Remarkable Marketers: Meet Sendle’s Eva Ross

There are some pretty remarkable people in our industry, each offering their own unique perspective to adland.

While we spend so much time learning about our peers’ career highlights, B&T, in partnership with Carat Australia, thought it high time to dig a little deeper, and find out what makes the shining stars of our industry tick and, at times, tock.

So, for the next little while, we will be publishing a series of personal profiles.

Get ready to laugh, cry and be taken on an emotional rollercoaster as we hear more about the industry’s most remarkable marketers.

Sendle CMO Eva Ross: The tomboy entrepreneur

When I was 10, I mostly wanted to be a boy. Confusingly though, also a business lady. I was very entrepreneurial. Ironically, given my role at Sendle, I ran a company called ‘letter-posting kids’ where my mullet-wearing friend and I would run people’s letters down an enormous hill in Hong Kong to a very British post box, then trek all the way up and do it again.

I love small businesses and the dramatic highs and lows of start-up life. I studied maths, fine art and psychology which, at the time, seemed an odd combination, but makes so much sense for a marketer in 2018. I imagine I’d continue to work in some combination of these things. I could see myself working in a small business in sustainable travel, ideally in Palawan in the Philippines.

The great thing about Sendle is all the small businesses I’m exposed to. At the moment, I’m loving Yevu Clothing, a socially responsible label made in Ghana. The prints have such personality, and the brand is such a champion of women’s economic empowerment. I’m also consistently impressed with Koskela, particularly in its commitment to showcasing indigenous art.

My favourite ad of all time is Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ from 1971, because it’s synonymous with acceptance, bravery and kindness. Now we’ll have the song in our heads all day.

My favourite piece of tech is the internet, because of the access it has created; how we have levelled the playing field to allow anyone with access to those resources create a small business and live out their dreams. We’ve seen the internet connect the isolated and elderly, and seen people with severe autism start to communicate.

My best tip for marketing graduates is to buy The Growth Handbook by Elad Gil. It talks about the many types of CMOs depending on your natural persuasion towards performance marketing, comms or design. Enjoy your numbers – a sharp understanding of the underlying analytics of the business will always give you an edge. Practice telling stories. Jonathan Mildenhall, who was CMO at Airbnb once told me he used to be a very poor presenter, so he’d practice by presenting absolutely everything, from the activities for the day ahead, to each dish at a dinner party.

The last book I read was A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geo Manaugh. It’s an architect’s view on, of all things, how you’d rob a building. It’s intriguing to look at buildings and how their design reveals weaknesses in its security, rather than its intended functionality or beauty.

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