Business School engages with top Chief Marketing Officers to understand latest trends

The Head of the School's Discipline of Marketing, Professor Vince Mitchell, and Honorary Professor Andrew Baxter were members of a panel which judged the annual awards hosted by CMO, a publisher which focuses on Chief Marketing Officers across the nation.

"The Business School's involvement in these awards is in line with our strategy of engagement with leading Australian businesses and for the Marketing Discipline to learn from the best marketers in Australia in a way which benefits our students and research," said Professor Mitchell.

"As a first-time judge, I was amazed at the quality and breadth of activities of Australian marketers compared to previous awards I've judged in the UK."

"The fact that the CMO of Uber won the awards is testament to the global nature of the businesses competing and the boldness of the Ubereats celebrity campaign earlier this year," Professor Mitchell said.

A Chief Marketing Officer is an executive responsible for marketing activities in an organisation. They usually cover brand management and marketing communications including advertising, promotions and public relations, but more and more, they are covering consumer experience, technology, market research, and new product development.

The position has grown in importance in recent years as competition in the marketplace, largely driven by new technology, has become fiercer.

Chief Marketing Officers are now thought to spend more money on technology than Chief Information Officers as they crunch through vast amounts of data to drive customer insights, make decisions in real-time and deliver a return on investment.

Professor Baxter, who headed the communications agencies Ogilvy and Publicis here in Australia, agreed that marketing had changed "enormously" in recent years.

"Now more than ever before, universities need to engage with the industry in order to remain relevant," he concluded. "Students need to learn the latest techniques from the sector itself."