Brad Moran, the man behind Coles’ new online media platform, says "closing the loop" between ads and shopper purchases will spark a retail media boom. Moran wrestles with Nine’s Pippa Leary, Brand Traction’s Jon Bradshaw and Mi3’s Executive Editor Paul McIntyre on what it means for moving people through the classic marketing funnel from brand consideration to a transaction.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brad Moran, the man behind Coles&rsquo; new online media platform, says "closing the loop" between ads and shopper purchases will spark a retail media boom. Moran wrestles with Nine&rsquo;s Pippa Leary, Brand Traction&rsquo;s Jon Bradshaw and Mi3&rsquo;s Executive Editor Paul McIntyre on what it means for moving people through the classic marketing funnel from brand consideration to a transaction.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

A weekly wrap of the “must-know” developments in Marketing, Media, Agency and Technology for leaders and emerging leaders in the industry. Veteran industry journalist and Mi3 Executive Editor Paul McIntyre talks each week with guest marketers who are in the know on what matters at the nexus of marketing, agencies, media and technology. Powered mostly by Human Intelligence (HI).

A weekly wrap of the “must-know” developments in Marketing, Media, Agency and Technology for leaders and emerging leaders in the industry. Veteran industry journalist and Mi3 Executive Editor Paul McIntyre talks each week...

Mi3 Audio Edition

Marketing funnel wars - Coles’ new online media platform triggers debate on the future of the marketing funnel

Host: Nadia Cameron, Publisher | Editor – Marketing

Patience of a saint, ‘glass half full’ mentality and commercially persuasive: These may not be the first things you put down on the list of attributes required in modern marketing leaders. But marketing today is as much about exercising influence internally as it is about delivering compelling creative and content externally. And exercising this muscle is never more important than when you’re trying to convince the organisation to back a bold new program of work, agree CMOs from Pernod Ricard, Tassal and Australian Unity.

Marketers are often building the vision and executing against a future and growth prospect that doesn’t yet exist. At a time where pressures to do more with less is also palpable, that makes for a lot of stakeholder management and influence if you’re to truly sell in brand programs that actually move the needle long term over a short-term performance hit.

Recognising you’re standing on a burning platform, then using it to create momentum for change, is a major ingredient – and that certainly helped Pernod Ricard’s Kristy Rutherford attain significant investment for the first Altos tequila brand partnership with the Australian Open in 2026. Having held an early leadership position in the burgeoning tequila category, the FMCG was “a bit shocked” to find itself declining in a growing category just 18 months later.

“You either get on strongly at the first point in development of a category, and put yourself in the top few players, or forever chase your tail for the next 10, 20 years trying to get on that wave. We knew we had to do something quite significant,” Rutherford says. But that’s not just a case you can make on the day.

“To begin with, we had to really work out strategically why it was important – and that brand awareness piece was critical for us,” she says. “But then it’s the internal sign-off piece – it’s engaging the entire people, both locally, but also through Singapore, Paris and globally, that you need to get on-board in order to say yes to a partnership like this. It probably took us a good year end-to-end to do that process.”

Getting what’s historically been a farming-led business focused on functional benefits to understand the power of brand to unlock greater value was the big task at hand for Tassal’s Matt Vince. His tools included providing data-driven benchmarks to support the argument, better articulating the drivers of brand power, as well aligning the c-suite around common language and a strategic mission of becoming an ‘iconic’ brand.

“When I joined the business, that [brand thinking] was the lens missing – it was all farming-led. But how do we – before we even think about farming it – understand who is going to consume it, where’s it going to go, what’s the occasion we’re trying to obtain three years prior versus as it’s comes out of the water, when we’re then a bit rushed? That certainly straightened us up,” he says. 

