Robbie Brammall, former chief marketing officer of Hobart’s notorious Museum of Old & New Art (Mona), challenged marketers to “find the unlock” when it comes to gaining support for brand investment from the C-Suite, and avoid becoming addicted to short-term ‘performance marketing crack’ at the launch of new marketer consultancy The Emma Logan Project.
“Now more than ever marketers need to make their brands both unignorable and memorable,” Brammall told a room full of marketers. “We all know the answer is not to just sell, sell, sell, but to consistently invest in brand as well. The hard bit is gaining support for that investment from the C-Suite, especially as budgets come under pressure. So, as an industry, how can we marketers better un-lock that support?”
Brammall noted marketers know what they need to do to build brands and grow the business but it’s their internal structures that too often push them in the direction of performance marketing, which prioritises short term revenue generation without a similar investment in long term brand building.
Robbie Brammel
“There’s never been more alignment on the science of effective marketing and brand growth,” said Brammall. “Thanks to the likes of Mark Ritson, Byron Sharp (and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute), and Les Binet & Peter Field, marketers know to invest in the long and the short, but the reality is that many businesses can’t seem to get off the performance marketing treadmill.
“I know when I became Mona’s CMO there were absolutely parts of the business that were purely on the performance marketing crack. It was the rhythm of those businesses. It took time to win internal support for investment in brand, and then it took runs on the board to convince them it was working,” he said.
Brammall made the comments giving the inaugural CMO address at the launch event for new bespoke marketer-focused consultancy The Emma Logan Project, where he also challenged the marketers in the room to consider a culture of asymmetric risk taking – take lots of risks with a high upside but low downside – as a pathway to growth and above expectation returns.
“We live in a marketing world where algorithms are the taste-makers, where imitation is the only source of innovation, and where progress is measured in relentless micro optimisations. The result? Consumers end up with a tsunami of sameness, a blancmange of beigeness,” he said. “At Mona we called this ‘the drift to the middle’, and it was to be avoided at all costs.
“Working for David Walsh (Mona’s owner) I learnt that this was his unlock – he was hard-wired to take risks that would keep Mona from drifting to the middle, so applying that philosophy to Mona’s marketing instantly gained his support.”
The former Mona CMO, who has now launched his own marketing and creative consultancy Brandango, spoke about making Mona’s first ever brand campaign and how he secured Walsh’s buy-in.
“My challenge was how can I use paid media to grow awareness of Mona, but in a way that didn’t totally betray Mona’s counter-culture ‘show don’t tell’ roots,” Brammall told the room.
Emma Logan
“So, what we did was something hugely ill-advised, potentially libelous and the complete opposite of what tourism brands would normally do. We went to TripAdvisor, found our worst reviews, and then turned them into Mona’s first brand campaign. David’s response? ‘I hate advertising but I like these, because they tell the f***ing truth.’ Visitation went up 25% and the only people who threatened to sue us were Pink Floyd – asymmetric upside.”
Emma Logan said of Brammall’s speech: “I can’t thank Robbie enough for his insights and unique perspective. He didn’t just challenge the room, he shared real-world stories about what it takes to build one of Australia’s boldest brands.
“That spark of an honest conversation among marketers is exactly what The Emma Logan Project is all about: bringing together the best and brightest marketing leaders, helping them step up, shape their voice, and build magnetic executive brands that make a meaningful impact.”
Marketer consultancy The Emma Logan Project plans to continue hosting quarterly CMO dinners to help drive positive discussions among marketers.
Top image: Robbie Brammall and Emma Logan