Danielle Hamilton is not your average marketer. With a career that spans globally across financial services, FMCG, retail, lifestyle and tech, she’s the kind of leader who thrives in complexity—balancing commercial rigour with bold creativity, data with instinct, and strategy with soul. Currently steering ING’s marketing engine, Hamilton brings with her a passion for brand-led growth, a deep consumer-first mindset, and a fierce belief that winning in the market starts with building a brilliant team culture.
CMOs to Watch, presented by Zenith, spotlights the visionaries leading the charge. This series delves into the strategies and perspectives of CMOs who are setting new standards, pushing boundaries, and driving impact in ways that redefine what it means to be a leader in marketing today.
From time spent shaping some of the world’s most iconic brands—including Samsung, Coca-Cola, IKEA and Dove—to championing challenger thinking at ING, Hamilton’s approach is refreshingly candid and always customer-centric.
Taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with B&T, Hamilton shared everything from her proudest campaigns to her love of skiing and rockpool adventures with her kids and what’s next for lion-hearted marketing in a world of Gen Z demands, AI agents and ever-tightening budgets.
B&T: What three things would you take to a desert island?
Hamilton: Kindle – so my imagination can travel even if I can’t & because it seemingly never runs out of battery. Fishing tackle box – to get my inner Alone game on. A seed collection – to plant & grow produce & keep me sane. I always wanted to build an epic veggie garden and it’s not something I’ve been able to do in the inner west Sydney, so this could work out great – retirement come early!
B&T: Favourite album, movie and book?
Hamilton: My Spotify & Netflix playlists have both been hijacked by two toddlers with endless Disney & Paw Patrol, so that was no help answering this. Album: the XX, by XX – instant reminder of carefree festival times at Coachella or Fleetwood Mac Rumours for memory lane family holiday vibes. Movie: Love Actually – an annual Xmas tear jerker. Book: The Power of One – timelessly powerful.
B&T: What is your passion outside of work? (Think hobbies, sports, etc) and please send us a photo of you doing it!
Hamilton: I’m writing this from a tiny ski resort in Japan, so recency bias would have me say there’s no better feeling than carving first tracks on fresh snow on a blue bird day. This passion only happens every couple of years, so more regular “non work vibes” starts with exercise, a beach day & rockpool exploring with my little humans, replicating something delish from the latest Gourmet Traveler & daydreaming about our next holiday. Can ice cream be a passion – it sure has become one with two young boys – delish morning, noon or night!
B&T: If you weren’t a CMO, what would you be doing?
Hamilton: Running my own business with people I love, likely something hugely impractical and non commercial – like a perfume brand made with ancient witchcraft or a subscription toothpaste & tongue scraper service. Being married to a creative director, there’s a lot of crazy business ideas in the top drawer that I’ve never had the time or courage to explore further.
B&T: What was your favourite campaign of all time?
Hamilton: One of the reasons I was attracted to a career in marketing and advertising was the power of an idea and creativity to change behaviour. For me some of the most creative & important marketing campaigns have been for governments, lobbyists & NFP’s that tackle real social or cultural issues. I was so moved by “The Lost Class” – a deeply subversive, powerful earned media stunt that acted as a serious call to action to reassess the polarising topic of gun control in the USA. On a lighter note, another reason I love marketing is for how it can make you smile. How fun is Liquid Death’s consistently brilliant & often bonkers work, disrupting the bottled water category – a masterclass in audience strategy, packaging, collaborations & content.
B&T: Now let’s talk shop. What is your brand’s top priority for the next 12 months?
Hamilton: Our north star is about helping Aussies feel more financially empowered with a sense of savviness – especially important through this cost of living crisis. As a challenger brand up against the Goliath of the Big 4 Banks, differentiation remains a unifying bank wide priority. Differentiation of our brand, our product propositions, our digital and customer experience.
B&T: What channel is exciting you the most and how do you split your marketing budgets between long/short and channels mix?
Hamilton: Like most mature brands, we use a variety of marketing science & analytical inputs to help inform our marketing mix. ING’s roots have always been as a digital disruptor, with a direct to consumer proposition. This D2C culture still remains alive and well in our business, with our team sweating the daily & weekly customer & financial outputs, then optimising marketing campaigns accordingly. Retail banking is a highly commercial, dynamic category and I’m super proud of how data driven the team have become managing the full funnel, balancing long & short term priorities, with both creativity & marketing effectiveness at the core. In terms of a favourite channel, I don’t really have one – it really depends on the marketing objective of the campaign. TV is always a high performer for salience. The team have been seeing some brilliant results lately with TikTok & brand content for mid funnel engagement. Our ‘Refer A Friend’ advocacy program continues to be a really high quality conversion channel for us.
B&T: What is the biggest challenge you currently face in the marketplace?
Hamilton: We’re on a large digital transformation journey at ING, building new product propositions, integrating new technology platforms & further digitising & personalising our customer experiences. In simple terms this will help set ING up for the next phase of growth & help customers get on with doing their ‘non banking’ thing sooner. Key to this success is getting the sequencing of delivery right, and ensuring any change for customers is seamless.
