A new era in finance marketing

Nigel is Co-founder and Strategy Lead at specialist financial services customer experience agency Yell Creative. Nigel has over 20 years’ experience of financial services marketing and strategy in the UK and Australia. Nigel’s passion for transforming the experiences of financial services customers is contagious and has spread throughout our team. His passion for West Ham Utd, Dad Rock and comic books (sorry, graphic novels) has yet to have the same impact.

Levi Slavin has worked in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has won over 100 international awards across dozens of brands; including 35 Cannes Lions, 20 D&AD Pencils, and New Zealand’s first D&AD Black Pencil.

Levi’s work has featured at TED, ranked #1 on both the iTunes music and podcast charts, and become part of popular culture through product innovation, music, branded series, and film.

In 2017, Levi moved from New York to New Zealand to run ColensoBBDO. In his first year, the agency was named the #1 Best and Bravest by Contagious, #6 most awarded in The Big Won Report, #10 in The Gunn Report, and Agency of the Year by Axis and Campaign Brief.

A senior strategy professional with 15 years of experience leading organizations on their CX and digital journey.

I am passionate about building customer-centric businesses, and have practical experience in the following areas:

• Using digital channels to engage customers
• Designing personalized and smart interfaces
• Developing new digital products
• Re-engineering process, policy and organization structure for the digital age

Though I consider myself a subject matter expert and practitioner across all areas of Digital, I am especially proficient in:

• Marketing in a Digital World
• Analytics
• Customer Experience

My focus has always been on driving results on behalf of my clients. In my career, I have helped achieve the following:

• 290% increase in customer acquisition
• 80% customer retention increase
• 15% cost reduction in marketing spend
• 85% compliance in first year of deployment

James is the Chief Marketing Officer of fast-growing fintech Wisr, a purpose-led brand with a genuine commitment to the financial wellness of Australians. The sweet spot for James is at the intersection between technology, brand purpose and people. He likes what he does… a lot.

Gayle has over eighteen years’ experience working with global clients to deliver effective customer centric strategies and communications.

Her career started in London where she worked at AKQA, Digitas and DLKW, where she gained
extensive experience in financial services working across Lloyds TSB, HBOS, and Coutts, in addition to leading relationships and customer centric strategies across Cadbury, Unilever, Kelloggs, and General Motors.

Since arriving in Australia, Gayle has focused her passion for customer behavior to help re-shape Clemenger BBDO Melbourne’s integrated offering and merging of data and creative capabilities, alongside leading a number of clients at the agency including NAB, Belong, TAC and Visit Victoria.

Melody is the General Manager of Product and Network Marketing at ME Bank; a bank that is 100% owned by 26 of Australia’s leading industry super funds. As a senior marketer, Melody has worked with local and global brands in automotive, freight and logistics, e-commerce and banking.

At ME Bank, Melody is responsible for marketing communications across all banking products and works with industry super funds on initiatives to help Australians get ahead.

Fiona Nixon is Bank Australia’s Head of Strategy and Communications and is a passionate about the role that business needs to play in addressing social and environmental issues. She is responsible for the bank’s engagement and communication with staff and customers as well as its public policy commitments. Fiona also oversees the Bank Australia Impact Fund, through which the bank invests 4% of after tax profits to create positive social and environmental outcomes. Since joining the bank in 2013, Fiona has managed the rebrand to Bank Australia and a range of initiatives designed to build the bank’s responsible banking brand.

Fiona has a background in consulting working with private and public sector and for-purpose clients on communications, social policy development, major events, and community consultation. She has also held senior communications roles in the Victorian State Government and local government in Melbourne.

Fiona has a Bachelor of Arts (Law) from Macquarie University and is currently completing an Executive MBA at RMIT University.

Adam has build a career making the complex simple and the simple compelling. He honed his craft with a range of local and international clients including Telstra, Microsoft, Verizon, Commonwealth Bank, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Allianz, SAP, News Corp & Optus.

During his time in the US he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy – a period where he developed a fascination for Customer Experience, the nuanced nature of international marketing and universality of brilliant creative.

