some really incredible online advertising.

We also worked with Universal Music to launch Katy Perry's first-ever single.

Recently, we've worked with the Sydney Opera House to restructure their entire marketing technology stack so they can be more efficient and effective in engaging with their audiences. We've also helped Asthma Australia deeply understand how people go on the journey of understanding and managing their asthma, which is literally lifesaving.

Over the years, I’m proud to say I’ve had really interesting opportunities to work with clients that make a real-world difference.

How did you get into the education space, and what have you learned from it?

I originally started working with ADMA back in 2001 when we developed and ran the firstdigital marketing certificate course. Back then, the internet was a little lesssophisticated than it is now, and we started developing from an agencyperspective: What is digital marketing? How does it work? And where does it go?Then we expanded from there.

I've lectured at awide range of different places, including MBA programs at UNSW and theUniversity of Sydney, master's programs at Macquarie Graduate School, andacross public universities. I’ve even been involved in running higher educationcourses at TAFE.

It's beenincredibly rewarding to interact and engage with people around this space. It'sgreat to see people's knowledge evolve and expand through those spaces, whetherthey are newly out of school, university students discovering marketing for thefirst time, or marketing directors who have been in the business for 20+ years.

What do you enjoy most about marketer education?

The thing I enjoy the most about marketer education is this idea of being able to share my experiences and, in return, share other people's experiences and understand how they're tackling the same problems in different ways.

I also enjoy the moment when you're talking about a framework, case study, or a way of approaching things, and you can see students go; 'Ah, right!'

There are a lot of people learning for the theoretical benefit of having a degree but there are those who see the coursework one day and then go and apply it tomorrow. I love that idea – that what I’m teaching is actually being activated by my students to improve the way their business is working.

What’s one marketing skill or principle you think will never go out of style, no matter how much the industry changes?

Marketing boils down to a very simple principle – the right message to the right person at the right time and the right channel.

All we really try to do is unravel that. So, who is the right person? What is the right message, when is the right time, and what is the right channel? And then we have to put it back together. How do we then deliver that? How do we use technology, media, marketing, messaging, and consumer insights to create a strategy that addresses this key principle?

Marketing is evolving fast. Which skills do you think are most critical for marketers to invest in today?

There's a dual track in terms of skills development. I think one is knowledge and understanding of softer skills. That covers things about how to engage and understand consumers, customer trends and consumer insights.

Then, there is a skill set more related to how marketers can implement effective and efficient execution. So, how do we use things like CRMs, CDPs, data profiling and AI? And how does that inform how we implement our knowledge and understanding? 

What are the biggest challenges you see for marketers trying to keep up with the pace of change in digital and data?

It actually relates to those previous areas of skills, which is this idea of depth versus breadth.

Marketers today are grappling with how they can keep up with everything - from the evolving world of consumer understanding and then, literally, how they can execute that. Secondly, they’re also wondering how they can develop the depth needed to be able to be highly effective in particular spaces.

They are often faced with a choice. Do they become a specialist or generalist? Do they understand CRM and SEO, or is understanding the audience and channel optimisation where they thrive?

That’s another part of this overarching challenge - that things keep changing so fast, and every month there's something new - so how do they keep up?

Why do you think continuous learning is so important?

For exactly that reason. Digital and data keep changing; everything's changing. It's a case of saying we've got old frameworks and old principles but how do we link those to new implementations and techniques?

For example, for the last couple of decades, we’ve always had to develop website content so that Google search can optimise against it. Now, we need to think about how we evolve that in the world of agentic AI.

We may still have a machine that's sifting through our content and feeding it back to a human, but it's a different type of machine - and it's a different space. The challenge is really keeping up to date as things evolve, particularly in the digital space.

What role do organisations like ADMA play in shaping the next generation of marketing talent?

I think there is actually quite a difference between what students are getting at a university level versus what they get from an organisation like ADMA. At a university level, students are often taught frameworks, principles, philosophies - it's very theoretically oriented.

ADMA, on the other hand, is very practical. All the instructors are in the field and actively involved in the industry. That gives students the opportunity to become skilled in areas that they can activate immediately, rather than in theoretical knowledge without practical skills.

What’s the best piece of professional or life advice you’ve ever received - and how has it shaped your approach?

Many years ago, I read a quote that said learning or training is not a respected part of the workday. That we never really carve out the time to upskill, invest in ourselves and improve our skill sets, because we're all busy.

But it's critical that we never let ourselves get so busy that we become stupid. We've got to make sure that we keep improving and keep on top of what's changing, that means providing time to invest in education rather than just the day-to-day work.

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

I love getting into the ocean – and I've actually just finished a 10-day scuba diving trip!

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