Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59614
sarah robb o'hagan WHAT IS THE 'NEXT BIG THING' IN MARKETING? "The intelligent marketplace. A lot of brands haven't realised that people are giving us real time data wherever they go. Social media is a virtual discussion about a real world environment. Therefore the ability to geo-target and deliver consumer value via social techniques is very real. For my business this can influence not just how we market to people but the assortment of our product and where they show up in retail, because we're tracking the behaviours of athletic kids in the real world." After three years working her way up the ladder Sarah's big break came in a posting to the Los Angeles sector of the company. Having achieved her goal of working overseas she quickly set her sights on her next charge – working for two global powerhouses: Virgin Airlines and Nike. "It was absolutely a strategic career move," she reveals. "From the start I had plans for how I was to navigate this." Unfortunately the door at Nike stayed closed for some time but the transition from Air New Zealand to Virgin was quite doable. After another three years at Air New Zealand, Sarah jumped ship (or plane rather) to Virgin – taking on a promotions manager role. She remembers turning up on her triumphant first day to find her superior fired and her role dubious! "The day I arrived to start my new job, having moved across to New York and spending every dollar to my name setting myself up in Manhattan, I turn up to find the woman who hired me had been fired. I remember thinking 'This isn't good – nobody knows who I am'. Luckily the HR people knew there was a commitment behind me. I quickly took this as an opportunity to do more than the role I was hired for." Within a few months the driven 25-year-old became director of marketing and oversaw the airline's adoption of the Virgin 'Shaglantic' promotional campaign that enabled its illustrious vendor, Sir Richard Branson to establish his airline's edgy difference. "We're not the type of airline that bangs on the toilet doors," he said. Sarah was invincible. The New York life brought all the things the young woman dreamed of and after landing her third big role she couldn't go wrong. "Frank Sinatra got it right when he said 'If you can make it here you can make it anywhere'. It's tough, it's expensive, people aren't particularly forgiving – you have to fight to survive." Then Sarah's life came crashing down. After becoming a top marketing executive with US-based global entertainment and video- game producer Atari, she was just short of 30 when the company, struggling with new acquisitions and a flagging performance, laid her off. "At the time it was one of the worst things that could have happened to me," recalls Sarah, the youngest of four children of former All Black John Buxton, who played two tests as a loose forward, including the opening game against the 1956 Springboks won by New Zealand 10-6. "But it was by far the biggest learning experience of my life. I look back at it fondly now. If you're not making mistakes you're not learning and improving." Facing the imminent loss of her employer-sponsored right to work in the US, Sarah was looking at a forced return to New Zealand and the end of her long-held aspirations to build a career within corporate America. But with three months left, fate stepped in allowing her to tick off her second 'dream job' with Nike, and for the next six years she held various marketing and general management roles within the US region. Highlights under Sarah's leadership include: overseeing the Air Max 360 launch – the largest commercial footwear launch for Nike at the time; leading Nike's US move into the fitness dance business; the development of the Nike Run Hit Wonder tour; and the development of Nike's fledgling Action Sports business in Southern California. Sarah also participated in the launch of the Lance Armstrong Live Strong campaign and the joint venture with Apple to create Nike+. To be successful Sarah advocates having an absolute deep desire to be curious at all times. "That means constantly pushing yourself to try things outside your comfort zone. A big component of this is social media. There are too many people who are too scared to try it, which is creating a big generation gap between people my age and those coming through in their 20s. "I am constantly trying to explore and experience things personally and professionally that inspire me to look at business differently. When I first started innovation didn't happen at the pace it does now. Technology hadn't established itself and the Internet was just getting started. Now the consumer's demand for change has become the most challenging aspect of marketing. Consumers are so open to try new things that any company that isn't pushing the boundaries will quickly find themselves in trouble." The 39-year-old says it is surprising how many companies don't have a unified goal. "I'm a big believer in simplifying for the team what you want to achieve then releasing the hounds. If the whole team has the same goal then you don't have so many issues with diversity of thought. Empower them to push the boundaries and get the job done." Sarah joined PepsiCo in June 2008 as chief marketing officer for one of the world's most iconic sports brands, Gatorade. Under Sarah's leadership Gatorade embarked on a transformative journey from sports-drink company to sports-performance innovator, led by the launch of the G Series. This new approach to sports nutrition is based on the latest science, developed with the world's greatest athletes to deliver fuel, fluid and nutrients to athletes before, during and after 24 | www.hermagazine.co.nz