A passionate supporter of continuous education and talent development, Adam is the current President of the International Advertising Association & member of the global IAA board. A father of three, he wouldn’t be without health cover and is a regular in ER.

Adam is President of the International Advertising Association, Australia.

Chris Savage is one of Asia Pacific’s pre-eminent public relations, marketing and communications industry leaders. But that’s not his passion. What drives Chris and is shaping his career today is helping leaders and businesses accelerate growth …. growth in profits, courage, momentum, capability, reputation, efficiency, effectiveness, and growth in stature.

Following a highly successful 25 year career in public relations… where his roles included Chairman of the biggest PR group in the region and as an entrepreneur who started what became one of Australia’s leading financial PR firms…. Chris served for seven years as Chief Operating Officer of STW Group, Australasia’s leading marketing content and communications group, from 2008 and 2015. He resigned in early 2015 to start his own business, The Savage Company, which focusses on helping leaders accelerate growth. Chris is an accomplished keynote speaker and speaks at major conferences across the world. His weekly blog, Wrestling Possums, is read by more than 10,000 followers a week.

Bio coming soon…

Alex joined RFi Group in 2011 and is now Managing Director of the group’s Consulting division, responsible for delivery of all custom research across the globe.

Alex has extensive experience in research, having started his career as an Analyst in London before moving to Sydney to focus on the Australian mortgage and cards markets. Alex then moved into product management, first working on the development of a shared appreciation mortgage for Greenway Capital and then having responsibility for consumer and business credit card and lending products at Westpac and Citibank.

At RFi Alex has also held positions including Research Director – Asia Pacific, Global Research Director and Head of Payments.

Alex graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001.

John is the Facebook Industry Head for Financial Services for Australia and New Zealand. He has 20 years experience in Retail Banking at ING and HSBC in both the UK and Australia, across the Product, Marketing and CX domains. His passion is building brands and driving customer centricity in the finance category. In his role, John is responsible for partnering with clients in the banking and insurance sectors to determine how Facebook products and services can assist them in growing their customer businesses.

Outside of work he is a fan of most sports and is currently working on sharing this passion with his 2 young kids.

Jason has twenty five years experience as a retail designer and retail brand strategist working with some of London’s top brand agencies. In 2001 he started Futurebrand’s design studio in Sydney with Dan Cooper.

Two years later they co founded Public Design Group. Specialising in service retail, the team are now working in nine different countries across Asia and partnering with world-class digital agencies such as Protein One in Sydney and Fitch HK.

Jason is a believer in the efficacy of design thinking as a tool for business improvement. “Good design influences every aspect of a brand, from customer experience, to internal culture, to business performance. Our work penetrates far beyond the walls of the store, ensuring integrity in the delivery of an idea”.

Peter is the Founder of The Shopper Collective, a specialist shopper consultancy, which uses shopper research to develop growth strategies for clients.

Peter’s enduring fascination with shoppers has lasted more than 25 years and has led to projects with many of the global brands in FMCG, Liquor, Pharma, Telco, Banking and Fashion.

As a seasoned keynote, Peter has spoken at industry events in Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, and here in Australia.

Peter is currently writing a book on shopper marketing, which is due for release later this year.

Energetic challenger marketer who has worked on launches for Virgin Money, Bank West, and UBank. Natalie is Chief Marketing Officer for the home loans fintech Athena whose mission is to help Australian’s pay down their home loan faster.

1 part intrepid marketing leader, 1 part fearless mother, 1 part daring entrepreneur and fintech champion, 1 part bootylicious Beyonce. Too many parts? Not for Nat.

Ava has spent the last three decades growing businesses, protecting brand reputations and developing integrated communications campaigns. Ava was Mumbrella CommsCon PR Leader of the Year in 2016 and 2017 and is skilled at building brands and developing story platforms that engage across earned and owned media channels. She has worked in Europe, China, Africa and Asia Pacific, managing several global agency brands including Weber Shandwick, Text100 and AUGUST.ONE. Ava is known for talent acquisition and development skills, territory expansion and delivering profitable agency growth. Ava has strong experience across the healthcare, finance, technology, retail, travel and consumer sectors.

