Digital outdoor media company QMS has launched a landmark global marketing research report to a packed audience at SXSW Sydney®, revealing that quality is at the centre of the four key priorities Australian CMOs are focused on when building enduring brands.
The study, aligned to research conducted by Ocean Outdoor UK, surveyed more than 25 Australian marketing leaders across 18 major advertising categories with a range of questions including what their greatest marketing challenges are today and what are the most important factors when allocating marketing investment.
In comparison to their UK peers, the research found that Australian marketers placed greater emphasis on effectiveness over efficiency, balancing short term performance pressures versus longer term brand building. Both markets, however, highlighted the importance of audience attention and successfully navigating the opportunity that AI presents.
The research was presented exclusively at SXSW Sydney during the “Great Minds, Greater Brands: The Global Marketing Face-Off That Decodes The Future Of Enduring Brands” session, to a packed room of 300 people in the ICC Sydney as part of the Marketing & Media tracks of the conference.
Presented by industry legend and QMS Global Advisor, Anne Parsons, the session also featured a panel of some of Australia’s most influential marketers including Tony Broderick, director of marketing ANZ for Netflix; Georgia Bruton, chief marketing officer of Brown Brothers Family Wine Group; Bianca Mundy, head of brand and media at Coles; and Mat Baxter, founder and CEO of Skingraphica.
Parsons said: “The marketing landscape has never been more complex, and this research focuses on the universal challenges facing marketers while highlighting the unique strengths of the Australian market. What we’re seeing is a mature understanding that sustainable brand building requires moving beyond simple reach metrics to encompass quality, attention and measurable effectiveness. The insights will help shape how brands approach enduring success in today’s rapidly evolving environment.”
Baxter told the session that one of “the biggest fallacies” in marketing is the distinction between long-term brand building and short-term sales tactics.
“Long term is short term, and short term is long term,” he said. “A lot of the brands that got addicted to the performance drug are now having to swing very aggressively back into long term brand building. For me, I don’t think it’s one or the other. They’re the same thing. Marketing is marketing.”
Mundy agreed that long-term and short-term strategies are “absolutely interlinked”. She said: “As a supermarket, we must get customers in the door to shop with us daily and weekly, but we’re also very focused on what do customers think about our brand. When we think about the short term and the long term, we’re really thinking about one thing – are we really clear what customers want to see from us?”
Broderick told the session that Netflix’s aim is to generate “conversation and fandom” and the quality of what it does and says is determined by the audience and “the core fans of every title”.
“At a title level we’re really being led by what that fan and audience definition of quality is. At a macro level, quality is continuing to be known as that platform where you go to watch and discover what you’re watching next.”
Bruton added: “It’s really important to be clear on what you’re measuring and why, and to do it regularly. The balance between long and short term only works when you know what success looks like for your brand. If you’re measuring brand love, then metrics like awareness and emotional connection should be front and centre, things that tell you how people feel about you, not just what they buy. The key is that your metrics evolve as your brand and audience evolve. It’s not about measuring everything; it is about measuring what’s meaningful to your brand’s purpose.”
QMS is the major sponsor of the Marketing & Media tracks of SXSW Sydney, which features more than 60 sessions exploring the future of advertising, the creator economy, and journalism.
