Refuelling the ideas tank for automotive marketers

Steve joined Edelman in 1998 and became Australia CEO in March 2016. Having over two decades of consultancy and in-house experience on brand and corporate assignments, prior to that he worked in 6 different Edelman offices including New York and Paris. Most recently where he was COO of Edelman UK & Ireland, leading the day-to-day operations of over 600 staff across three offices.

As Edelman Australia’s CEO, Steve leads an award-winning team of 120 communications and content consultants across Sydney and Melbourne helping clients to authentically improve trust between themselves and their core constituents.

Steve combines his passions in economics, anthropology and science to deliver strategies to drive trust in today’s low trust world.

Wayne is a marketing executive with 30 years of experience in the automotive sector, specifically focusing on innovative marketing communications and brand growth that delivers tangible business outcomes.

Currently CMO at Toyota, Australia’s bestselling car brand, his career started at Daihatsu Motor Co. before starting his journey with Toyota within the National Sales and Marketing team.

Wayne is now responsible for maintaining and growing Toyota Australia’s leading brand position in Australia as the business transitions into its next exciting phase.

Wayne’s passion is about culture and leadership, not necessarily marketing. He strives to enable those around him to achieve their full potential with the shared goal of taking one of Australia’s most trusted brands from strength to strength through their mission – Inspiring human progress through mobility.

Sarah is a communications and public relations expert with over a decade of experience in both B2C and B2B PR strategies for the technology, startup, sports and cultural sectors. Prior to joining Character, Sarah spent over five years as the Senior Corporate Affairs Advisor for Telstra.

Through her work with Character, Sarah has developed and managed PR strategies for a range of clients, from major telecommunications and technology brands to entertainment and music PR. Sarah is comfortable working with a variety of stakeholders from government officials to social media influencers and has been praised for her work in stakeholder engagement and corporate communications.

Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts, Communications and Sociology from Monash University and was on the PRIA board from 2012-2014, completed the Corporate Affairs Academy through the AIBC and is involved in women’s AFL networks, having been part of the team that prepared the winning submission for both Carlton and North Melbourne Football Club’s AFLW teams.

Nick’s career spans 30 years in both traditional and digital agencies. He is driven by creativity and has a passion for new thinking and problem solving which has resulted in a raft of awards both locally and internationally. Along with holding key roles in agencies such as DDB, JWT, Y&R and Grey, Nick has been a founding partner in two highly successful local agencies Sputnik Agency, one of Australia’s first digital agencies with a staff of 80 which he ran for 10 years before selling it and now The Royals. Nick has a passion for creating a culture and environment where creative, interested minds can prosper.

As the Corporate Communications Manager for Mercedes-Benz Vans Australia & New Zealand, Blake Vincent is a communications, public relations and product specialist with over a decade of experience across the automotive, retail and consumer goods, and technology sectors. Prior to his appointment as PR and Corporate Communications Manager for Mercedes-Benz Vans in 2017, Blake was Product Manager for the Vans range for three years. Prior to joining Mercedes-Benz Vans, Blake worked in senior product and marketing roles for leading brands EnergyAustralia and Goodyear & Dunlop Tyres.

Known for their reliability and durability, the Mercedes-Benz Vans range includes the Sprinter, Vito, Valente, V-Class, Marco Polo ACTIVITY and soon the new X-Class ute. With an emphasis on innovation, quality, strength and category leadership, Mercedes-Benz Vans have pioneered many modern safety features and future-oriented technologies in their range. Uniting comprehensive vehicle concepts with typical Mercedes-Benz design expertise, the range offers options to support a range of customer segments.

Blake was appointed to the PR and Corporate Communications Manager role in early 2017. In his time with Mercedes-Benz Vans, the company has been recognised for its innovative approach to automotive marketing in national media including GQ, The Project, and Triple M for the Mick Fanning X-Class ambassador announcement. The brand also partnered with Airbnb in August 2017 to launch the Marco Polo ACTIVITY with an activation on Cockatoo Island, allowing nine lucky couples the chance to sleep in a Marco Polo ACTIVITY which was covered by Sunrise, Broadsheet and Sophisticated Traveler.

Blake’s extensive experience in marketing and in product, alongside his innovative consumer-led PR and communications work with Mercedes-Benz Vans Australia & New Zealand make him an appealing speaker in the Australian and New Zealand communications and public relations landscape. Blake’s speaking expertise includes marketing, communications, public relations, strategy, consumer trends, and automotive industry trends and leadership.

