Thomas Siemsen is a Marketer of the Future finalist in the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2025.
The winner will be announced on September 3.
Name: Thomas Siemsen
Job title: Creative and Content Executive at The New Zealand Automobile Association.
How it started
How did you find out you were nominated – what was the first thing you did?
It was an unassuming Wednesday afternoon when my amazing manager, Caroline, requested that I send her a photo of myself ASAP – she’d tell me why at a later time.
The next day during our weekly 1:1 she broke the news that the team had nominated me for the award, which explained why she needed my photo.
I was over the Moon. As I read through the nomination they wrote, I was filled with pride. And it wasn’t the “Oh hell yeah I’m the man” pride, it was the kind of pride that comes from feeling truly seen and recognised by the people you work with every day. I was genuinely touched that they thought I was Marketer of the Future material.
As for when I found out I was made finalist, I was working from home. It was around lunchtime when I took a break from work. I had tuned in to the NBA Finals and was watching Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers get absolutely rinsed by the Oklahoma City Thunder. “What a horrible start to the day.”
And then suddenly, my phone blew up. Texts from my coworkers telling me to look at the newly released list of finalists for the award. And lo and behold, at the bottom of the list was Thomas Siemsen, New Zealand Automobile Association.
What sparked your interest in marketing?
I wasn’t exactly the best at high school. My head was always in the clouds, daydreaming about being an artist, musician or pro athlete, an office job wasn’t really in the cards. Truth be told, with no clear path I was looking to either join the police or military, but after some very strong lectures from my parents, I had decided I should get a degree before enlisting.
A few years went by and I found myself in a second-year advertising and brand creativity lecture at AUT, and I absolutely loved it. A lightbulb went off in my brain and I was finally able to piece together why I preferred certain brands over others, the importance of understanding your audience and how creativity makes campaigns stand out.
Before I knew it, I was walking across the stage, on my way to shake hands with a man holding a very expensive piece of paper with my name on it. Armed with that paper, a big smile and truckload of self-confidence, I decided I wanted to work in the creative field. “I would’ve been a horrible policeman anyway.”
In a couple of sentences, sum up your marketing career so far.
I managed to snag an internship at Air New Zealand during the summer after graduation. The internship wasn’t in marketing and was more on the tech side. While I had learnt valuable business and analytical skills there, it ultimately was not right for me. I jumped on Seek and started applying for every job that mentioned creativity.
One day I got an email back from the AA.
“Oh great, my yearly membership payment failed,” I thought. Nope, that email came shortly after, this email was asking me to interview for a role. A few interviews later, and the rest is history.
Since starting in April 2024, I’ve been behind an insane number of campaigns, big and small, awareness or conversion, I’ve done them all. Whether I’m writing articles, designing assets or editing videos, I’ve been having a great time bringing in some Gen Z flavour to a 122-year-old brand.
Say hello to the other Marketer of the Future finalists 2025
What do you like best?
What’s your favourite thing about marketing? Do you have a specialist area?
Being able to utilise different channels to get the right message out. During my time at the AA, I’ve written EV car reviews highlighting the importance of sustainable energy practices, investigated the intense public healthcare waitlists in NZ, and worked on a great number of videos related to road safety and best driving practice. If I were to pick a speciality, it would probably be tailoring content to its audience. Making things accessible and putting them in layman’s terms.
Tell us about a specific project you’ve worked on that stands out for you.
Honestly, I’m quite happy with almost all the projects I’ve been part of, and each has been successful. If I had to choose one, I’d probably have to point out an AA Pet Insurance content campaign where I was tasked with writing an article about different dog breeds playing basketball. With the insight that basketball was the fastest growing sport in New Zealand, and knowing our audience responds well to pets in random scenarios, we were able to craft a very successful multi-channel campaign which led to high traffic to our site, and a great ROI.
Hard stuff, good stuff
What are the biggest challenges for people starting out in this industry?
A challenge I faced when I was starting out was that I was too afraid to share my ideas. You do yourself a massive injustice if you don’t share your ideas. Even if it’s half-cooked, just share it, maybe someone else will be able to help cook it all the way? Even if you think the idea is bad, a bad idea is better than no idea. Just do it.
Any advice for other young marketers?
When you’ve got nothing to lose, you’ve got everything to gain. Now it’s our time to shine, break every rule in the rulebook and take no prisoners. But most of all, be happy with yourself. Back yourself, if you’ve got something to say, say it – imagine your brain is a car, shift it into gear and slam that accelerator because there’s no speed limit to your creativity, ambition, and impact which you will make. Have fun.
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