For Lactalis Australia's largest-ever NPD investment, OAK Plus, the nation's first mainstream protein beverage, I led the cross-functional go-to-market strategy: a high-stakes launch targeting incremental category growth in a commoditised market. Simultaneously, I inherited ownership of OAK's flagship AFL (Port Adelaide) and NRL (Penrith Panthers) partnerships, valued at a combined AU$27 million, and identified critical inefficiencies in legacy game-day activation spend that was delivering minimal reach and negligible brand impact.
I ran a full pivot, shifting budget from low-reach supporter experiences to a digital-first, mass-awareness model designed to accelerate the OAK Plus launch. This cross-functional realignment spanned multiple high-impact workstreams:
- Broadcast-Visible Branding: Created on-field and venue assets optimised for television exposure, maximising reach during live coverage
- Bespoke Social Content & Paid Amplification: Built partnership-led creative assets boosted via targeted paid media to drive awareness and trial among core demographics
- End-to-End Brand Ecosystem Integration: Integrated both partnerships into OAK's broader marketing architecture, ensuring smooth alignment across retail execution, media planning, and channel strategy
Getting stakeholder buy-in across brand, commercial, and partnership teams, I ran a launch that generated measurable incremental category growth and turned the partnerships from tactical spend into major brand drivers. The initiative delivered +25% media value ROI year-on-year and earned OAK Plus ‘New Product of the Year’ at the annual BP Convenience Awards, where it was lauded as the "perfect blueprint" for innovation execution, giving the business a repeatable framework for future NPD launches.
