ADMA Member Spotlight, Toyota 

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

I did a Bachelor of Commerce in Applied Economics and Marketing, and then straight after uni started working at Toyota Motor Corporation Australia. I was fortunate enough to have a three-year posting with Toyota in Tokyo, Japan, which was invaluable. After that experience, I wanted to grow my marketing skills and understand different industries, so I moved to Electrolux, then into Sony and then to Telstra, all in senior marketing roles. It’s always beneficial to broaden your experience to better understand different industries and cultures. I am now back with Toyota Finance Australia as Head of Marketing. 

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

Going to Japan with Toyota so early in my career and getting three years’ global product management experience was amazing.

With Sony, we launched the famous ‘Bouncy Balls’ campaign for Bravia in Australia. It was global creative that was shot in San Francisco, which we then adapted and launched in Australia.

More recently, highlights have been really building and growing Toyota Finance’s omnichannel capability and launching new digital experiences. We’ve grown omnichannel sales 200% in the last two years. Some of that growth is due to stronger digital take-up post Covid, but a lot is driven by the strength of the Toyota brand and the Toyota digital ecosystem.

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

As a profession, we need to be continuously looking for ways to improve and you can't improve unless you're sharing best practice and have a learning and growth mindset. For marketers and CX professionals, ADMA helps us stay ahead as an industry by providing global insights along with best-practice learnings from leading brands and marketers that are part of the ADMA network.

ADMA can really help marketers stay across what you need to know from a regulatory environment framework as well.

ADMA also enables marketers to develop their teams. It's all about engaging, empowering and building capability with your people, along with your own development through ADMA’s courses and events.

What are some of the key regulatory developments that are in progress right now that you think will shape the future of data-driven marketing?

As we know, the Federal Government is currently reviewing privacy legislation, and we know this will be tightened to protect the customer. We need to be aware of this change and be ahead of the game.

How important is maintaining and growing your digital skill set in today's marketing environment?

It’s so critical. Ask yourself: What channels do your customers interact with? Digital channels. Whether it's search engines, websites, EDM’s, social media or customer portals, it's critically important to understand and grow your digital skill set, but you must be able to do this with a broad understanding of sales, marketing and IT; for example, you need to understand broadly the role of call centres and retail sales channels to manage digital channels within an omnichannel environment. Your focus should be 70% of the time on digital, but don't forget the other channels where your customers engage.

How do you think data-driven marketing will change over the next few years? What should we be preparing for now?

The data value exchange and transparency around it needs to improve. As marketers, we have known the data value exchange is important for some time; however, given the current environment, it is now more important than ever. I think transparency is an opportunity for marketers to really help customers.

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

We need to continuously improve commercial ROI for marketing. I think we're doing well, but we should ensure we’re always putting some finance commercial metrics (ie opex efficiency and profit) alongside brand equity and digital metrics.

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

Don't be afraid to spread your wings and move outside of the marketing department to understand different operations within the business. Accept the challenge of growing your commercial acumen; that's what C-suite leaders and organisations want.

What is the best piece of advice you have had from a mentor?

When you are managing your stakeholders, always have the elevator pitch prepared. Those moments to present the elevator pitch aren't necessarily in scheduled meetings. For example, if you’re in a conversation with the CEO and they ask you ‘How is that project going?’ make sure you’re across the numbers and provide a concise update with some commercial edge. Your brand is always visible and on show.

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

Spending time with my family. I’ve got two young boys 6 and 10 years of age so my weekends are taken up playing taxi driver, taking them between various sporting and social events!