Laura Wilson and Jenn ten Seldam launch advisory Wingmaven

Australia has welcomed a new marketing and coaching consultancy: Wingmaven.

Two former chief marketing officers at some of Australia’s most prominent companies have joined forces to launch a new consultancy aimed at supporting executives with developing their marketing function.

Based out of Melbourne, Wingmaven is the brainchild of Laura Wilson and Jenn ten Seldam, respectively the former Australian CMOs of Deliveroo and Seek.com, who together boast more than three decades of industry experience.

In addition to her four years at SEEK, Seldam has spent time in marketing leadership roles at Vodafone, National Australia Bank, and most recently accountancy software platform Xero, where she served as the executive general manager for global product marketing. Wilson meanwhile, coming off a CMO stint at Deliveroo, previously led marketing divisions at RACV, AGL and NAB, spending the best part of a decade at the bank alongside Seldam.

The latter states that it’s this deep experience in transformative marketing coupled with the pair’s coaching accreditation from the Institute of Executive Coaching & Leadership and extensive industry network which makes Wingmaven unique. “After decades of experience and proven results, Laura and I know what a critical strategic player marketing can and should be in determining business success. And we also know first-hand what it takes to get it there.”

Rather than simply just bringing their marketing nous to the table for clients, the broader focus of the new consultancy is on coaching and supporting ambitious founders and CEOs on developing their marketing function capacity into a company growth engine, such that in addition to brand, customer and go-to-market strategy, Wingmaven will also offer advisory services in organisational design, team capability, and ways of working.

“We work closely with clients to not only develop marketing strategies that drive effectiveness and efficiency in execution but to also focus on the growth of their people – who will always underpin success,” says Wilson, who adds that the approach has resonated. “We’re able to help set the right marketing direction based on their unique needs and grow their people at the same time so they’ve got the muscle to navigate the landscape and stamina to go the distance.”

Wilson and Seldam point to the current challenging market conditions as one advantage of engaging their services, with businesses being forced into tough decisions as to how much and where exactly to invest their precious marketing dollar. As such, they note that senior marketeers are now grappling with the increasingly common mandate to do more with less, source and keep marketing talent, and still be confident about the efficacy of their program and return on investment.

Wilson would know this only too well, with Deliveroo’s sudden Australian exit at the end of last year. She says; “We’re in a period where businesses need to reduce expenses and marketing is one of the first places this is sought. This impacts media investment, human resources and agency arrangements as budgets are reworked and reworked.”

“A great alternative is to have Wingmaven come in with fresh, experienced eyes, and unearth all the ways the function can be more efficient and effective.”