Australia’s biggest brands have been challenged to take a strong leadership position in the community, to be a reliable presence in an uncertain world.
Martin Brown, chair, AANA (Australian Association of National Advertisers), and general manager, Coffee & Dairy, Nestlé Oceania, presented a call to action at the annual industry RESET event.
“The opportunities in front of us to lead are more exciting than ever and they demand bigger, bolder and braver leadership,” he told delegates at a live event in Sydney and online.
“Done well, brands drive trends, shape attitudes and lead change. Our world needs us to lift to this level of impact.”
He identified climate change as the greatest human challenge.
He told the annual event that the AANA is leading the way as the first organisation in Australia to become a Planet Pledge partner, joining this initiative developed by the World Federation of Advertisers.
“The AANA is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion through our codes and promoting gender equality as a partner in the UN Unstereotype Alliance,” he says.
“We are committed to supporting reconciliation action and shaping how our industry can build understanding, respect and positive action that improves the lives of our First Nations people,” he said.
“To make this leadership impact, we need to promote the voice of brands in our board rooms, driving the effectiveness agenda ... generating investment and building the capability of brand teams to maximise their strategic impact.”
He says brands can impact the way in which individuals feel about themselves.
And they can create a safer community and a safer industry that we all work in can be shaped by how brands promote diversity, inclusion, and gender equality.
“It’s a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world we live in,” he said at the opening of RESET.
“How we lead through change can set the agenda. Brands can be the comforting continuity, the reliable consistent presence in an uncertain world.
“They can be the hope of a brighter future and they can be the challenge to lift and be better as a community.”
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