Belinda is a communication professional specialising in financial services, with deep sector knowledge across wealth, super and funds management. Before moving in-house, Belinda honed her career in PR agencies, including WE Buchan, Weber Shandwick and Honner. She builds long-term relationships at senior levels by providing expert counsel, developing effective strategies and anticipating issues.

Maria heads up the Customer team at Volt, with the team’s focus to deliver on Volt’s vision of differentiating through customer experience, helping customers achieve their outcomes and be better off.

Maria brings over 20 years of international and strategic commercial experience, setting up new business ventures, as well as growing sales and profits through data-driven marketing. Her focus has been in financial services, telecommunications, and technology industries, and she has worked in large organisations such as Virgin Group, Optus and AMP, and more recently in fintech organisations OFX, SocietyOne and Volt Bank, with a common thread of leading highly engaged teams and coaching them to make magic happen.

She was recently awarded Marketing Professional of the Year in Women in Finance awards 2018.

Award winning plain English editor and writer Andrew Pegler believes that sometimes words are just not enough … especially clumsy, badly written ones.

2019 is Andrew’s third straight year talking on plain English and the law at Victorian Law Week. His 2019 year’s talk was entitled Plain English is a bankable asset. Listen to Andrew’s interview on ABC radio about his plain English work with legal contracts. Last year Andrew was a judge for the 2018 NZ Plain English Awards and will be doing the same at Australia’s Clear Communications Awardslater this year. Andrew was a presenter at Clarity 2016, a global conference on plain English in the law and his most recent essay on the brand advantages of plain English in business appears in the most recent issue of the prestigious Clarity Journal, the international journal promoting plain language. Andrew was editor of Monash University’s Business Review 2006-2009 and editor of Asian Business Review 1996-1999. Andrew Pegler Media Pty Ltd is a preferred supplier of plain English editorial services and training to the Australian Federal Government and the Victorian Government.

Andrew agrees with Albert Einstein that “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

Adam has build a career making the complex simple and the simple compelling. He honed his craft with a range of local and international clients including Telstra, Microsoft, Verizon, Commonwealth Bank, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Allianz, SAP, News Corp & Optus.

During his time in the US he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy – a period where he developed a fascination for Customer Experience, the nuanced nature of international marketing and universality of brilliant creative.

A passionate supporter of continuous education and talent development, Adam is the current President of the International Advertising Association & member of the global IAA board. A father of three, he wouldn’t be without health cover and is a regular in ER.

Adam is President of the International Advertising Association, Australia.

Mark Behr has led the Marketing teams of some of Australia’s most respected brands, across both automotive and financial services sectors. Notable brands include HSV, FPV, AAMI, Shannons, GIO, Apia and others. With a channel agnostic approach, Behr believes in building great brands while driving clear commercial outcomes. With experience both agency and client side, Behr has implemented successful strategies including innovative brand integration in key telecast properties, targeted re-marketing as well as building content platforms such as the Shannons Club, which generates more than 120,000 unique monthly visits and has over 100,000 members.

David began his career as a designer, moving into art direction and honing his craft at agencies ranging from large multinationals to small independent shops.

In the past 20 years, David has been awarded more than two hundred times on all major national and international award shows with work for brands like AAMI, adidas, Cadbury, Heinz, Mars, Metro, Nintendo, Seek, Schweppes, Suzuki, Tigerair, Whiskas, WorkSafe and the Victorian Government.

This includes multiple ‘Agency of the Year’ titles for agencies under his creative stewardship.
For the past decade, David has also been active in training the next generation of Australian creative talent through his role leading the Melbourne AWARD School program and most recently as the head of ADMA Creative School.

David believes ideas have the power to not only change brands and companies fortunes, but to change the world for the better.

Sara has over 15 years of experience in the finance marketing, digital and communications industries with practical and demonstrated success across paid, earned and owned media locally and internationally.