It’s been the lack of growth Jee Moon has leveraged across her varied career to drive bold programs forward. “That’s been the fire I’ve run towards across the likes of Best & less, OPSM and even Nuix,” the CMO says. “The burning platform was super clear: The mandate for marketing is often in these business transformations to lead and create a vision of what can be, while the business works to line up towards that. In order to achieve that, you have to buy the hearts and minds of the people ‘within’ first, before you create that impact externally.

“That’s always been my approach: To find the language that resonates internally and motivates and inspires. You're asking for a lot from people who predate you, have lived through the decline and have been wearied trying lots of different things … So to find something that motivates them, to then get them to dig deep again and try one more time is what’s key.”

Listen to the full CMO Awards episode here. 

Host: Nadia Cameron, Publisher | Editor &ndash; Marketing
Patience of a saint, &lsquo;glass half full&rsquo; mentality and commercially persuasive: These may not be the first things you put down on the list of attributes required in modern marketing leaders. But marketing today is as much about exercising influence internally as it is about delivering compelling creative and content externally. And exercising this muscle is never more important than when you&rsquo;re trying to convince the organisation to back a bold new program of work, agree CMOs from Pernod Ricard, Tassal and Australian Unity.
Marketers are often building the vision and executing against a future and growth prospect that doesn&rsquo;t yet exist. At a time where pressures to do more with less is also palpable, that makes for a lot of stakeholder management and influence if you&rsquo;re to truly sell in brand programs that actually move the needle long term over a short-term performance hit.
Recognising you&rsquo;re standing on a burning platform, then using it to create momentum for change, is a major ingredient &ndash; and that certainly helped Pernod Ricard&rsquo;s Kristy Rutherford attain significant investment for the first Altos tequila brand partnership with the Australian Open in 2026. Having held an early leadership position in the burgeoning tequila category, the FMCG was &ldquo;a bit shocked&rdquo; to find itself declining in a growing category just 18 months later.
&ldquo;You either get on strongly at the first point in development of a category, and put yourself in the top few players, or forever chase your tail for the next 10, 20 years trying to get on that wave. We knew we had to do something quite significant,&rdquo; Rutherford says. But that&rsquo;s not just a case you can make on the day.
&ldquo;To begin with, we had to really work out strategically why it was important &ndash; and that brand awareness piece was critical for us,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But then it&rsquo;s the internal sign-off piece &ndash; it&rsquo;s engaging the entire people, both locally, but also through Singapore, Paris and globally, that you need to get on-board in order to say yes to a partnership like this. It probably took us a good year end-to-end to do that process.&rdquo;
Getting what&rsquo;s historically been a farming-led business focused on functional benefits to understand the power of brand to unlock greater value was the big task at hand for Tassal&rsquo;s Matt Vince. His tools included providing data-driven benchmarks to support the argument, better articulating the drivers of brand power, as well aligning the c-suite around common language and a strategic mission of becoming an &lsquo;iconic&rsquo; brand.
&ldquo;When I joined the business, that [brand thinking] was the lens missing &ndash; it was all farming-led. But how do we &ndash; before we even think about farming it &ndash; understand who is going to consume it, where&rsquo;s it going to go, what&rsquo;s the occasion we&rsquo;re trying to obtain three years prior versus as it&rsquo;s comes out of the water, when we&rsquo;re then a bit rushed? That certainly straightened us up,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s been the lack of growth Jee Moon has leveraged across her varied career to drive bold programs forward. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s been the fire I&rsquo;ve run towards across the likes of Best &amp; less, OPSM and even Nuix,&rdquo; the CMO says. &ldquo;The burning platform was super clear: The mandate for marketing is often in these business transformations to lead and create a vision of what can be, while the business works to line up towards that. In order to achieve that, you have to buy the hearts and minds of the people &lsquo;within&rsquo; first, before you create that impact externally.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s always been my approach: To find the language that resonates internally and motivates and inspires. You're asking for a lot from people who predate you, have lived through the decline and have been wearied trying lots of different things &hellip; So to find something that motivates them, to then get them to dig deep again and try one more time is what&rsquo;s key.&rdquo;
Listen to the full CMO Awards episode here.

