Kath O

Chief Marketing Officer / Start up CMO

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Being employee number 1 has been a privilege and a wild ride. GIAGO is a snack food product, but comedy brand, essentially a joke you can eat! Whilst commercial success will come from mainstream grocery sales, all marketing efforts will be directed towards comedy lovers. The network effect and cost per acquisition of this brand is like no other. GIAGO will be to comedy as Red Bull is to extreme sport. My seven years working with Red Bull has helped form this vision for GIAGO.

Since joining GIAGO, I have created the brand book - strategy, positioning, look and feel, copy and messaging. I have undertaken extensive consumer research, both qualitative and quantitative, done sponsorship deals with the top two comedy festivals in the world, worked with comedy talent agents to secure brand ambassadors, put a research tender to pitch, and appointed partners in research, media, strategy, and web experience. I have worked with consultants to develop an ambitious FMCG go-to-market strategy, and have tirelessly pitched (along with my CEO/Founder) to potential investors. As the only employee in the company, my remit has extended outside marketing, and I have been involved in product development, manufacturing, licensing and copyright, comedy content and curation strategies, grant submissions, revenue modelling and pre-seed/seed capital raising.

Planning Director (initially) / Client Services Director / 2IC (Banjo)

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

I merged my agency, O'Shea & O'Brien into Banjo in 2016, bringing much loved client Sara Lee into the Banjo portfolio of clients. My initial role at Banjo was Planning Director, but after two years I moved back into suit land to lead the Client Service Department, with a key role in new business development, in partnership with and reporting to the CEO.

In 2020, independent agency, The Bastion Collective, acquired Banjo, becoming one of 11 agencies within the collective, each with a deep specialisation from insights through to strategy, creative, production, social, digital, reputation management, etc. I played an integral leadership role in ensuring a smooth cultural transition from Banjo to Bastion Banjo to Bastion Creative.

Key clients included NSW Government (behavioural change campaigns - NSW Health, Transport NSW, Cancer Institute NSW, Department of Education, Treasury, Infrastructure NSW, EPA), AMP, Alinta Energy, Real Pet Food Company and Engineers Australia. As a senior manager in the business, I was a critical member of the new business team, running and delivering pitches.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Successful management buyout of Kastner & Partners in Sydney to form O’Shea & O’Brien with clients retained – Red Bull, Air Niugini, Lifehouse O’Brien and Centro Shopping Centres.

Our agency philosophy of creating fans for brands led to significant new client wins – Sara Lee, Bacardi Lion (global campaign, ‘Champions drink responsibly), The Jojoba Company, SharkShield and Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

We launched new sub-brand, Sara Lee Incredibly, to achieve 18% increase in sales across Woolworths nationally and significant shifts in brand equity premiumisation. The ATL campaign was supported by digital platform – MrIncredibly.com – achieving over 1 million completed views across facebook/ youtube.

Kastner & Partners was the world-wide agency network for Red Bull during my time there. It has since been reduced to head office in LA and 7 satellite offices across Europe, who have now expanded their client base outside of Red Bull.

Our fierce little team achieved lead creative agency status for Kastner & Partners in Sydney amongst global Kastner & Partners network, positioning K&P Sydney as the ‘go to’ agency for tough global briefs (Red Bull Cola, aluminium bottle launch).

Shifted K&P Sydney from ‘the Red Bull agency’ to becoming a boutique offer with a wider client base; new client wins included Centro Shopping Centres NSW and QLD, Parker’s Organic Juices, Dainty Entertainment and Air Niugini Airlines.

MOJO was one of Australia's iconic creative agencies of its time. When I started, it had already been acquired by Publicis. Unfortunately MOJO no longer exists.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Led the Coca-Cola Brands (still portfolio – key brands Mount Franklin, Powerade). Expanded Coke business to include key partnership with Coke NPD department (Fruitopia, Mount Franklin Sparkling).

Launch of new Mount Franklin positioning ‘Drink Positive Think Positive’, achieving extraordinary shift in brand health – favourite brand 29% to 40%, plus key imagery statements – as well as sales, maintaining volume share despite 2 price rises and heavy discounting by Mount Franklin competitors. Launched wellofpositivity.com to accompany Mount Franklin’s brand launch – 250,000 messages of positivity; finalist in both the AIMIA Awards (best integration with an offline campaign) + IAB Awards.

Successful launch of The Powerade Performance System – Millward Brown tracking showed campaign performing strongly in communication take-out with high spontaneous recall as a system designed with active ingredients for pre, during and post sport.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Surviving 4 years at the Palace! As Australia’s most highly awarded agency at the time, it was a notoriously brilliant, yet cut-throat training ground. As my skin grew thicker year by year, I realised that we had something really extraordinary going on in that agency.

The Berlei Group’s Berlei One campaign achieved Bronze Effectiveness Award – 46% increase in sales YOY making Berlei the no. 1 and fastest growing brand in intimates.

Wonderbra – Silver and Bronze AWARD.

Roche – Launch of Berocca Performance resulted in 100% increase in sales after the first week of advertising and continued (YOY) throughout the following 12 months, making it the most successful launch Roche had ever experienced in Australia.