In her role as Group Executive, Digital and Marketing at Canstar, Sara is responsible for developing and leading the implementation of Canstar’s digital and marketing strategy to drive traffic and brand awareness, improve customer experiences and generate revenue streams.

Sara leads one of the largest and fastest growing teams at Canstar spanning marketing, digital, analytics, PR, SEO and editorial.

Having spent the majority of her career working in financial services, Sara empowers her team to make the complex simple and live up to the brand’s goal of helping consumers to find the right product for them.

Haylee currently leads the brand and engagement team at Bankwest, responsible for all elements of brand strategy, brand communications, sponsorship and social engagement. She has a diverse background of strategic marketing experience from a variety of roles both agency and client-side and loves nothing more than unearthing unique consumer insights that can shape strategic decisions and creative solutions.

Haylee is focused on bringing genuine differentiation to a crowded sector and is passionate about the role that brand and marketing can play in shaping organisational culture and commercial performance. She enjoys the management of key creative and sponsorship partners to ensure diverse and collaborative problem solving.

Haylee’s previous experience includes many well-known brands within both the Australian market and in the retail energy sector in the UK, as well as working within a-number of well-known creative, marketing and CSR agencies providing a breadth of experience in solving unique business problems.

Haylee enjoys developing high performing teams who feel empowered to challenge the status quo and can demonstrate the value of marketing investment and brand building back to the business. In her free time Haylee likes cooking and spending time with her children and husband – preferably in sunshine near the beach.

A creative and business leader with over 20 years’ experience who has lead and revitalized international agencies and brands on both sides of the Tasman. He has been the Creative Director of Clemenger BBDO Wellington, and most recently the Executive Creative Director of Clemenger BBDO Sydney. In recent years Paul has won gold at Cannes, the Spikes, Award and the Effies. His work has also been included in WARC’s 100 Smartest Marketing Campaigns In The World, won the ‘Best of the best’ award at AIMIA Awards and the AdNews Campaign of the Year in 2015. In New Zealand, he created one of the top ten most awarded digital ideas on earth in 2009 and the New Zealand radio ad of the decade.

Digital marketer who has worked across some of the bluest brands in the world. Malcolm has a media buying background, coming from agency roles in London and New York.

Recognised as one of the 2018 Top 30 Emerging Media Leaders, Schalk has demonstrated his leadership and transformational credentials over a digital marketing career spanning over 16 years. Large parts of career so far has been dedicated to the financial services industry, including a period with Hollard Financial Services, where Schalk was critical in the development and rollout of a Health Insurance comparison tool, before joining PHD as a leader of the agency digital team in Melbourne, where his primary responsibility was looking after ANZ Bank.

In his role as the Melbourne Head of Digital at one of Australia’s most innovative companies, Schalk has also had the opportunity to develop and implement market-leading strategic initiatives with such iconic advertisers as Priceline Pharmacies, 7-Eleven and Porsche, among others.

As part of the leadership team at PHD, Schalk is responsible for understanding the digital media landscape, and shaping the culture and capability required to integrate data and technology into the planning heritage of PHD.

Kirstin joined Future Super in 2017 as Chief Operations Officer. In 2018 she was appointed to the Future Super board as Managing Director. Kirstin came to Future Super from Bain & Company, where she specialised in financial services strategy and operations in Australia and Canada. Kirstin has a long history of advocacy and is very passionate about ethics, equality and veganism — particularly as these things relate to animal cruelty, women, the environment, and corporate behaviour. She is currently the chair of the Youth Food Movement Australia and founded Aussie Babywearers for Refugees. Her career started as a lawyer at Freehills, where she got her first taste of clean energy project finance, and she previously worked at Bain & Company where she specialised in financial services strategy and operations in Australia and Canada.

In a career spanning two decades, Mim has become recognised as one of Australia’s pre-eminent and most awarded leaders in marketing.