Jacquie Hayes is Founder and Editor of Madam Wheels, a company which caters to women who love their luxury cars. Hayes is a highly-regarded journalist whose newspaper career spans 30 years, most recently as a columnist for The Australian Financial Review and, previously, Investment Editor of The Australian newspaper. Her love of automotive excellence started 15 years ago when she spent a month exploring the length of the US west coast in the then-new Porsche Cayenne Turbo. She has since driven and written about high-end cars whenever possible, finally making that a full-time pursuit with the launch of Madam Wheels.

Michael Higgins is a Director and Co-Founder at HelloCars, Australia’s first online-only used car dealership. During his time working in the motoring industry, Michael observed that the experience of buying and selling used cars is fraught with pushy salespeople and a poor customer experience, and knew there was an opportunity to do it better. After extensive research into disruptive online business models, Michael teamed up with elder brother Paul to launch HelloCars in late 2015 with the aim of being open and transparent in business and in giving customers a positive and secure experience when buying and selling used cars. HelloCars boasts a team of over 20 full time staff and is on track to reach $13.5 million in sales this year, a 310 per cent increase from 2017. 

Born as a Turkish migrant child in Germany, Jasmin grew up accustomed to different cultures and religions.

With almost 20 years of both local and international industry experience across a variety of accounts and categories, Jasmin still has a hunger and passion of outstanding creative ideas. Coming from a highly creative background in Germany and with multiple Industry awards under her belt, Jasmin believes in brave communication and their effectiveness in solving commercial problems.

Jasmin left her home in Hamburg, Germany in 2006 after a long stint as Account Director at highly awarded German Agency Jung von Matt working on a variety of Pan European accounts.

What was supposed to be a 12 months surf trip around the world, turned into a 6 months surfing adventure around Indonesia and the South Pacific and a permanent relocation to Australia.

Once settled in her new home she worked for Australian Agencies BWM, JWT & Droga5 an Saatchi & Saatchi on integrated Accounts like Telstra BigPond, Smirnoff, Thrifty, Lexus and nib health insurance.

Jasmin joined Spark44 in February 2015 to head up Spark’s newly created Sydney office. Spark44 is a global JV with Jaguar Land Rover and has 18 offices around the world.

She now leads the Sydney, Singapore and Taipei operation for Spark44.

Helen is an accomplished marketing professional with expertise in strategy and research. Helen has spent a significant part of her career working in creative agencies – as the Director of Strategy at Singleton, Ogilvy & Mather she worked on Qantas, Myer and Telstra, then as the Director of Strategy at McCann Erickson she worked on Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard and Uncle Tobys.

She has developed and implemented marketing, brand and communication strategies for an extensive list of domestic and multinational clients.

Today Helen is Head of Research & Insights at The Media Store, Australia.

She’s passionate about helping unlock brand growth. She loves a challenge. As a strategist, her approach is to challenge the status quo and generate fresh thinking that uncovers new opportunities for brands to connect with people.

Monia Montefusco is the Head of Strategy & Planning at The Media Store. An award winning strategist, Monia is responsible for leading the channel strategy and planning output across the agencies’ client base.

Working collaboratively with The Media Store Business units and Research & Insights team Monia is integral in designing connected channel architectures that deliver on client objectives grounded in strong actionable insights. She is passionate about ideas and the intersection of context and creativity. 

Simon van Wyjk worked on the digital transformation of automotive brands, publishers, pharmaceutical companies, software companies and insurance business.

His first customer was Microsoft, and he launched BigPond, Amaysim and eTrade and he worked on the Toyota brand from 2000 till 2015.

Simon has been recognised as someone who makes digital understandable and he has been a writer, speaker and columnist for SMH, Mumbrella, B and T  and Sky Business.

He helped Toyota become the number one automotive brand on the Internet and maintained that position for 12 years.   Forrester identified Toyota as the most useable Automotive site in the world.

He works on the Digital Transformation of the Autopact Group.

Richard Parker is Partner and Executive Planning Director at Edge.

After honing his skills in London, working with clients like ASOS.com, Aviva, Coca-Cola, Estee Lauder, Johnson & Johnson and Bulmers Irish Cider, Rich moved to Australia in 2012 and joined the Edge board as strategy chief.

Now a fully-fledged Sydneysider, Rich works closely with Edge’s clients, including AAMI, AGL, Apia, GIO, Lendlease, Nulon, Petbarn and Suncorp to challenge the way they engage with their customers.

