Little more than six months into his role as CEO at RedBalloon, Nick Baker has opened up about his transition from CMO at Tourism Australia and why more marketers should be welcomed to the leadership table.
Speaking in an exclusive interview to brand journalism and marketing podcast, The CMO Show, Baker said the move from CMO to CEO is becoming increasingly common.
Listen to the audio below.
“CMOs are uniquely equipped for today’s world because people are looking for those big ideas that have the power to ignite companies and transform businesses,” he told the show’s hosts, Mark Jones and Jeanne-Vida Douglas.
Baker credits his years of creative experience for equipping him with the skills necessary to transition to CEO at Australia’s leading online experience gift retailer. Creativity, he said, is no longer simply the domain of the marketing department, it’s the domain of the leadership table.
“Creativity isn’t about choosing fonts, colours and pictures. It’s really about the ways around a problem or the ways to exploit an opportunity; of finding a way around convention,” Baker said. “Instilling a sense of creativity through innovation in an organisation is probably one of the biggest challenges and one of the most important things in today’s world.”
Baker is no stranger to challenge, stepping into his previous role as chief marketing officer at Tourism Australia back in 2007, right off the back of the infamous ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign. During his very successful stint as CMO, Baker delivered three stellar campaigns, playing a pivotal role in bringing Oprah down under – an effort that brought Australia $375 million worth of global and domestic media coverage.
Baker has not gone unrecognised for his efforts, named Marketer of the Year by the Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA) in 2013, and again by the Australia Marketing Institute (AMI) in 2014. Baker is the latest CMO Show guest in a line-up of local and international talent that includes award-winning author, Cyril Peupion; the founder and managing director of The Urban List, Susannah George; and Global CEO and IronMan, Glenn Dobson.
Upcoming guests include managing director at Konica Minolta, Dr David Cooke, and an episode recorded live at Content Marketing World, which took place last week in Cleveland, Ohio.
http://www.filteredmedia.com.au/the-cmo-show-redballoon-ceo-nick-baker/