In her role as Suncorp’s Executive General Manager Brand & Marketing, Mim leads Suncorp’s network of brands, which include AAMI, GIO, Apia, Shannons and Vero. She is also strengthening the Suncorp brand nationally and continuing to build the company’s digital marketing capabilities.

Previously General Manager for M&C Saatchi, Australia’s largest advertising agency, Mim has been globally awarded for building the brands of some of Australia’s most recognised companies including Woolworths, Lexus and Optus. In 2017 under Mim’s leadership, M&C Saatchi was named Australia’s most innovative company by the Financial Review.
Mim has a strong background in financial services, having led significant pieces of work for Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and IAG. She was pivotal in leading the strategic and creative development of the CAN brand platform. She also set the strategic and creative direction for the global ANZ brand campaign, which saw ANZ’s brand value double from $3.4 billion to $6.8 billion in just two years, rocketing it to the most valuable bank brand in Australia during that time.

Mim is known for delivering cut-through creative that delivers results. She is passionate about supporting the next generation of creative leaders and has been recognised as an industry leader for her drive to find new ways to move the industry forward, as well as being an active speaker and mentor.

Brent Smart is Chief Marketing Officer of IAG, Australia’s largest insurance company with leading brands including NRMA and CGU. Brent leads group-wide marketing efforts, from brand strategy to creative execution.

Previously Brent spent 20 years in the advertising business. He was CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York working on iconic American brands like Cheerios, Tide and Walmart. He spent 7 years with BBDO, running their San Francisco office and before that Colenso BBDO which was named Agency of the Decade in New Zealand. Brent has led a body of highly awarded creative work recognised with over 25 Cannes Lions and over 40 Effies.

Originally from Melbourne which explains his love of footy, Brent had to live by a beach after enduring too many North American winters, calling Bondi home with his wife and 3 sons with weird accents.

Helen’s a geographer, researcher, storyteller and dot-connector. She brings 25 years of strategy, change and Northern pragmatism to building brands and marketing functions, and delivers superior commercial outcomes in complex organisations through strong relationships and evidence-based decision making.

Helen currently leads ANZ’s everyday banking marketing where she’s welcomed Apple Pay to Australia, shifted ANZ from #4 to #2 preferred bank amongst under-35s, and is building an agile marketing practice within ANZ’s new ways of working.

Starting out as a management consultant for Accenture Jules moved into the world of advertising in 2000 taking a job at one of London’s early digital agencies. After moving to Australia Jules founded The Hallway in 2007 with a mission to build an advertising agency that could be more relevant, more effective and more interesting.

Together with Creative Partner, Simon Lee, the two have grown The Hallway into one of Australia’s top independent agencies, winning awards around the world for their creativity and effectiveness.

Outside of work Jules blames his sporting background for his competitive edge. In 1993 he represented Great Britain at the world rowing championships. These days sailing has replaced rowing. He has competed in most of the world’s major ocean races including four Sydney-Hobarts.

Jonathan is responsible for Marketing, Digital and Innovation at Auto & General and member of the Board. His extensive experience in all aspects of digital and traditional marketing across a number of industry sectors including FMCG, Financial Services, Insurance and Software and has been instrumental in the growth of the Budget Direct brand in Australia. Jonathan has over 20 years of experience in senior Marketing & Digital roles in Australia and the UK and the United States.

He is recognised as an accomplished advertising agency and industry leader having been an outspoken advocate of integrated communications and advertising effectiveness.

Under his leadership 303 Mullenlowe has grown over the last decade into a showcase multi-disciplined agency where creative, data, technology and media buying skills thrive together as one integrated offering.

Previously as Chairman and CEO of DDB he led the agency’s transformation into a leading creative and diversified offering: launching Mango, integrating Rapp and building the agency’s digital offering.

He has worked on a raft of landmark financial campaigns which recently includes work for Budget Direct, Magellan, the Federal Treasury, P&N Bank, IMB Bank, Fidelity and Challenger. He has also been the architect of campaigns for St George and ANZ.

He has won numerous awards for creativity and effectiveness and believes in delivering campaigns that deliver clients an unfair share of attention and sales success.