Two new Brand New World with Russel Howcroft podcast episodes have just been released.
 
They feature two successful women, Aimee Buchanan, the CEO of OMD and Zoë Foster Blake, successful author and founder of globally successful skin care line Go-To.
 
Aimee reveals what it’s really like to WFH and several things that she’s never experienced in her career before, telling Russel her 4 year old keeps asking Aimee if she’s forgotten to go to work, so much so that she has taken to pretending to leave home to go to work, then sneaking back in to WFH, until she was sprung.

Discussing aadvertising during the Corona virus, Aimee told Russell she looked for indicators from Italy, but that Australia was “more nuanced” than other countries. “We saw that tv news spiked in Italy but radio dipped  massively there… In Australia that hasn’t happened, radio audiences have grown.”

People’s movements around cities have also changed, according to Buchanan. “CBD traffic is down by about 40%, but up in areas around suburban retail… we have to look at the operations of business, the first filter is, are they open for business? Then is there a longer term play to answer the question of why should clients keep money in marketing. 

“Every media plan has had to be revisited… this is the first time in my career where I’ve seen something that has impacted every business… the bushfires for example affected everyone, but it didn’t impact every single advertiser, this has impacted every business in Australia.”

Zoë offers candid advice for building a successful brand built on social media and a direct to consumer model.
 
She told Russel, “We didn’t have a business plan and still don’t…we focus on each new product and each new post and I encourage my team to stay very present.”
 
“When COVID-19 hit, the whole Go-To marketing plan was binned…that said, the skin care index has boomed during this period.”

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