Telstra snares IAG CMO Brent Smart as new chief marketing officer replacing Jeremy Nicholas

June 29 2022, 6:19 pm | BY Ricki Green | 12 Comments
Telstra snares IAG CMO Brent Smart as new chief marketing officer replacing Jeremy Nicholas

Telstra has snared IAG CMO Brent Smart as its new chief marketing officer. Smart will join Telstra in September, replacing Jeremy Nicholas, who will be taking on a new challenge as Telstra’s Digital Channels Executive.

 

Smart, a rare marketer who is equal parts creative and commercial, joined IAG over five years ago from Saatchi & Saatchi New York where he was CEO, a role he held from 2013 to late 2016. Prior to that he was worldwide managing director on Saatchi & Saatchi’s General Mills business from 2011 to 2013.

Prior to Saatchi and Saatchi, Smart held executive roles at BBDO, as managing director of the agency’s San Francisco office, following a four-year stint as managing director of Colenso BBDO in New Zealand.

During his time at NRMA, Smart led the company to the third strongest brand in Australia (formally 36th) and the strongest insurance brand in the world.

At Telstra, Smart will be responsible for Telstra’s brand; media; sponsorship and award programs; consumer, small business and enterprise marketing and proposition development; marketing automation and internal design studio.

Smart will report to the new Group Executive, Consumer and Small Business when they are appointed.

Says Michael Ackland, Telstra’s Group Executive of Consumer and Small Business: “Brent is a highly accomplished creative and commercial leader with a passion for people and storytelling, coupled with a wealth of global experience from working with some of the world’s biggest brands.

“Brent’s appointment comes at a natural inflection point as we complete our T22 transformation and embark on our new T25 strategy. Telstra plays a critical role in keeping Australians connected and we’re looking forward to seeing how Brent continues to strengthen the Telstra brand through his work.

“I’d also like to thank and congratulate Jeremy Nicholas for his exceptional work as our CMO over the last four years – a transformational period for Telstra’s Marketing team, during which he also led the hugely successful Australia is Why brand campaign. Jeremy will now bring his deep customer expertise, rich insight and customer focus to our digital channel experiences.”

Says Smart: “There aren’t many Australian brands that can play as big a role in culture as Telstra. You can feel a real positive momentum in the business, it’s an exciting time to join and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”