Episode 12
Lauren Drummond on what it takes to rebrand a heritage institution, why the timeline was never hers to control, and the commercial acumen that held it all together.
Episode
Overview
Lauren Drummond didn’t walk into a clean brief. She joined the Sydney Fish Market in 2020 before the new building had started coming out of the water at Blackwattle Bay. What followed was five years of leading a complete institutional rebrand across a $170 million wholesale seafood operation that couldn’t stop trading for a single day while any of it was happening.
In this episode, Lauren joins Aleisha McCall for a candid conversation about what transformation under pressure actually looks like from the inside. From managing stakeholders across government, board, and 40-year veterans of the trading floor, to finding the sacred cow that anchored the entire visual identity evolution, to building commercial acumen from scratch whilst already sitting at the executive table.
Last month, she opened an $830 million venue at Blackwattle Bay. Brand intact. Business still moving. This is the honest account of how.
Listen & subscribe Tune in on your favourite platform to listen or watch Episode 12 of The Black Box of Media Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
listen & subscribe
Tune in on your favourite platform to listen or watch Episode 12 of The Black Box of Media Podcast.
Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Watch EPISODE 12
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome to The Black Box of Media, Season 3 Episode 12
00:08 Introducing Lauren Drummond, CMO of Sydney Fish Market
01:22 The $830 million opening: what the last 12 months actually looked like
03:53 What it felt like on opening day after five years of the journey
06:32 Leading without all the answers: managing through genuine uncertainty
08:29 Keeping the team moving when the goalposts keep shifting
11:00 When did the rebrand decision get made, and why then?
13:26 The stakeholder journey: the part of rebranding most marketers underestimate
14:45 Balancing heritage with modernisation: identifying what you can’t touch
15:00 The blue crate: Sydney Fish Market’s sacred cow and why it anchored everything
17:14 The risks that kept Lauren up at night, and how she mitigated them
21:40 Adapting the plan in real time: the art of the non-traditional rebrand
22:33 Connecting marketing activity to commercial outcomes in the post-launch phase
28:04 Leading on instinct when the historical data doesn’t exist yet
31:13 Consumer segmentation: Sydney-siders vs tourists, and what that means commercially
34:47 Visitation targets, loyalty, and the earned media machine
37:05 The one piece of advice for CMOs navigating transformation
39:14 Building commercial acumen when you didn’t start there: how to close the gap
44:24 Where to find Lauren Drummond
Key
Takeaways
Rebranding Under Real Constraints
- Why moving early was the right call even when every instinct said wait
- How to manage stakeholder ownership across government, board, staff, and the public
- Why the most important brand asset is rarely the obvious one
Transformation Whilst Trading
- What keeping commercial momentum looks like when the timeline belongs to someone else
- How to lead a team through years of uncertainty without pretending you have answers
Commercial Acumen for Marketers
- Why commercial literacy is non-negotiable for CMOs at executive level
- How to build it from scratch whilst already sitting at the table
Stakeholder Management at Scale
- What it takes to coordinate across government, board, veterans, and 40 retail vendors at once
- How to make a call, absorb the pushback, and keep moving
Leadership and the Long Game
- How to hold a team together through a project with no guaranteed outcome
- Why being open about not having the answer builds more trust than performing certainty
GUEST PROFILE – LAUREN DRUMMOND
Lauren Drummond is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Sydney Fish Market, a role she has held since 2020. She led the marketing function across a five-year, $830 million transformation of one of Australia’s most recognised food and tourism destinations, managing the rebrand of a 35-year-old institution whilst keeping a $170 million wholesale seafood operation running throughout.
Her portfolio at Sydney Fish Market spans wholesale seafood, property tenants, the Sydney Seafood School, tourism, events, merchandise, and a retail floor that expanded to 40 vendors on opening day at the new Blackwattle Bay venue.
Lauren is a LinkedIn-first communicator and open to hearing from anyone the episode sparked something for.
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