Regional marketing and advertising initiative, Boomtown, has brought on former Koala and Athena lead marketer, Leanne Glamuzina, as its new marketing lead. She takes up the reins from early November and replaces current marketing lead, Prue Tehan, who has held the position for the last 18 months.

Glamuzina boasts of more than 20 years’ experience as a marketer across media, entertainment and ecommerce brands. Most recently, she was VP of global marketing for professional services company, Athena. Prior to this, she worked as VP of marketing for bedding and furniture pure-play retailer, Koala.

Glamuzina’s roots are in the media sector, however, and she spent 15 years working for Nova Entertainment across a variety of roles. This included being on the national marketing leadership team behind the launch of Smooth FM. Earlier in her career, she oversaw national promotions at Seven Network.

Glamuzina is tasked with leading Boomtown’s marketing efforts, including Boomtown’s Masterclasses program, which are slated to return in 2024. She reports to Boomtown’s now independent chair, Brian Gallagher, who has been serving as chairman since the initiative was first launched in 2019 under the wing of Southern Cross Austereo. Following his departure from SCA in May, Gallagher was confirmed as independent chair in August.

Boomtown today is supported by SCA, WIN, Seven Network, ARN, ACM, News Corp, Nine NBN and Imparja. Combined, regional Australian audiences represent 9.6 million consumers living outside the country’s five major capital cities. By comparison, figures suggest about 15 per cent of total advertising dollars are spent in regional media.

“We are delighted that a marketing professional of Leanne’s calibre is joining Boomtown. She has a long and award-winning career in marketing and brings excellent strategic and brand leadership skills and a strong track record to Boomtown,” Gallagher said. “Boomtown has a number of exciting initiatives planned for 2024 as we continue to raise the profile of a booming regional Australia and see an increasing investment by national brands into reaching and engaging with regional communities. We know and have proved that regional audiences deliver higher ROI to advertisers, and the opportunity is there for brands wanting to engage with a significant market that’s diverse, growing, and ready to spend.”

For her part, Glamuzina said she was looking forward to furthering regional Australia as a viable marketing and advertising opportunity for brands.

“I have seen firsthand how effective regional campaigns for brands can be and the positive effect that Boomtown has already had. I’m excited to bring my experience in brand marketing to Boomtown to take it up another notch next year and beyond,” she said.

Tehan told Mi3 it had been an “enormous privilege” advocating for regional Australia over the last couple of years. Prior to taking up the Boomtown mantle, Tehan worked at the Advertising Council of Australia as general manager, and has also held marketing, communications and client management positions at Big Red Group, 303Lowe, JWT Melbourne and JWT Perth. She plans to break before making her next professional move.

“I’m thrilled to be handing over the reins to someone of Leanne’s calibre. I wish her and the team all the very best -it’s a great gig,” Tehan said.

Regional audiences remain upbeat despite cost-of-living crisis

According to Boomtown’s latest Mood Monitor research report, released last week, Boomtown audiences remain happier and more positive about life than their metro counterparts, despite the cost-of-living crisis. Two-thirds (68 per cent) are planning to spend on holidays and travel over the coming months, one in three people are looking to reassess their banking or finances, two in five are keen to change their insurance provider, and 23 per cent plan to sign up to telecommunications and streaming services in the next six months. Overall, 52 per cent said they felt financially stable, content and happy.

The data comes as figures from the Regional Movers Index (RMI) showed the thirst for a tree or sea change shows no signs of abating, with the index at its third-highest level since 2018. This puts it slightly above the average reported during the height of the pandemic, and 17.4 per cent above pre-Covid levels.