Rich has written for AdNews, B&T, SmartCompany, Mumbrella, and has spoken at the ADMA Global Forum. B&T MAD Week, Mumbrella 360, the Mumbrella Festival of Branded Content, the Data Strategy Symposium, and the CMO Summit.

Jamie Crick is the Social Media Director at Emotive, heading up the social amplification team. Jamie has been with Emotive since launch in Feb 2015. Jamie has amplified social media campaigns for some of the biggest brands in Australia including Optus, Youi Insurance, rebel, Berlei, HelloFresh, Lynx, Audible, YoPRO, Virgin Mobile, Xero and more. Before joining Emotive he ran Nice Marmot, a social video consultancy business, working with brands and publishers such as News Ltd, Glad, Amaysim and Sanitarium. Jamie has worked in digital marketing since commencing with DoubleClick’s international media business in Dublin in 1999. After senior business development, product and strategic management roles at Telstra’s digital advertising division, MediaSmart, he co-founded ground-breaking social video advertising & content business, Boom, where he built and productised large networks of APAC’s foremost social influencers and creator talent, including Australia’s first YouTube multi-channel network.

Over a 22 year career Aaron Incoll has touched a broad cross section of the downstream oil industry.

From customer service, retail sales to supply and logistics Aaron has worked across many parts of the Mobil Oil business in Australia and the broader Asia Pacific region.

It is however in the commercial fields selling firstly fuels and then most recently lubricants that Aaron has found his niche. Whether it be selling in the global marine fuel market, pioneering business development work in Indonesia or selling lubricants across the Pacific, Aaron has collected valuable insights and expertise.

In his current role Aaron is focused on developing Mobil’s lubricant business in all aspects of automotive taking the Mobil 1, Mobil Super and other industry leading brands into the retail, franchise car dealer, workshop and reseller segments.

When not working Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife Sue and two kids. As a sports lover Aaron achieved a life-long dream when the Richmond Football Club won the AFL premiership in 2017. With what time is left over Aaron also enjoys watching the Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing team, Chelsea FC and pounding the pavement jogging the suburban Melbourne streets.

Christian is a lateral thinker who has created highly-awarded and effective campaigns across numerous brand categories.

Prior to co-founding The Core Agency, Christian was Creative Director at TBWA Sydney where he worked on international brands including PlayStation and Mars Inc.

Brands he has worked on that have gained from his single-minded and passionate approach also include QBE Insurance, Sydney Airport Parking, The Sydney Morning Herald, BOQ, St.George, ING, Foxtel, Wild Turkey and RSVP. His automotive experience includes two years on Mitsubishi Motors, launching numerous new models while working at Y&R Adelaide.

Christian has appeared on The Gruen Transfer (who hasn’t!?) and as luck would have it, won ‘The Pitch’ segment. As a commitment to bringing through young creative talent into the industry, he led AWARD School for two years and is regularly invited to judge industry creative festivals.

Christian is a huge believer in the power of great advertising ideas and is currently hunting a like-minded automotive client for The Core Agency!

Blair started his career as a product designer before moving into graphic design and branding. Originally from Melbourne, Blair spent a couple of years hawking his wares in London before returning to Australia where he started his ad career as an Art Director at JWT in Sydney. Blair is now Creative Director on Honda at Leo Burnett Melbourne. He has been working on the Honda account for 4 years.

Blair was ranked in the top 50 Art Directors in the world in 2015 and 2016. His passion for creating great work has led to being recognised at major advertising award shows for both creativity and effectiveness. Highlights include Cannes Lions, D&AD Pencils and Clios as well as an Integrated Grand Prix at Spikes and Creative Effectiveness Grande Lotus at Adfest.

Jack has worked in the advertising industry for nearly 10 years and at some Australia’s leading agencies.

He was an Account Director at TBWA Melbourne and had two stints at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. In
that time he’s worked on accounts such as CUB, Nissan, Bupa, Tesla, Swisse, Mazda and Yellow Pages.
At just 26, he was a Senior Account Director at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and by 27 he and Producer
Nicholas Cox founded Gen C, a Melbourne based video content agency.

In just three years, Gen C have worked with and created TV and Online campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands including; Kathmandu, Jayco, Nike, ANZ, Tesla, Swisse, ahm and many more. Gen C have also won creative film awards both locally and internationally for their short films. Including the Major Prize at Tropfest, The London Independent Film Festival and The New York Independent film festival.

