Teachers Mutual Bank appoints new head of brand and marketing
Former Kantas and KPMG consultant and fractional CMO, Anita Ayres, who is set to speak at Mumbrella’s Finance Marketing Summit later this month, has joined Teachers Mutual Bank as its new head of brand and marketing, Mumbrella can reveal.
Ayres has spent the past year freelancing as a fractional CMO, helping organisations to identify and articulate customer growth and retention opportunities, creating ways to unlock these opportunities through brand development, and driving strategy into action.
Prior to that, Ayres held roles at Kantar Consulting, helping clients grow in the local and global markets, and in KMPG’s customer, brand and marketing advisory team.
She also previously spent six-and-a-half years at Aware Super, leading the State Super Financial Services rebrand to StatePlus, as head of marketing. Following the integration of StatePlus, First State Super and ViC Super, she was made head of innovation for the group in 2019.
Anita Ayres
Ayres told Mumbrella she wanted to find somewhere where she could do some good, and the role at Teachers Mutual Bank allows her to fulfil that purpose.
“I love the [finance] sector, but I was really looking for an organisation that has values at its core,” she explained.
“And Teachers Mutual Bank definitely has that. You don’t have that conflict of having to choose between customers and shareholders, because the customers here are basically the shareholders – the bank is owned by members.”
She said she was impressed by the bank’s social responsibilities, how serious it is about its values, and is looking forward to giving bank to society and the essential services of teachers.
“I do see that it is [social purpose] built in, not just bolted on. Everything they do is driven by their social responsibility. Teachers Mutual Bank is B Corp certified, all profits are reinvested into the organisation, and the ethos of actually being truly member centric and sustainable, good for the world, it very core to who they are, and I love that.”
Reporting to chief marketing officer Nichole Banks, Ayres will be responsible for brand, the customer life cycle, digital functions of the bank, and communications.
She has been tasked with three main duties: Bringing a stronger market orientation to the business, evolving the brand strategy and architecture, and building a future-proof marketing team capability.
“I’ve done a lot of brand transformation in my career, and brand is my core skill, so I’m really excited to actually leverage all of that in this new role,” she told Mumbrella.
Mumbrella has also contacted Teachers Mutual Bank and Nichole Banks for comment.
Ayres will be speaking at the upcoming Mumbrella Finance Marketing Summit on July 25, leading a masterclass on how to build powerful financial brands.
In this session, she will delve into the core components of creating a brand that stands out in a competitive landscape, exploring the critical importance of capturing and maximising the fraction of a moment that consumers grant brands, while emphasising the need for simplicity.
She will look at brand architecture models, examining and contextualizing the pros and cons of each structure and the factors influencing choice, discuss the fundamental drivers of brand and business growth, and share some useful frameworks to help build superior brand propositions.
Her masterclass completes a program filled to the brim with revolutionary ideas and must-attend conversations for finance marketing professionals.
Suncorp’s executive general manager of brand and customer experience, Mim Haysom, is confirmed to speak on how AAMI leveraged creativity to successfully reshape its brand.
Meanwhile, Youi’s head of marketing strategy, Dave Annesley, will take to the summit’s stage for an exploration of how having a challenger mindset will allow brands to stay ahead of the competition.
Other speakers include Mastercard’s EVP, head of marketing and comms for APAC, Julie Nestor; Stake’s CMO, Bryan Wilmot; and Cbus Super’s group head of brand and marketing, Potta Findikidis.
Limited tickets to the conference, which will be held at 12-Micron Sydney on July 25, are available here.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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