Brent Smart Taps CommBank Alum To Make Telstra’s Product Marketing Famous

​Telstra chief marketing officer Brent Smart has tapped Tom Richards, formerly at Commonwealth Bank, to join his leadership team as head of product marketing.

Tom spent the last four and a half years at the banking giant as executive manager of everyday banking and segment marketing, where he focused on proposition development, go-to-market, and content for the transaction, savings, and travel portfolios. He previously spent seven years at We Are Social across London and Sydney, including two as general manager.

Brent said he is confident Tom can lead the brand as it continues to refine its creative ambitions.

“New year, new hire, new ambition,” he said. “The new ambition? To make our product marketing as creative and famous as our brand marketing. I'm confident Tom can lead us there.”

Tom, who officially starts February 9th, told LBB Telstra's reputation as a leader in creative marketing made the opportunity to join the telco especially exciting. 

"Great product marketing can be powered by big creative thinking, and Telstra is doing that better than most in the market," Tom said.

"Their ambition for the work and passion for leading with creativity that is centred on compelling customer propositions makes it a really exciting opportunity for me.

"Telco, much like banking, feels like a category that is calling out for differentiation beyond value messaging.

"I look forward to partnering with Telstra’s world-class product teams and product marketing team and adding value to our key product propositions, leaning into Brent’s challenge to make our product marketing creatively brilliant and commercially impactful."

Tom joins Telstra’s marketing team a month after Brent appointed Nicky Bryson as head of creative excellence, a position left vacant by Anna Jackson, now head of brand at Westpac.

Brent hailed Nicky as one of the most creative strategists in the market, saying the brand’s ambition to be the “most creative brand from this part of the world is only possible by working with the most creative people.”

“Creative excellence at Telstra is more than strategy, it’s also about instilling creative confidence through teaching and coaching,” he said.

In December, Brent told Omnicom Advertising Group’s CEO and president Troy Ruhanencreative innovation is just as, if not more, important than tech innovation for the business. To that end, the Telstra marketing team treats creativity as a capability.

“For me the most important thing for us as marketers is to be distinctive,” Brent said.

“Our innovation is really focused on creative innovation, on creative excellence and how we can use creativity to be a distinctive brand more than anything else. That’s our number one priority.”

He added that while many marketing teams have media, martech and automation capabilities, creativity is too often treated as “this black box thing that happens at the agency”.

The brand works with bespoke model +61, comprising Bear Meets Eagle on Fire, TBWA, and OMD.

Backing creativity has proven a strong strategy for the telco over the past two years. Telstra won a Grand Prix for craft at Cannes this year for ‘Better on a Better Network,’ and comprised four of the nine piece-long shortlist of AUNZ work sent through to The Immortal Awards’ global jury.