Daniel is a customer marketing leader with over sixteen years experience working with premium brands to develop and execute strategy through technology. His expertise is in developing customer strategy and leading digital transformation, using data to inform the design of customer experience. For the past six years Daniel has worked across a variety of customer centric roles at BMW Australia and since 2014 has been responsible for Customer Relationship Management. With a passion for end-to-end experience design, Daniel believes brands must embrace data led design if they are to successfully engage and retain customers and is excited about the role conversion rate optimisation (CRO) plays in this process.

Nima Yassini is the CEO and Founder of New Republique, an award winning experience optimisation agency specialising in brand, UX and conversion rate optimisation (CRO) strategies to dramatically improve the performance of websites for brands like Kogan, Catch of the Day, BMW Australia, Fantastic Furniture, HSBC, Employsure, Bendigo Bank and OFX. Nima is the Chair of the Association for Data-driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA) association Digital + Technology Collective, and Board Director of the broader ADMA business network, the Australian Alliance for Data Leadership (AADL).

Nima has over twenty years experience working in digital marketing and advertising across the globe, holding prominent roles with multinational agencies including JWT London, BMC media and Glass Onion.

Dr Brett Dale was appointed the Group Chief Executive for the Motor Trades Association of Queensland in May 2016. Brett has held senior leadership roles for the past 12 years, commencing as Managing Director of the MTA Institute, which is the leading automotive provider for training and apprenticeship delivery in Queensland. He has completed his Doctorate of Business Administration, Change Leadership and Intrapreneurship along with his MBA in Business Administration, Management and Operation. He is an accomplished intrapreneur developing many new commercial opportunities for the MTA Group.

Prior to entering the automotive industry, Brett served for fifteen years with the Australian Defence Force. This experience provided a unique perspective of vocational and education training both nationally and internationally. In Iraq he was part of the leadership team responsible for establishing the Iraqi Support Services Institute which facilitated a leadership mentoring program as part of the reconstruction of Iraq.

In 2017, he was instrumental in the development of Australia’s first automotive hub MTAiQ, which provides an eco-system that supports innovation in the motor trades.

Caroline Laird, Industry Head, Automotive, Google. Caroline has been with Google since 2013, and was appointed to head up the Automotive division last year. She has 15 years experience in Software Engineering, Product, Media and Marketing, having previously been the first investor of her start up of 7 years, before the business was moved to New York to continue its growth trajectory. Caroline completed her Masters from UNSW’s AGSM where she duxed her class. In her spare time you will find Caroline playing Premier League Football (soccer) on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and mentoring the next generation of stars coming through the football ranks. In her current role, Caroline evangelises the role that digital has disrupted in the automotive industry due to the rapid change of consumer behaviours. A new generation of skill sets, communication channels and technology are required by the OEMs and their dealers to ensure a seamless connection to their end consumers.

Joe Perkins is the Facebook Client Partner for the Australian & New Zealand automotive industry. He works alongside the country’s top auto brands, agencies and dealerships to achieve measurable business outcomes across Facebook’s family of apps and services. Joe brings a true passion around the intersection of data and insights, technology, and creativity.

Prior to Facebook Joe has worked on some of the biggest automotive accounts at media agencies across the globe.

Joe combines his broad digital and Facebook knowledge to deliver real business results with truly innovative solutions for his partners.

Emma has over 18 years experience in senior marketing roles within Australia and Asia, including Shanghai, Bangkok and most recently Singapore. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Marketing, Management and Economics.

Emma’s current role as Renault Austrlaia’s Marketing Director, sees Emma lead the total Marketing function including brand strategy, communications, digital, CRM, sponsorship, media and local area marketing, as well as the product planning function, and supply chain including distribution and logistics.

Prior to Renault, the majority of her career has been with General Motors (GM), working on brands such as Holden in Australia, and global brands such as Chevrolet and Cadillac in Asia. Whilst many of her roles with GM have been within Marketing, she also has experience within sales, product planning and export.

Her most recent role at Holden as General Manager- Brand, Marketing and Media Strategy saw Emma leading all aspects of Holden’s brand strategy, as well as being responsible for Holden’s media budget and strategy, and partnerships and sponsorships.

Prior to that Emma was the Regional Marketing Manager for South East Asia, based out of Singapore, where she was responsible for driving the global brand strategy and communications for Chevrolet and Cadillac across countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and other South East Asia countries. She also led the Marketing team in Thailand as Marketing Director for an 8 month period on secondment.

These roles have focused on the development and execution of often complex brand strategies, multi-channel marketing communications, leading teams and management of P&A budgets in excess of $100 million per annum.