Telstra has taken its role in Australian society seriously throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, says the telco’s chief marketing officer, with the company focused on how “economic patriotism” can support customers and the broader community to weather the impact of the virus.

Speaking on Reset Now, an initiative between the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA), Nine and Mi3 for marketers to share their experience and evolving strategies as they manage the COVID-19 crisis, plan for the recovery, and see how deep consumer mindsets and behaviour might shift, Jeremy Nicholas, Telstra’s CMO, says early on in the pandemic the telco decided to take a position to “actually do something about” the suffering of Australians as a result of its impact on society.

“It’s not just important now in a crisis, it’s an important part of marketing and doing good business by doing right by your customers,” Nicholas says.

“You can say all the things you want about caring for your customers, and how we’re all in it together, but until you actually do things or change your product or your service proposition to something that actually helps people, those words really don’t matter.

“We wanted to take a position of knowing that with people and businesses suffering and things not being well in society we needed to do something positive about it, not just say that we care for everybody.”

Nicholas cites Telstra’s investment in capital expenditure, moving $800 million out of the 2021 calendar year forward to 2020, as part of its commitment to “actually doing something”.

“It was important in terms of helping the economy and stimulating jobs,” he says.

He also cites Telstra’s various initiatives designed to help individuals and businesses in need, from providing extra data in your mobile plan, unlimited data in your home internet and allowing small businesses to put their accounts on hold to discounted plans for people  on unemployment or JobKeeper benefits.

Nicholas’ comments follow on from a fiery warning by Jenni Dill, the incoming CMO of Arnott’s, for brands to back up their marketing promises with action for customers, predicting those that do will exit COVID-19 with more market share.

Nicholas says the choices Telstra has made throughout the pandemic didn’t face debate within the company, due to what CEO Andy Penn refers to as “economic patriotism”.

“It goes a lot to the charter and what Telstra sees as its identity and role in Australia,” Nicholas says.

“Our purpose is to create a connection, to connect to the future so everyone can thrive – and the ‘everyone’ is really important. We’re here to not just support our staff or our customers through this, but all of society, and we have a role to play there. When you follow that purpose it leads you to those right decisions and they become really easy.”

Nicholas says Telstra’s commitment to its 2020 sponsorships underlines this all-embracing connection.

“We did a couple of things early on with our sponsorships which were important. The CEO announced our commitment to renew any of the sponsorships due this year so that none of those organisations had to worry about it,” he says.

Telstra sponsors a number of sports and art institutions including the AFL, NRL, netball, Australian Ballet, Museum of Contemporary Art and National Gallery of Victoria, as well as the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

“And regardless of whether the galleries have been open, be that the National Gallery of Victoria or the Museum of Contemporary Art or the art gallery in the Northern Territory, and sport not being played, we were committed to paying all our fees for the year. We supported those sponsorships because we saw that as essential,” Nicholas said. “They’re part of our long-term partnerships and we want to make sure they are there for everybody.

“We’re in these partnerships for the long haul. We want our partners to come out of this in the best shape they possibly can, and we appreciate the role that those sponsorships play in sporting codes, galleries and Australian society.

“We have a job to do, as one of the biggest companies in Australia, to support them and ensure that they continue to thrive for our customers and the broader community.”