From left: Quantium’s Tony Davis; ADMA CEO Jodie Sangster; Westpac’s Karen Ganschow; EBay Australia and New Zealand’s Steve Brennen and Droga5’s Steve Coll.
The Association for Data Driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) has named eBay marketer Steve Brennen as its chairman and drafted in Droga5 creative head Steve Coll in a move to address a lack of creative skills on the board.
Brennen replaces Westpac’s general manager CRM and digital Karen Ganschow who will remain a director.
ADMA chief executive Jodie Sangster said Coll, who oversaw the creative revitalisation of Havas Worldwide Australia and has won numerous awards, will address a shortage of creative representation on the board and help drive a program to improve the quality of copywriters in Australia.
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Mumbrella revealed last month that judges were unable to find a winner in the copywriting category at the ADMA awards because entries failed to strike a balance between creativity and effectiveness.
It led to calls from Sangster to the industry to rekindle the art of copywriting and recreate the “great slogans, the great ads” of the past.
“You can remember certain slogans and certain words and that’s what we need to get back to,” she told Mumbrella in October.
On the appointment of Coll, the CEO said: “In recent years, ADMA has worked hard to meet the creative community’s needs with initiatives like Creative Fuel, ADMA Creative School and the Young Creative of the Year competition. But we need to do more and Steve Coll, with his award-winning experience, will be invaluable in this regard.
“ADMA intends to focus on copywriting and initiate a program to train high quality copywriters for the industry. Steve will be able to help us take the right steps to design the program.”
The program is expected to include a mentoring scheme to develop budding talent that will run over several months.
Sangster said Brennen, the new chairman, who is senior director of marketing and advertising sales with eBay Australia and New Zealand, will bring “exceptional experience in marketing, advertising and e-commerce”.
“It’s our aim to ensure the ADMA Board of Directors is fully representative of the growing marketing, media and advertising industry. We want to make sure we have experts in fields like data, content, creativity, technology and customer experience at the table,” she said.
“The appointments of Steve Brennen as Chair and Steve Coll as a Director reflect this mandate, whilst maintaining the highest standards of governance and leadership.”
Outgoing chair Karen Ganschow paid tribute to departing director Tony Davis describing his contribution to the association as “immeasurable”.
“We are grateful for the vision he has brought to ADMA and the time, energy and passion he devoted to the Board. He has truly changed the face of data-driven marketing in Australia, as well as the association that represents the industry,” she said.
In further changes, Quantium director Tony Davis, one of ADMA’s longest serving members and a past chairman, will step down after 10 years while Qantas Loyalty chief marketing officer Stephanie Tully becomes vice chair.
The full board for 2014/15 is:
Steve Brennen, Senior Director-Marketing and Advertising Sales, eBay Australia and New Zealand
Karen Ganschow, General Manager, CRM and Digital, Westpac (Past Chair)
Jodie Sangster, CEO and Company Secretary, ADMA
Stephanie Tully, Chief Marketing Officer, Qantas Loyalty (Vice Chair)
David Bowie, CEO, SAS Australia and New Zealand (Treasurer)
Emily Amos, General Manager-Marketplace, Woolworths
Steve Coll, Executive Creative Director, Droga5 Australia
Andy Pontin, CEO, Clemenger BBDO Sydney
Lucinda Barlow, Head of Marketing, Google Australia and New Zealand
Chantal Walker, Chief Marketing Officer, Foxtel
Leigh Terry, CEO-Australia and New Zealand, Omnicom Media Group
Damian Eales, Group Executive-Marketing, News Corp Australia
Jason Juma-Ross, Lead Partner-Digital Intelligence, PwC Australia.
Steve Jones