Available for new engagements
LinkedIn Book a call
Joel Moran
Joel Moran, MBA
CMO · Consultant · Coach · Advisor

Hands-on marketing leader

Big-company thinking.
Roll-up-your-sleeves style.

20+ years helping businesses grow. From Optus and Vodafone, to Kayo Sports and Afterpay. Messy problems, great teams, marketing that actually works.

"Marketing's job is to grow the business. Brand, performance, product, experience. All of it is in service of that."

20+
Years leading marketing
Global
ANZ, UK + Canada
5yr
Double-digit GPV growth at Afterpay
Begin the conversation

About

20 years solving the problems
most marketers avoid.

From launching Kayo Sports from zero, to rebuilding Afterpay's marketing with half the team using AI. I've built brands in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. Deep in fintech, streaming + retail. Hands-on with MarTech, growth and creative.

🥇
Gold: Data-Driven Marketing Campaign of the Year
Mumbrella Awards
🏆
Effies Finalist: 5 categories incl. ROI + Marketing Effectiveness
Effies Australia
Sports Marketing Team of the Year
Mumbrella Awards
🎯
Excellence in Performance Marketing: Influencer + UGC
TikTok Recognition
How I work

Drawn to the messy stuff

Scaling teams under pressure, cracking new markets, navigating regulation, building brands people trust. If it's complicated, that's where I do my best work.

Marketing as a commercial driver

Most at home where marketing has a real seat at the table, where the CMO is accountable to commercial outcomes, not just the advertising budget.

Full-funnel, multi-market fluency

Brand strategy, performance + growth, product marketing, trade, CX, B2B. Built for multi-regional work across AU, NZ, UK + Canada simultaneously.

Technology in service of the problem

Early in ecommerce + performance marketing, obsessed with what's next. Now focused on AI to reshape what modern marketing teams look like: automating what can be automated, elevating people to do better work.

People are the strategy

The work is only as good as the team. Finding what motivates each person, developing their capability, building culture. That's not a nice-to-have. It's how great marketing gets made.

Alongside the team, not above it

Big-company experience without the big-company distance. MBA from UNSW. Effies Judge. Genuinely passionate about developing people.

Experience

What each role taught me.

Afterpay / Clearpay · Block Inc, NYSE: SQ
CMO / VP Marketing, International
5+ years · AU, NZ, UK + Canada · Delivered double-digit YoY GPV growth for 5 consecutive years

Over five years I helped double revenue by taking significant share from banks and credit cards, building one of Australia's most trusted consumer brands, driving merchant partner businesses to grow in the process.

I was there when Afterpay was an ASX darling and when it was acquired by Block. Started as Director of Brand for ANZ, took on Growth + Product Marketing, then in 2024 became VP Marketing International, leading the full marketing program across AU, NZ, UK + Canada. The most senior marketer, reporting directly to Nick Molnar (Afterpay founder, now leads Sales + Marketing at Block Inc).

Accountable for driving part of the consumer side of the P+L, in partnership with product, sales, risk + customer service, then executing the full marketing funnel to deliver variable profit through new customer acquisition, increased frequency, product attach + brand health.

Directly responsible for: brand strategy, growth/performance marketing, CRM, sponsorships, social, trade + merchant marketing, media + advertising, product marketing, and go-to-market.

Rebuilt the team using AI + still exceeded targets
  • When the team was cut by 60%, ran a transformation program using AI + technology to do more with far less.
  • Exceeded revenue targets in every market: ANZ +18% YoY, UK +21%, Canada +13%.
  • Market share: >80% in AU, >90% in NZ, >20% in UK.
  • Launched new BNPL regulations in NZ, AU + Canada.
  • Grew to most trusted BNPL brand in ANZ + UK.
Proved ROI for brand advertising
  • Gold at Mumbrella Awards: Data-Driven Marketing Campaign of the Year.
  • Effies finalist in 5 categories for marketing effectiveness.
  • "Afterpay Where You Wouldn't Believe": drove new vertical adoption, proved brand spend delivers positive ROI.
  • "Pay Better" with Rebel Wilson: two-year integrated brand platform that redefined how Australians thought about Afterpay.
Made work that moved the needle
  • "Old Money Doesn't Like How New Money Works": tackled brand rejection head-on.
  • "Own It": repositioned Afterpay for financially savvy consumers.
  • 600 UGC ads, recognised by TikTok for excellence in performance marketing (influencer/UGC).
  • Launched Amazon, Uber Eats, Dan Murphy's, Ampol + more.
Sponsorships that punched above their cost
  • Afterpay Australian Fashion Week: 3 consecutive years, $99M p.a. earned media value.
  • Daniel Ricciardo partnership: year-long multichannel campaign, 42M reach.
Made Afterpay Day a commercial juggernaut
  • Introduced "Carpe Diem" as the Afterpay Day trade platform; drove 21% YoY growth.
Turned around customer acquisition when it was broken
  • Reversed a 20% YoY decline to 6% growth within 12 months.
  • Rebuilt the full conversion funnel + performance marketing from the ground up.
Kayo Sports · News Corp / Foxtel
Head of Marketing
Brand launch from zero · 600K+ subscribers · 83% brand awareness · Sports Marketing Team of the Year