B&T: What campaign are you most proud of?
Hamilton: Can I be cheeky and have two? I’m really proud of our strategic media partnership with Channel 7, that sees ING as the official finance sponsor of the Ch7 daily news. We’ve integrated our brand objective of helping Aussies be more empowered with money topics in a unique way that sees our Head of Markets & Consumer spokesperson Matt Bowen live on air 5 times a day in over 10m Aussies lounge rooms. We’re seeing excellent results from cross channel amplification of this daily news content across PR, socials, editorial and the team are only just beginning!
Secondly, our brand platform “Be The Lion” has worked its marketing effectiveness socks off with our CGI Lion & brand ambassador ‘Roary’, now the equal first strongest icon in banking. Our brand continues to make people smile and goes a long way in helping us convince more savvy Aussies to switch to Australia’s most recommended bank ING – by showcasing the benefits of our simple, customer centric value propositions. It shows the power of a clear brand strategy grounded in being the customer champion, and consistent, distinctive creative assets to punch above our weight in driving demand.
B&T: Where do you see yourself in five years time?
Hamilton: Hopefully still in the privileged position of leading brilliant marketing teams to drive growth & behaviour change for businesses. Maybe even on a general management path for a smaller challenger brand. Who knows perhaps I’ll give one of these crazy top drawer business ideas a crack and try my hand as founder. It’s amazing to think about how much has changed in our lives in the last 5 years, and the prospect of how different our industry will be in 5 more years.
B&T: Zenith is the presenting partner of B&T’s CMOs to Watch list. The agency takes a predictive view when it comes to industry perspectives. They’d like to know your prediction for marketing in the next 12 months.
Hamilton: Three concepts are top of mind.
1. As margins continue to be under pressure with macroeconomic drivers, they’ll be an ongoing cost challenge & tug of war on the optimal marketing mix balancing long & short term marketing investment & demand gen strategies. Marketeers need to employ highly commercial, data driven decisioning to optimise this mix – balancing brand building shoring up future customer demand & converting current demand via effective performance marketing.
2. Winning the hearts, minds & wallets of GenZ will be key – and this segment’s expectations of brands on topics like sustainability, social impact, seamless UX, omnichannel & personalised mobile led experiences are increasing. Their media consumption behaviours like TikTok for news / search, social commerce adoption & digital engagement are fascinating and evolving quickly.
3. Finally, I reckon we’ll see a huge acceleration of GenAI use cases for productivity & effectiveness – from automated content creation, to AI chatbots, to predictive analytics for personalisation engines. I’ve become obsessed lately learning more about how AI Agents are going to change the way we consume media, interact with brands & research products – the prediction is AI Agents will simplify, personalise and automate the way we shop. I’ve spent the last month using ChatGPT as my primary search engine and it’s changed my life. From toddler tantrum tips, to where to find the cheapest fuel today, to Tokyo underground foodie tour planning. In my humble view, the traditional consumer purchase funnel will eventually become redundant, especially for younger tech adopters. Instead of consumers searching for products themselves, AI Agents will do it all for us, knowing our distinct preferences & seamlessly bringing us the best options. Wild! And so very exciting, especially for curious and customer focused marketeers.
Check out the other instalments in the CMOs To Watch series here:
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: From Backpackers To Brand Builders – How Welcome To Travel’s Darryl Newby Is Redefining Youth Tourism
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Asahi’s Jemma Downey On Brewing Creativity & Crafting Brand Growth
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: How Tourism Tasmania’s Lindene Cleary Keeps The Bottom Of Australia Top Of Mind
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Lisa Little-Cain On Bushwalks, Big Ideas & Brand Brilliance At Aldi
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: How Shad Haehae Is Raising The Marketing Bar & Raising His Daughter Along The Way
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Super Mum & Coles Super Marketer, Alex Piercy
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Telstra’s Alita McMenamin On Brand, Balance & The Power Of Family
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: 28 Group’s Tim White On Storytelling, Social Media & Sport
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Meet Zach Kitschke, Full Time Canva CMO, Part Time Snowboarding Superstar
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Meet Peita Golden, Telco Marketing Boss, Footy Fanatic & Future Pub Owner
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Peter Chapman On Driving Reflections Holidays’ Brand Transformation & Reimagining Camping
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Gardening & Dinner Parties, How Vinyl Group’s Alli Galloway Finds Peace Outside Of The Roaring Live Music Scene
- CMO’s To Watch, Presented By Zenith: The Little Joys Behind Michelle Rowling’s Thrilling Life At Luna Park
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Hawthorn FC’s Dan Hamer’s Next Big Partnership
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: DrinkWise’s Part Time Builder, Part Time Marketer, Nathan Kent
- CMOs To Watch, Presented By Zenith: Mountain Culture’s Out Of This World Bradley Firth
