PwC Herald Talks: Keeping up with customers in the digital age

Head of Google New Zealand Caroline Rainsford. Photo / Dean Purcell

Consumers now expect fast, convenient, personalised and consistent brand experiences.

Helping businesses cut through the digital noise to deliver on these experiences will be the focus of keynote speaker Caroline Rainsford at the PwC Herald Talks – The Experience Economy event on September 4 & 5.

Rainsford, head of Google for New Zealand, said customer engagement is critical for business strategy as consumer expectations constantly rise.

"Customer engagement is really critical for businesses to think about because consumer expectations are constantly on the rise," Rainsford said.

"Consumers are now expecting convenient, ultra-fast, personalised experiences, and now the bar is constantly rising for businesses to think about how they deliver that."

Rainsford's role involves partnering with New Zealand businesses to help them thrive in the digital era.

"We help our partners with their business strategy, with their digital transformation and also their digital skill set capability internally," Rainsford said.

"We like to think about ourselves growing and supporting New Zealand culture and content globally."

Rainsford, born in Auckland, was appointed as country director late last year and has in-depth knowledge and understanding of Kiwi businesses and consumers.

"There is huge benefit in knowing lots of the businesses and people," Rainsford said.

Prior to taking up her current role, Rainsford spent five years in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa as regional marketing director with Royal Philips Electronics, before becoming marketing and product director at Latitude NZ.

Google has had a presence in New Zealand since 2007, though a low one at that.

Rainsford said her goal is to lift its profile and be more engaged with businesses and the public.

"I want to be a much more accessible face of Google New Zealand," Rainsford said.

"We're in a great growth phase at the moment and our role is shifting to be more partnership managers where we're working with clients on everything from ads and advertising and marketing strategies and how they reach audiences, but also more around data and analytics."

Get your tickets for the event here.