Asia-Pacific Power List 2021: Sweta Mehra, ANZ

Sweta Mehra

Chief marketing officer
ANZ
Australia
Member since 2020

Sweta Mehra has been pivotal to the digital and cultural transformation of one of Australia's oldest and largest banks since she took up the CMO role four years ago. She has spearheaded a data-led marketing approach that takes into account financial wellbeing and customer life stages, which proved especially crucial in the midst of the pandemic. Focusing on how ANZ can help those suffering economic hardship to weather the storm not only distinguished its brand, but also provided important tools for customers.

In addition, Mehra is responsible for ANZ’s digital sales. In this role she has pushed the bank to invest heavily in digital solutions—driving significant growth for the business. Under her leadership, digital sales contributions to business revenue have doubled while manual servicing has been reduced.

ANZ has launched its most successful campaigns in recent times under Mehra, as she has refined its purpose-led marketing. This includes highly decorated ‘Signs of Love’ from 2019, in which the bank jazzed up Oxford Street signs across Australia to mark its support for Sydney's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and ‘Love Speech’ in 2020, which challenged homophobic slurs. On a completely different note, ANZ’s recent home loan campaign catapulted to success thanks to Baywatch star David Hasselhoff. It appears that all you need is 10 seconds of the Hoff to trigger a surge in mortgage applications.

Prior to joining ANZ, Mehra was a veteran executive at FMCG giant Procter & Gamble, where she held a variety of positions leading brands and marketing for more than 17 years. 

Mehra continues to mentor junior marketing talent via The Marketing Academy Australia’s scholarship programme, and has developed an internal ‘Marketing Masters’ capability-building program.