Tanya Marler runs marketing across Taylors Wines, a brand selling close to 8 million bottles globally and one of Australia’s most recognisable family-owned wineries. She has held executive roles at Lion, Nestlé and Colgate-Palmolive, with the kind of commercial literacy most CMOs were never taught.

In Episode 15, host Aleisha McCall sits down with Tanya to take apart the boardroom dynamic that has cost senior marketing teams more credibility than almost any other. The moment marketing gets treated as the first thing to cut when the budget tightens, the conversation is already lost. Tanya makes the case for what to do instead.

She walks through the CFO conflict that nearly broke a campaign strategy, the self-funding curve that compounds investment instead of depleting it, and the sequencing decisions that buy executive confidence early so the work gets the time it needs.

The conversation also covers the 18-month Taylors Wines e-commerce overhaul, why heritage brands have to choose what to fiercely protect before they evolve, the architecture between master and sub-brands, and the AI and martech investment decisions defining the next three to five years for senior marketers.

For any CMO, marketing manager or operator working the duality of in-business and on-business delivery whilst still hitting the 12-month P&L, this episode names the tension and tells you what to do with it.