IWD2020: Tourism NZ’s Brodie Reid on leadership and role models

9th March 2020 By Shannon Williams | shannon@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker

Brodie Reid

In celebration of Sunday’s International Women’s Day 2020, the Ticker interviews some of the sector’s newly appointed women leaders. Today, Tourism New Zealand’s director of marketing, Brodie Reid, tells us what she thinks makes a good leader, and how passion and hard work will help get you to where you want to go.

Passion, hard work and a supportive environment are the key elements in achieving success, according to Tourism New Zealand’s director of marketing, Brodie Reid.

While she may only be six months into the top marketing role at the country’s tourism body, Reid says she has already seen positive results come out of her team with the 100% Pure Welcome campaign, despite external factors such as the international visitor slowdown, Brexit, and the current coronavirus having an impact on tourism numbers.

“I’m really happy with how that is going and I’m looking forward to planning FY21 and continuing to move things along. There are huge opportunities with what we are doing at the moment and I’m really excited about what’s in store over the next 12-18 months,” she says.

Before moving into the director of marketing position, Reid spent two years as TNZ’s global manager for brand and content, where she played an integral role in delivering several big campaigns including Tiaki Promise and Responsible Camping.

Reid told the Ticker it was an easy decision putting herself forward for the leadership role.

“As I became part of our global whanau and understood what our purpose was and what we were trying to achieve in enriching New Zealand, it made sense for me to keep going along this path. So, when the opportunity arose to put myself forward for the [director of marketing] role, it was a no brainer,” she says.

In her time with the agency, Reid says TNZ has been an ‘extremely supportive’ organisation and she has had many role models help her get to where she is in her career.

“With women and leadership and the challenges they face – I think if you work really hard and you want something bad enough, I think you can achieve it. All throughout my career I have only been inspired and helped by the men and women around me. It’s all about your personal attitude, and how hard you believe in yourself and the work you do,” she says.

“I have had some amazing female role models and male role models. It comes down to personal vision and how someone can inspire a group of people. If a leader has an amazing brain, a vision, and are empathetic, that to me is what makes great leadership.”

Leadership “is about being creative in your approach with everything you do”, says Reid.

“Being kind and being a good person, and putting people first is such an important part of leadership that I think people don’t put enough emphasis on. It takes a group of amazing people to achieve a goal, so if you can inspire a whole bunch of people to get behind your vision of the future, that’s leadership.”