Australian Sports Commission CMO Geared Up To Get People Moving

The Australian Sports Commission’s CMO, Louise Eyres, has spent three decades in marketing, but getting Aussies off the couch might be her biggest challenge yet.

With a marketing career spanning multiple industries and countries, one thing that has remained constant is Louise Eyres’ love of a challenge.

“I always remember [CEO] Gail Kelly from Westpac saying, ‘Just never say no when someone taps you on the shoulder,’” she said.

Eyres began her marketing career at BHP, “a male-dominated industry I knew absolutely nothing about,” she said. From there, she moved into selling steel at Altona, where, 12 years later, she was redefining the brand in its entirety as global brand manager. Next, Eyres went to ANZ, where she worked during the global financial crisis. It was, in her words, “a really interesting, strategic challenge.”

Now, as the inaugural chief marketing officer of the Australian Sports Commission—the country’s national sports administration and advisory agency—Eyres has been tasked with “inserting and creating the marketing division.” Their goal? To get more Australians participating and excelling in sports.

Since her appointment in October, Eyres has set up a sports marketing counsel with the general managers or CMOs of Australia’s 12 most popular sports. It makes sense, Eyres said, “because we all share the same customers.”

Eyres said she has high hopes for the impact of the Australian Sports Commission’s content marketing strategy to get its message out.

“Absolutely we want this to be Australia’s initiative,” Eyres said. “From the Sports Commission’s perspective, our goal is for us to be the world’s most active nation.”

For this episode of the CMO Show, hosts Nicole Mankeltow and Mark Jones sat down with Eyres to talk more about her interesting career path, ongoing relationship with sports marketing, and ambitions for the government agency.