What you need to know:

• Google’s most senior marketing leader for ANZ, Aisling Finch, has left the business after a 13-year tenure
• Google has appointed device and services marketing leader, Julia Davis, as interim marketing chief – and is now on the hunt for a permanent replacement.
• Finch was helped spearhead a slew of business initiatives alongside marketing, from DEI, localisation and accessibility across Google products, to ad industry development and Google’s strategic response to the News Media Bargaining Code.

Google is on the hunt for a new local marketing chief as long-serving Senior VP of Marketing, Aisling Finch, calls time on her tenure.

Finch spent seven years overseeing marketing across Australia and New Zealand, the last two-and-a-half as a senior director. She’s being replaced in the short-term by Julia Davis, who currently leads Google's ANZ devices and services marketing team. 

Without a new role lined up, Finch confirmed plans to take timeout before deciding on her next career chapter.

Finch’s achievements include growing user engagement on search, and establishing product categories locally including for Google Pixel and Nest. Another notable effort has been growing partnerships with the likes of Telstra and the AFL to localise and extend product engagement.

The work with AFL, which commenced in 2016, resulted in the ‘Footy Skills Lab – Made by Google’, a tool employing a smartphone camera and Google AI aimed at democratising footy training. In 2022, the partnership extended to working with AFL’s Disability Inclusion team to improve the accessibility of Google tools. 

DEI agent

In a statement to Mi3, Google Australia Managing Director, Melanie Silva, highlighted Finch’s executive contribution to bringing a stronger diversity and inclusion lens to Google products, services, marketing and operations. Initiatives stretched from spearheading inclusive training across the team and Google agency partners, to a stint as chair of Google’s internal DEI Council for ANZ.

From a marketing perspective, Finch worked with local publishing and creative partners to improve diversity in creative processes and output off the back of the debut of the Pixel Real Tone feature on Pixel 6 phones. The launch campaign in 2021 delivered strong positive sentiment including a seven per cent uplift in purchase intent for Pixel 6.

“Ais has been an unshakable voice in our industry for greater diversity and inclusion and backed the talk with practical action,” Silva said. “This includes sharing a pragmatic DEI playbook for marketers, ensuring Google’s own creative tells diverse stories, and contributing to our ambitious Reconciliation Action Plan.”

Bargaining code crisis

During the tumultuous period of negotiating the News Media Bargaining Code in 2020, Finch was one of five leaders locally formulating the search giant’s strategy and response, presenting regularly to Google’s global CEO leadership team and leading the execution team locally. The work led to Google and YouTube using their homepages to hammer home the message of a ‘fair and workable code’ to the public.

In her CMO50 submission in 2021, Finch described the experience as one that tested her adaptability as a leader and required her to be vulnerable with her team: “I was prepared for low people leader scores as a result, telling myself to be kind to myself given the circumstances. I was beyond shocked when they were even higher than usual. The team was generous and understanding. People can do amazing things in a crisis, with a compelling ‘why’, lots of empathy and clear direction on execution.”

Silva additionally flagged Finch’s work with the ads industry and CMO community, as well as across events and initiatives such as the Premier Partners Awards, YouTube Brandcast, Think with Google and more recently, Google Marketing Live. Finch has been on the AANA Board of Directors since 2019.

“Ais has made an outstanding contribution in her time at Google and played an indispensable role in bringing the helpfulness of Google’s products and services to millions of Aussies and Kiwis,” Silva said. “While I’m going to miss her unique blend of curiosity, people centricity, strategic thinking and sense of fun, I'm excited to see how she channels all this into a new area of focus. I’ve seen firsthand her leadership qualities and impact across consumers, businesses and our brand. Ais has been one of the best people to have by your side.

“She is an incredible leader, colleague and friend. We wish her the absolute best on her next chapter and thank her for her countless contributions.”

Prior to Google, Finch spent five years with Telstra in strategy and finance management roles, then returned to the telco after a short stint with Kantar as GM of Retail and Online Marketing for three years.  

In a LinkedIn post, Finch said it had been a difficult decision to resign but expressed excitement about what’s next.

“Reflecting on my time at Google, I have a lot of learnings, and there’s a ton of work I’m proud of, and maybe I’ll share some of those reflections, but overwhelmingly the thing I’m most grateful for is the amazing people I’ve gotten to work with,” Finch stated. “It's perhaps a cliché, but it is the people that made every day wonderful.”