Tomorrow has come and gone. “Tasmania’s premier marketing conference for future focused brands” was held at Launceston’s Tramsheds on June 16 and 17, with a reception at the stunning UTAS River’s Edge building nearby. The conference blurb spoke of “innovation at the world’s edge.”
Being a marketing conference, there were naturally key themes, namely, adaptability (“building a foundation for lasting growth”); engagement (“fostering customer loyalty through shared values”); and impact (“business with a broader vision”). There were a host of big-name sponsors and some star speakers in new-ish Tassie residents Cameron Adams, founder of Canva, and Lisa Miller, founder of Wedgetail…more about them later.
Given its green branding, talk of tomorrow and lasting growth, there was a reasonable implication that the conference would be about marketing sustainability, or climate or ecology. Events like this in Tasmania are hens-teeth rare.
However, perhaps the analogy of a hybrid vehicle is more fitting: the vehicle contains progressive elements but there’s still a combustion engine under the hood.
Amanda McEvoy, GM of AT&M Marketing, who organised the conference, explained that the rationale was “thought leadership, business growth and knowledge sharing.”
“I was really pleased that so many marketing and design people came,” she said. “There was a big reason we gave all proceeds to Vinnies. It’s about camaraderie. A rising tide carries all boats. We had more than 30 people from the mainland and many from Hobart too. It was exciting to put Launceston on the map.”
The conference’s stand-out speaker was Leigh Rust. His company, Safetyline Jalousie, makes louvre windows. What Rust’s talk made clear is that even the most unprepossessing organisations can make a difference. Rust left school young for an apprenticeship and didn’t go to university. No judgement, but this was something he said he’d change if he could.
Rust was the only speaker who talked about reducing his company’s emissions, considering the generally high emissions from the building industry. He sources recycled, low-emission aluminium for window frames not from Australia – because it’s not made here – but from Norway.
He also said purpose and family mattered more than profit. What’s more, noting how terrible the building industry and its supply chains are at reducing emissions and embracing sustainability, Rust created Suppliers Declare, which “promotes environmentally responsible practices within the supply and manufacturing industries” allowing the building industry to act on the climate and extinction crises.
And the man is not from Tasmania but Sydney: a cage-fighting tradie demonstrating exemplary environmental leadership. As much as anything else this felt like the window on a tomorrow worth striving for.
The headline speakers were Lisa Miller and Cameron Adams. Interviewed by news presenter Kim Millar, Adams talked at length about setting up graphic design behemoth Canva, as well as artificial intelligence, people management and purpose.
Miller spoke about how Wedgetail was funding a range of projects that are putting nature back into the economics, as well as how much they love Tasmania and their conservation plans.
Attendees also heard how marketing fitted into purpose-driven companies that are tearing up and re-writing the rulebook. Tasmania is lucky to have them.
Laura McBain spoke with firecracker energy about taking Bellamy’s Organic from a small company to a multi-million dollar darling of the ASX before crashing back down to Earth and then picking herself up and doing it again and again.
The conference lacked a stronger reference to Aboriginal land and values, nor was anyone from the Aboriginal community a speaker. There could have been precious lessons for value- and place-based marketing any number of Tasmanian Aboriginal experts: Dean Greeno, Ruth Langford, Maggie Blanden and Sharnie Read spring to mind as Tasmanian Aboriginal community members who could have contributed.
There were a plethora of speakers about so-called traditional marketing, or what one described as “the dark arts”; in other words how to flog stuff by getting people to buy stuff, which is what unreconstructed marketing basically is. The represetative from Shark Ninja wanted to sell more appliances, his equivalent from Amer Sports wanted to flog more coats and so. This was future-focused marketing in the sense of advanced consumer marketing and simply selling more, more, more.
Given its controversy, it was an interesting decision to invite Kath McCann, the chief marketer of the Devils and, by extension, the Macquarie Point stadium. Although you wouldn’t know it from McCann’s emphatic presentation: apparently everyone’s behind it. In reality, as we recently reported, the most recent poll shows majority opposition.
It was hard to accept that the Devils are simply a start-up, as McCann claimed, nor was it easy to reconcile the fact that AFL’s newest team is already up and running with the claim/threat that it would somehow cease to exist unless the stadium is built.
A missing part of the conversation about place-based marketing was how, without social licence, place-based marketing risks becoming place-based hijacking.
The conference managed to pull off something for everyone. Traditional plus progressive marketing. But in providing something for everyone, the tomorrow of the conference’s name became less a marker for the unsustainability of consumer capitalism and more a statement of opportunity to sell whatever it is you need to sell.
Organiser McEvoy explained that the event was called Tomorrow because the new owner’s company is called Tomorrow Strategy but to also emphasise business growth and a better tomorrow. But as we know, tomorrow never comes. There is only now.
Tasmanian Times live-blogged from the conference. Want us to cover us your event? Invite us!
Featured image above: Headline speakers Lisa Miller and Cameron Adams, with newsreader MC Kim Millar.
Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse view of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.
Support us in expanding our coverage and developing new content by and for Tasmanians.
New initiatives on the way include:
- a weekly podcast covering current affairs
- a revamped website
- a monthly cartoon competition
- a user-friendly app for both Android and Apple devices
- a weekly roundup of key stories
