Cath Brands is a Marketer of the Year finalist in the YouTube NZ Marketing Awards 2025.
The winner will be announced on September 3.
Name: Cath Brands
Job title: Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer, Flintfox by Enable
In a couple of sentences, sum up your career so far.
From Masterton to the Metaverse, it’s been a wild ride. I’ve had the chance to work for some of the world’s biggest brands – Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Westfield, Amazon – helping them stay relevant, adapt and grow. Along the way, I’ve called London, Luxembourg, Seattle, Glasgow and Sydney home, picking up lessons (and a few air miles) as I went.
These days, I bring a bit of B2B sass to the table, turning complex tech into sharp storytelling, and marketing teams into commercial growth engines. Through it all, I’ve seen marketing not just as a growth driver, but as the cultural heartbeat of a business, setting the tone, lifting the energy and telling the stories that get people behind what’s possible.
Say hello to the other Marketer of the Year finalists 2025
Brid Drohan-Stewart
Dave Pearce
Fraser Shrimpton
Leanne Too
Matthew Pickering
PJ Morris
Susanne Hardy
The yardstick of success
How do you measure the success of a campaign?
In the glamorous world of B2B tech marketing, success comes down to two things: Cost per X and conversion rates. Every ad, every click, every bit of coverage, even the faintest sniff of intent needs to move a customer further along a very long sales cycle.
The most powerful campaigns work like a classic fairytale. They bring clarity to complexity, transforming tangled tech into something simple, compelling and real. They enchant the sceptics, awaken the unaware, and turn “we’re fine” into “where has this been all my life?”
The best campaigns don’t just generate leads, they spark belief. And they leave the audience changed by the end, with a happily ever after in Closed-Won.
Focus on sustainability
How do you incorporate eco-friendly practices in your marketing initiatives?
Sustainability for us means working smarter, not just printing less. We use AI to reduce waste, repurpose high-performing content across channels and focus on quality over volume. We partner with suppliers committed to eco-conscious practices, and we measure success not just by ROI, but by impact. And because sustainability is cultural too, we protect our team’s time and energy by eliminating busywork and focusing on what truly moves the needle.
How does Aotearoa rate?
On a scale of ‘deathly boring’ to ‘in a golden age’, where does Aotearoa sit when it comes to creativity?
We’re in our golden age, quietly world-class. Aotearoa’s creativity is bold, unfiltered and deeply human. We make work that punches above its weight, challenges the norm and still has a grin on its face. We don’t take ourselves too seriously because that wouldn’t be giving them a true taste of Kiwi.
Good stuff, hard stuff
Biggest win this year?
Leading Flintfox through a brand-led transformation that culminated in a successful acquisition. By reshaping our story and making it clear, we didn’t just shift external perception, we saw a measurable lift in internal engagement, belief and alignment. We repositioned the business, launched new products, expanded globally and proved that marketing can directly influence company valuation from the inside out.
What are the most significant challenges for our industry at the moment?
Balancing long-term brand building with short-term pipeline pressure, in a world that’s obsessed with instant ROI. And keeping pace with AI while preserving the creativity, humanity, and strategy that set great marketers apart.
Coming up
What’s next on your to-do list?
Getting fit(ish), drinking fewer weekday margaritas (maybe) and finally organising my inbox.
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