Four weeks into an overhaul of NRMA's marketing systems, general manager of marketing Jana Kotatko says embracing new technology has dramatically changed the role of the marketer within the business.
Kotatko was speaking at a roundtable lunch hosted by Oracle, where she explained that in the month since the brand went live with its new marketing cloud offering, it's put NRMA's marketers in the drivers seat when it comes to owning and actioning communications to its 2.4 million members.
“The day-to-day role of the marketer has fundamentally changed,” she says. “They are now in control and accountable end-to-end for their campaigns and they now have the ability to get a campaign in market in hours versus weeks and months [previously].”
She added that NRMA's marketers are also now able to see results in real-time and then optimise their campaigns accordingly. Previously all these different aspects of campaign management and creation would sit across four individuals in several different departments, but now each segment “sits in the hands in the marketers”.
NRMA is still on a digital transformation journey, with Kotatko being brought in 18 months ago to lead this process. She explained that when implementing new technology such as the cloud, she ensured that the business set up its initial project to be an “easy bite” of two channels – SMS and email – with this then sparking a greater communications overhaul.
Kotatko outlined that these first steps could lead to the business investing in an DMP, to ensure it's optimising its media in the best possible way.
One key learning that came out of the whole experience for Kotatko was that while a system is great, a shift like this is equally about the technology and ensuring the brand's people are willing to come on the journey.
“When we think about transformation there's obviously the system and that's critical, but much of the agenda around transformation is around the people and processes. You can't underestimate the people impact and taking people on that journey – the technology just simply enables,” she added.
NRMA is not the first brand to undergo such a transformation, with HCF previously telling AdNews how it undertook its digital overhaul.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.