The CMO Awards Podcast Episode 11: Selling the unreliable: How to build belief in bold marketing

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/clips/03d39993-34c7-4c1b-966c-b43a0077199d/transcript

Host: Andrew Birmingham, Editor - CX | Martech | Ecom

Banks, telcos, and insurers are rethinking how they engage customers, shifting away from mass marketing campaigns toward real-time decisioning systems designed to respond to individual behaviour, according to Jonathan Tanner, a senior executive at Pegasystems.

Tanner said many organisations still struggle with fragmented customer experiences, where interactions across channels are disconnected and force users to repeat themselves. “They get a very jarring experience,” he said, pointing to structural issues such as product silos and outdated segmentation models that fail to reflect how customers’ needs change over time.

The emerging alternative is a decisioning approach that continuously evaluates customer context, including behaviour, signals and lifetime value, to determine the next best action. Unlike traditional campaigns, which Tanner described as a “blast approach” delivering only marginal returns, these systems aim to personalise interactions in the moment, sometimes choosing not to sell at all.

“What we’re talking about here is a very different approach,” Tanner said. “It may not even be a selling decision at that point in time… but over time what that does is it builds that NPS, it builds that customer connection.”

The shift requires a willingness to invest and the change. Firms are committing to significant investments annually over several years to build the underlying infrastructure. While returns can reach “multiple hundred percent,” Tanner said the gains depend on sustained investment and organisational change, not just technology deployment.

“You’re not going to just wake up, implement this technology, and then suddenly discover that everything’s great,” he said, noting that many firms underestimate the effort required to align people, processes and systems.

Artificial intelligence is central to the transformation, but Tanner warned against treating it as a single solution. Instead, organisations need to combine multiple approaches, including rules-based systems, statistical models and generative AI, each suited to different tasks.

“If I’m making a decision that’s backed up by a set of very well-defined rules, why would I be hammering away at an LLM spending tokens… and getting a probabilistic decision?” he said. Deterministic systems, he added, remain critical for real-time execution, compliance and auditability.

The stakes extend beyond marketing. Financial institutions are also using decisioning platforms to combat fraud, which is rising alongside real-time payments. Faster transactions benefit customers but also give fraudsters less time to be detected.

“One of the best ways of preventing it is to add just a little bit of friction into the process,” Tanner said, citing examples such as delaying payments to new accounts.

More broadly, Tanner said the most effective use cases focus on building trust rather than driving immediate sales. Examples include helping customers access government benefits or providing proactive support during financial hardship or natural disasters.

“The obvious immediate reaction is, well, how can that possibly be a benefit to the bank?” he said. “But of course… it’s building customer loyalty… it’s building connection.”

Looking ahead, Tanner expects the industry to move beyond the current hype cycle around AI and focus instead on practical outcomes. “I’d like to see us moving to it being more of a system-based conversation,” he said, where value is measured not by the technology itself but by the decisions it enables in real time.

