Designing brands for Machine Customers

Snags, Red Shirts & Culture: Unpacking the Bunnings effect

From the iconic sausage sizzle to its team of red shirts and partnerships with Vegemite and Bluey, Bunnings isn't just a brand...it's a staple of Australian culture. Recently named Australia's most trusted brand by Roy Morgan, the warehouse giant is supported by a seriously deliberate marketing machine focused on community engagement. Recorded live on the shop floor, this episode of The CMO Show sits down with Justine Mills, General Manager of Marketing at Bunnings, to unpack how a hardware store has become part of Australia's cultural fabric. This isn't about glossy campaigns or influencer deals. It's about why the person in the red shirt knows more than any brand ambassador ever could and how Bunnings has built systems to let real frontline expertise lead the marketing. Justine dives into the Red Shirt Content Creator program, how everyday team members have become trusted creators, and why its inhouse content engine, Hammer Media, works not just as a retail media network, but as a credibility generator. You'll hear how Bunnings captures real in‑store moments and resists polishing them into something unrecognisable. No hype. No hard sell. Just useful help, delivered in the same tone Australians have trusted for decades. For CMOs navigating growth and authenticity in an era of performance metrics and attribution, this episode breaks it down: how do you scale without losing soul? How do you drive a sector without feeling corporate? And how do you make marketing feel less like marketing and more like part of the community you serve? It's rare look at how one of Australia's most iconic brands earns trust, keeps it, and proves that the most powerful marketing strategy still starts on the shop floor… preferably near the snag stand. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au [http://www.impactinstitute.com.au/] | https://business.adobe.com/au [https://business.adobe.com/au]

Designing brands for Machine Customers

Your customers aren't just human anymore. They're machines...and they're already making decisions about your brand. Agentic commerce is here, and it's predicted to account for $300B–$500B in sales by 2030. Brands that design only for humans are already silently losing billions. In this episode of The CMO Show, we talk to author of [descriptor] book, Machine Customers, Katja Forbes. They are joined by Gurvinder Singh, CMO at Altimetrik, which is putting Katja's principles into action. Together they unpack the next tectonic shift in marketing: AI agents as buyers, validators, and gatekeepers. From AI agents rejecting suppliers over expired certifications to entire networks blacklisting brands in seconds based on poor data hygiene, this conversation exposes a blunt truth. Marketing is becoming machine‑readable, binary, and unforgiving. It's data. Verified. Structured. Machine‑legible. If machines can't read your brand, they won't trust it. And if they don't trust it, they won't buy it. This episode shows you how to navigate the shift, what to change, what to prioritise, and how CMOs can lead as machines move from channels to customers. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au [http://www.impactinstitute.com.au/] | https://business.adobe.com/au [https://business.adobe.com/au]

How to stay sane in the AI chaos with Cameron Partridge

Want to know why marketers need to stop trying to keep up with AI? How about what they should focus on? In this episode, Cameron Partridge, the Australian growth leader who helped scale Invisible Technologies into a $2 billion unicorn, talks staying focused in the AI noise. Across brand credentialisation the death of channel specialists, the rise of systems thinkers, and the danger of chasing shiny tools, the new Humanforce growth officer shares a simple message: GenAI hasn't changed the fundamentals of marketing. It's just made them harder. From working with Google, Meta and Microsoft, Cameron has witnessed the industry evolve at breakneck speed. We can now create more content than ever, but standing out requires sharper thinking, deeper focus, and an unshakeable commitment to consistency and trust. Unicorns aren't built on noise; they're built on discipline. If you want the truth about AI, growth and the future of marketing roles, this episode is your blueprint. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au [http://www.impactinstitute.com.au/] | https://business.adobe.com/au [https://business.adobe.com/au]

Rethinking Creativity with Accenture Song's Nick Law

Live from the Adobe AI Forum, this episode is your front‑row seat to a creative reboot with Nick Law, Accenture Song's Chief Creative Chairperson, Aussie expat and veteran of Apple, Publicis and R/GA. Nick argues that the real opportunity with AI isn't found at the extremes. It lives in what he calls the "missing middle" the space between systems‑obsessed strategists and wildly expressive creatives. It's a space most organisations have let collapse, and rebuilding it will be the differentiator. The marketers who thrive will be the ones who can finally stitch those worlds back together. And then comes his challenge to leaders: "Work with freaks." Because safe work gets buried. Bold work gets shortlisted, shared and chosen. In buying groups drowning in algorithm‑generated sameness, the unconventional thinker is now your unfair advantage. If you're a marketer trying to make sense of the AI tidal wave, this conversation is your cheat code. And, yes, he tackles the question everyone's whispering (or panicking) about: "How will AI affect my job?" His answer is surprisingly energising and brutally clear on what stays human. If you want to design a marketing future where AI is your ally, not your competitor, this episode shows you how. Discover what it means to lead teams where every discipline is becoming an AI discipline, where talent lives everywhere, and where the most powerful differentiators remain value, story and distinctly human ingenuity. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au [http://www.impactinstitute.com.au/] | https://business.adobe.com/au [https://business.adobe.com/au]

The Lamb Ad: Unpacking Australia's most anticipated ad of the year

What does it really take to keep one of Australia's most talked‑about campaigns culturally captivating every single year? In this CMO Show masterclass, Nathan Low, CMCO at Meat & Livestock Australia, lifts the curtain on the annual Lamb Ad. It's a deep dive into the creative mindset of this enduring cultural moment. We get a behind the scenes look at the process, which starts well before a single line is written, scanning the cultural landscape to understand what feels big enough to bring people together. Nathan hints at the six‑month rhythm, from exploring broad cultural territories to pressure‑testing concepts and why the Lamb brief stays constant even as the culture shifts around it. And here's the paradox every marketer wants to create: in a world where most consumers pay to skip ads, Australians still make time for this one, waiting for the drop each January, sharing it and, more often than not, helping it jump borders and make global headlines. That kind of anticipation doesn't come from media spend; it comes from culture, comedy and craft and from an organisation willing to back brave ideas, knowing "safe" ones would be riskier. Listen in if you want to know how to evolve your brand's marketing without losing the core, how to balance instinct with just‑enough research, and how to turn a campaign into a national conversation people choose to watch. This episode is brought to you by impact advisory, communications and events agency, ImpactInstitute in partnership with Adobe. www.impactinstitute.com.au [http://www.impactinstitute.com.au/] | https://business.adobe.com/au [https://business.adobe.com/au]