“MediaCom’s Misreporting Was A Difficult Time For The Entire Industry”: IAG Marketing Boss
In this instalment of B&T’s IN THE KNOW – a video series featuring top tips from Australian marketing professionals and all brought to you by film production company In The Thicket – we chat with Jane Merrick, head of marketing at IAG.
IAG Insurance – whose brands include NRMA, SGIO and SGIC – was famously embroiled in the GroupM misreporting furore of late 2014 and switched its media buying from MediaCom to Mindshare back in March.
Merrick, who’d only just inherited the CMO role when the problem flared, describes the entire affair as a difficult time for everybody and the industry as a whole.
“It was one of the first challenges I faced being in the head of marketing role and it was certainly being thrown in the deep end,” Merrick said.
“It was completely unexpected and obviously quite impactful for the whole industry let alone the people impacted at MediaCom or my own team.
“Over that time what I learned was that trust was the most important thing you can have in a relationship with any partners that you have internally and externally.
“There was a huge level of transparency around what occurred which I respected and valued because transparency is linked to integrity and authenticity,” she said.
Did you miss last week’s IN THE KNOW with former Samsung marketing chief head of marketing Arno Lenior? Check it out here.
The IN THE KNOW video series is produced by In The Thicket, a production company with offices in Sydney and Melbourne. To learn more about In The Thicket visit www.inthethicket.com.au
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