Founding marketing hire for Australia's biggest sports streaming platform, a start-up inside Foxtel/News Corp. Joined just after finishing my Executive MBA. Built the brand, team + go-to-market from scratch.

  • Developed + executed the strategic sales + marketing plan to grow Kayo's subscriber base.
  • Accountable for go-to-market across marketing, brand, sales, customer engagement, social + publicity.
  • Owned brand positioning, identity, all advertising + content marketing including creative + media planning.
  • Led a 16-person in-house creative services team across Kayo, BINGE, Watch AFL/NRL.
  • Grew Kayo to 600K+ subscribers: ~19% of Australia's sporting population, ~$122M revenue p.a.
  • Built awareness from 0% to 83% in under 3 years.
  • Ran 8 large integrated campaigns with full measurement frameworks, leveraging mass-market channels + sophisticated digital strategy.
  • Hired + built a high-performing sales + marketing team using cutting-edge agile working practices, regarded as a role-model across the Foxtel Group.
  • Won Mumbrella Sports Marketing Team of the Year 2019.
  • Won News Corp Brand of the Year 2019, first subsidiary company ever to secure the award.
Optus
Associate Director, Digital Marketing
~6 years · Ecommerce, performance marketing + digital customer marketing

Where I went deep on performance marketing + ecommerce. Built Optus's first mobile site, led retention + digital customer marketing, and owned ecommerce channel development. Learned to connect brand + commercial outcomes in a highly competitive, price-sensitive category.

Vodafone + 3 Mobile
Various Roles
~9 years combined · Digital merchandising, prepaid product management, retail distribution

My foundations. Hands-on experience across digital merchandising, prepaid segment management + mass-market retail distribution through Coles + Woolworths. At 3 Mobile, designed the first prepaid product, which gave me a commercial + product lens I've carried through everything since.

Education
AGSM @ UNSW Business School
Executive MBA, Distinction
Marketing, Management + Finance
Charles Sturt University
Bachelor of Business, Marketing

Selected Work

Proof is in the results.

A selection of engagements that required bold thinking, real accountability, and the willingness to do what others wouldn't.

01
Fintech · Transformation

Afterpay International Marketing Rebuild

Team cut by 60%, scope doubled. Rebuilt structure, strategy + systems across ANZ, UK + Canada. Implemented AI tools, in-house creative studio, and 120+ automated lifecycle journeys.

Double-digit YoY GPV growth · 108% to annual targets · $19M incremental revenue from AI-driven lifecycle
02
Streaming · Brand Launch

Kayo Sports: Brand of the Year

Built the brand, team + go-to-market from scratch. Launch campaign with 1,500 unique OOH executions + 30+ athletes. First News Corp subsidiary to win Brand of the Year.

600K+ paying subscribers in 13 months · Awareness 0% to 83%

What I Do + What's Next

How I can help your team.

Ready to be the CMO
of a great organisation.

In the meantime, taking on consulting projects, contracts + advisory work. If you have a challenge worth solving, let's talk.

01

Marketing Strategy + Execution

Brand strategy, go-to-market, campaigns, performance marketing + growth. Real-world work, not decks that sit in a drawer.

02

Interim Executive / Fractional CMO

Step into a CMO or VP Marketing role while you search, scale, or transform. Integrate fast, build trust quickly, deliver from day one.

03

People + Technology

Train people, restructure marketing teams, help you hire, change culture. Assess your AI + MarTech stack and provide recommendations for doing more with less.

04

Coaching + Advisory

1:1 coaching for marketing leaders, business owners + individuals. Thought partnership, career navigation, and the honest conversations most advisors avoid.

Book a free 30 min chat ↗

Get In Touch Today

Got a challenge worth solving?

Senior marketing partner, not a consultant who disappears after the strategy deck.

Book a call
Free 30 minute consultation ↗
Send an email
Get in touch directly ↗
Connect on LinkedIn
Let's connect ↗
Available for new engagements