Host: Andrew Birmingham, Editor - CX | Martech | Ecom
Banks, telcos, and insurers are rethinking how they engage customers, shifting away from mass marketing campaigns toward real-time decisioning systems designed to respond to individual behaviour, according to Jonathan Tanner, a senior executive at Pegasystems.
Tanner said many organisations still struggle with fragmented customer experiences, where interactions across channels are disconnected and force users to repeat themselves. &ldquo;They get a very jarring experience,&rdquo; he said, pointing to structural issues such as product silos and outdated segmentation models that fail to reflect how customers&rsquo; needs change over time.
The emerging alternative is a decisioning approach that continuously evaluates customer context, including behaviour, signals and lifetime value, to determine the next best action. Unlike traditional campaigns, which Tanner described as a &ldquo;blast approach&rdquo; delivering only marginal returns, these systems aim to personalise interactions in the moment, sometimes choosing not to sell at all.
&ldquo;What we&rsquo;re talking about here is a very different approach,&rdquo; Tanner said. &ldquo;It may not even be a selling decision at that point in time&hellip; but over time what that does is it builds that NPS, it builds that customer connection.&rdquo;
The shift requires a willingness to invest and the change. Firms are committing to significant investments annually over several years to build the underlying infrastructure. While returns can reach &ldquo;multiple hundred percent,&rdquo; Tanner said the gains depend on sustained investment and organisational change, not just technology deployment.
&ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going to just wake up, implement this technology, and then suddenly discover that everything&rsquo;s great,&rdquo; he said, noting that many firms underestimate the effort required to align people, processes and systems.
Artificial intelligence is central to the transformation, but Tanner warned against treating it as a single solution. Instead, organisations need to combine multiple approaches, including rules-based systems, statistical models and generative AI, each suited to different tasks.
&ldquo;If I&rsquo;m making a decision that&rsquo;s backed up by a set of very well-defined rules, why would I be hammering away at an LLM spending tokens&hellip; and getting a probabilistic decision?&rdquo; he said. Deterministic systems, he added, remain critical for real-time execution, compliance and auditability.
The stakes extend beyond marketing. Financial institutions are also using decisioning platforms to combat fraud, which is rising alongside real-time payments. Faster transactions benefit customers but also give fraudsters less time to be detected.
&ldquo;One of the best ways of preventing it is to add just a little bit of friction into the process,&rdquo; Tanner said, citing examples such as delaying payments to new accounts.
More broadly, Tanner said the most effective use cases focus on building trust rather than driving immediate sales. Examples include helping customers access government benefits or providing proactive support during financial hardship or natural disasters.
&ldquo;The obvious immediate reaction is, well, how can that possibly be a benefit to the bank?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But of course&hellip; it&rsquo;s building customer loyalty&hellip; it&rsquo;s building connection.&rdquo;
Looking ahead, Tanner expects the industry to move beyond the current hype cycle around AI and focus instead on practical outcomes. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see us moving to it being more of a system-based conversation,&rdquo; he said, where value is measured not by the technology itself but by the decisions it enables in real time.

‘Why hammer at an LLM spending tokens’: Pega’s Jonathan Tanner warns on AI hype; banks pivot to rules, context and real-time decisioning as CX, fraud prevention, and lifetime value collide

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/clips/f451d394-bd8d-4f71-ad67-b435003af55e/transcript

Host: Paul McIntyre, Editor-At-Large

Ryan Gosling is not a goose - at least on which feature films to front. His new movie, Project Hail Mary, from Amazon-owned Hollywood studio MGM, has blasted to this year’s best opener at the Australian box office at the time of its release.

It’s pulling mum, dad, kids and even the grandparents into a co-viewing experience they no longer do much of but want - more than brands imagine. Yes, even the kids are saying that.

How weird.

Social researcher Matt Sandwell from The Owl Insights argues the potent and polarising forces of personal device proliferation, shrinking shared living spaces in homes (down 10 per cent collectively in a decade) and killer kids schedules – three-in-four kids under 10, have before or after school activities – has thrust shared family moments into “rarefied air”. And that’s before the uncertainty and craziness of multiple geopolitical flashpoints and civic restlessness is accounted for.

The irony in Sandwell’s latest research is that every generation wants more shared family moments but struggle to land them – 16-year-olds may be a global exception.

Mid-teen angst aside, it’s a serendipitous trendline for Val Morgan cinema boss Guy Burbidge. “This will be our fastest growing audience segment this year,” he says. “Last year has seen some huge numbers off the family unit coming back into cinema.  Five of the top 10 titles at the box office last year were “all family” he says and family co-viewing experiences at the movies will lift 25 per cent in 2026 because Hollywood has clocked the sentiment and a string of top family viewing franchises are slated for the coming 12 months and beyond – think Super Mario, Minions, Toy Story and some.

