Prize winners share their success stories
Among the many outstanding presenters at the AMI’s National Conference in Melbourne on 11-12 October will be the 2005 winners of the Institute’s two top prizes: the Sir Charles McGrath Award for significant contribution to marketing, and Marketing Program of the Year.
Trevor Amery, the chairman of Subaru Australia and Sir Charles McGrath Award winner, will present the first keynote address of the conference. Amery was responsible for the rejuvenation of Subaru in Australia, which in 1995 came within 12 hours of closing its doors.
The crisis brought new clarity and focus to the company and “a plan that was so outrageous we could only deliver a chapter at a time”, Amery said. Between 1995 and
2005, that plan delivered a sales rise from 8000 cars a year to more than 35,000. Australia is now Subaru’s third biggest market worldwide and has the biggest market share of any major Subaru market.
Amery joined Subaru in 1990 as national sales and marketing manager, responsible for developing the Subaru brand and building sales in Australia. In 1991 he was appointed general manager, Subaru Australia, becoming managing director in 1992. He spent the next eight years in this role, where he worked with the team that built Subaru in Australia and New Zealand. Following the exponential growth of the company during this time, he was appointed chief executive of Inchcape Motors Australasia in 2000. He is now chairman of Inchcape Motors Australasia and Subaru Australia.
Sunny Queen Farms, a Queensland egg distributor and marketer, scooped the branding category, the commercial industry sector category, plus the top prize of Marketing Program of the Year in the 2005 AMI National Awards for Marketing Excellence.
The company’s chief executive, John O’Hara, returns to the 2006 conference to share the great story of its winning campaign, ‘Crack a Sunny Queen Smile’. O’Hara will tell how Sunny Queen successfully tackled the issue of standing out in a commodity item food market with only a modest marketing budget.
Tim Ambler, a Senior Fellow at London School of Business, is an expert in the field of marketing metrics, a hot topic in the marketing field and the subject of much research by the AMI in its Marketing Metrics Project. (A first version of the new Marketing Metrics Toolkit will be demonstrated on day one of the conference by AMI national president Roger James and Professor John Roberts.)
Ambler, who is coming all the way from England to be a keynote presenter, will deliver two addresses:
- ‘Marketing Finance: Can Marketing Performance be Measured Financially?’ (day 1)
- ‘Obesity and Advertising: Does Advertising Influence Childhood Obesity?’ (day 2).
Ambler’s main research covers dynamic marketing capabilities, how advertising works, and the evaluation of marketing performance. He is also researching narrative disclosures in company annual reports as well as regulation and deregulation by the EU and UK governments. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and previously joint managing director of International Distillers and Vintners, now part of Diageo plc.
Ambler will also deliver an exciting additional event – a masterclass for senior marketing practitioners entitled ‘You don’t get rich by making money’. This event, to be held on Friday 13 October, will address issues that are central to finding and harvesting cash flow – marketing itself. Attendance at this masterclass can be included in your conference package or booked independently.
The 2006 conference program features many other high-profile speakers — all successful marketers and business people. These include:
- John O’Neill AO, chief executive of the Football Federation Australia, on ‘Football in Australia: What Lies Ahead?’
- Belinda Yabsley, general manager, Mercedes-Benz of Sydney (Airport Express) on ‘Who do Mercedes-Benz drivers think they are?’
- Harold Mitchell AO, chairman of Mitchell & Partners, on ‘The Future of Media Buying in Australia’.
Inquiries can be made to national events manager Roxanne Ruscoe on 1300 737 445 or email roxanne.ruscoe@ami.org.au
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