Andy Lark, Chief Marketing & Online Officer, Commonwealth Bank of Australia presented the afternoon keynote.

Lark has an engaging and passionate presentation style that oozes authority. The work CBA is doing on digital content is really clever. Surprisingly though, I’d never heard about it prior to his presentation.

Liked his section about purpose driven organisations and how they outperform profit driven organisations. Great example at SouthWest airlines where all staff have bought in to the company’s purpose so much the baggage handlers will tell you they’re job is giving people the freedom to fly rather than ‘moving baggage.’ Similarly, the employees at Dell are so committed to the purpose, almost all of them could blog for the company.

Lark’s clearly excited about the future of marketing and what he calls the death of transmission. He believes that the new forms of marketing will be more democratic and user centred.

I liked all the directions he spoke of today so I’m hoping they come to fruition.

A similar theme is emerging in all talks - marketing is going to get harder not easier. But those who innovate and put customer first will win.