SYDNEY: Telstra chief marketing officer Kate McKenzie has undertaken a restructure, which sees director of creativity and innovation Mark Collis take responsibility for brand strategy.
Collis will lead the creativity, innovation, brand strategy & customer experience team, tasked with creating long-term brand strategies.
Brand strategy was previously handled by Amanda Johnston-Pell, who will now be responsible for above and below the line communications for Telstra Consumer, Telstra Business and Telstra Enterprise & Government.
Johnston-Pell, who is currently on maternity leave, will be responsible for executing brand strategy and managing agency relationships and commercial arrangements for the media, promotions, advertising and events team.
Her responsibilities are being handled by Chantal Walker while she is on leave.
The restructure comes as director of Telstra Media Chris Taylor departs the company to assume a CEO role at an Australian based international company.
His departure sees J-B Rousselot lead the Voice, Broadband and Media team, which will include the executive director, broadband products Craig Turner.
Claire McFarland will now lead the Online and Mobile Media team and Ben Kinealy will take on the role as head of IPTV.
Klaus Kaasgaard, the head of the customer experience team, will also depart the company.
McKenzie said the changes were designed to simplify the way Telstra operates and the changes to marketing aimed to help staff “to think, create and execute campaigns more effectively.”
The moves aimed to “drive a culture of innovation across the marketing, product and customer experience teams and contribute fresh ideas and approaches to the broader organisation.”
“By separating this strategic function from our tactical marketing group, the team will be better placed to drive longer-term brand strategies.”
Collis' promotion comes almost two months after Telstra took the unusual step of sending his job description to its creative agency roster in a bid to allay fears that their roles were not under threat by his appointment.
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