Val Morgan commissioned Sandwell to go deep on the qualitative aspects of shared family moments – and he unearthed some gold in collective sentiment.

“So, the kind of big moral of the story for us in the research is these moments are harder to get than ever but the desire for them is greater than ever and cinema is one of the last and best places where people can get it. They recognise the benefits of connection, immersion and that kind of emotional depth that comes with the family.”

Burbidge is already seeing huge upside for some brands starting to tap the social need – retail, consumer goods and auto among them. But there’s still a lag for a market at large now hitched to “blunt reach, high level demographics [i.e. grocery buyers] and cost conversations,” Burbidge says. “At the moment, the market on the family trend is probably not thinking as deeply as we need to. They are bankable moments that the family understands. It’s providing some confidence and security in the world of algorithms about what is trusted. We’re seeing that audience on fire.”

Host: Paul McIntyre, Editor-At-Large
Ryan Gosling is not a goose - at least on which feature films to front. His new movie, Project Hail Mary, from Amazon-owned Hollywood studio MGM, has blasted to this year&rsquo;s best opener at the Australian box office at the time of its release.
It&rsquo;s pulling mum, dad, kids and even the grandparents into a co-viewing experience they no longer do much of but want - more than brands imagine. Yes, even the kids are saying that.
How weird.
Social researcher Matt Sandwell from The Owl Insights argues the potent and polarising forces of personal device proliferation, shrinking shared living spaces in homes (down 10 per cent collectively in a decade) and killer kids schedules &ndash; three-in-four kids under 10, have before or after school activities &ndash; has thrust shared family moments into &ldquo;rarefied air&rdquo;. And that&rsquo;s before the uncertainty and craziness of multiple geopolitical flashpoints and civic restlessness is accounted for.
The irony in Sandwell&rsquo;s latest research is that every generation wants more shared family moments but struggle to land them &ndash; 16-year-olds may be a global exception.
Mid-teen angst aside, it&rsquo;s a serendipitous trendline for Val Morgan cinema boss Guy Burbidge. &ldquo;This will be our fastest growing audience segment this year,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Last year has seen some huge numbers off the family unit coming back into cinema.&nbsp; Five of the top 10 titles at the box office last year were &ldquo;all family&rdquo; he says and family co-viewing experiences at the movies will lift 25 per cent in 2026 because Hollywood has clocked the sentiment and a string of top family viewing franchises are slated for the coming 12 months and beyond &ndash; think Super Mario, Minions, Toy Story and some.
Val Morgan commissioned Sandwell to go deep on the qualitative aspects of shared family moments &ndash; and he unearthed some gold in collective sentiment.
&ldquo;So, the kind of big moral of the story for us in the research is these moments are harder to get than ever but the desire for them is greater than ever and cinema is one of the last and best places where people can get it. They recognise the benefits of connection, immersion and that kind of emotional depth that comes with the family.&rdquo;
Burbidge is already seeing huge upside for some brands starting to tap the social need &ndash; retail, consumer goods and auto among them. But there&rsquo;s still a lag for a market at large now hitched to &ldquo;blunt reach, high level demographics [i.e. grocery buyers] and cost conversations,&rdquo; Burbidge says. &ldquo;At the moment, the market on the family trend is probably not thinking as deeply as we need to. They are bankable moments that the family understands. It&rsquo;s providing some confidence and security in the world of algorithms about what is trusted. We&rsquo;re seeing that audience on fire.&rdquo;

Family back as the new black: World chaos, kids’ killer schedules and personal screen rabbit holes trigger cross-generation co-viewing surge to fastest-growing audience segment for 2026 

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/clips/221c55e4-770e-435f-8d7e-b42e00332b37/transcript

Marketing funnel wars - Coles’ new online media platform triggers debate on the future of the marketing funnel

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