As marketing budgets face unprecedented scrutiny and AI promises turn into implementation headaches, Australian marketing leaders need more than another thought leadership panel. They need evidence.

The gap between what marketing academics know and what practitioners are grappling with has never been more pronounced. While brands pour millions into influencer partnerships, customer acquisition strategies and AI tools, the data on what works remains locked in academic journals or buried in research language that doesn’t translate to boardroom decisions.

The Marketing Analytics Symposium Sydney (MASS), returning for the fifth time on 24 February 2026, has a mission to bridge this divide at precisely the moment the industry needs it most.

“CMOs are being asked to justify every dollar, while simultaneously being told to innovate faster,” conference co-chair Professor Harald Van Heerde says. “The research exists to help them do both, but it’s rarely accessible in formats that drive immediate business decisions.”

MASS translates that research into actionable answers for problems keeping marketing leaders awake at night. Should you prioritise new customer acquisition or double down on retention? Professor Bernd Skiera from Goethe University will present research that finally answers this perennial question.

The AI conundrum gets similar treatment. While every LinkedIn post promises AI-driven marketing transformation, Professor Vijay Viswanathan from Northwestern University will reveal why AI works spectacularly for some firms and fails catastrophically for others.

Perhaps most timely is Professor Thomas Reutterer’s session from Vienna University on winning in generative search. As ChatGPT and other AI tools increasingly replace Google as the starting point for customer research, the rules of discoverability are being rewritten in real-time. Marketers who understand this shift will gain a competitive advantage; those who don’t risk becoming invisible.

But here’s where MASS differentiates itself from typical academic conferences: the industry voices aren’t token additions; they’re equal partners in the conversation.

Kat Warboys, APAC marketing director for HubSpot, will deliver the keynote. She’ll be joined by other heavyweights including Omer Shai (CMO, WIX), Sophie McKay (head of APAC Marketing, Notion) and Lucio Ribeiro (chief AI and innovation officer, TBWA). These aren’t executives doing victory laps; they’re practitioners wrestling with the same challenges the research addresses.

“The magic happens when a CMO can sit in a room and hear cutting-edge research presented in the morning, then immediately discuss implementation with peers facing identical challenges in the afternoon,” explains conference co-chair, Professor of Practice at UNSW Business School, Nicolas Chu.

What makes MASS particularly valuable for senior marketers is its immunity to vendor agendas. There are no solution providers promising silver bullets, no technology platforms pushing their latest features. Instead there are just researchers presenting peer-reviewed evidence and practitioners sharing what’s working (and what isn’t) in real organisations.

For Australian marketing leaders navigating the twin pressures of budget accountability and innovation demands, MASS offers something increasingly rare: evidence-based answers to urgent questions. As Professor Van Heerde notes, “We’re not here to showcase academic excellence for its own sake. We’re here to help CMOs make better decisions on Monday morning.”

Registration details available at:  conference.unsw.edu.au/en/marketing-analytics-symposium-sydney-2026