ADMA (the Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising) and the New Zealand Marketing Association (NZMA) have formed a partnership to boost marketing skills across Australia and New Zealand by rolling out ADMA’s Capability Compass.
This is a shared skills framework and evidence-based tool for assessing and developing marketing teams.
Until now, capability-building efforts have often been handled market-by-market and lacked a single evidence-based benchmark. By endorsing a shared framework, the ADMA Capability Compass, the two associations are effectively trying to create a regional standard for marketing skills.
Under this partnership, NZMA will promote and endorse the ADMA Capability Compass, giving its members, and the broader marketing community, access to a data-driven tool that benchmarks skills, identifies gaps, and helps teams stay ahead of market change.
NZMA will also map its curriculum against ADMA’s 65-skill framework, ensuring that the competencies taught and recognised on each side of the Tasman are consistent with the same industry standards.
As marketing grows more data-driven and technologically complex, a unified capability standard should give boards and executive teams a clearer signal of what “fit-for-future” marketing talent looks like and how to cultivate it.
A single standard for capability
Developed by ADMA with input from senior marketers and business leaders, the Capability Compass provides a detailed, evidence-based assessment of marketing teams.
Mark Ritson, founder of the Mini MBA, played a key role in developing it, saying at its launch, “The ADMA Capability Compass will arm leaders with the data needed to pinpoint skills gaps in their teams, enabling us to build better marketers.”
It evaluates 13 core marketing capabilities and 65 underlying skills spanning strategy, execution, and analysis. By highlighting strengths and areas for improvement, and by benchmarking against industry norms, it offers CMOs and marketing leaders structured pathways and targeted investment recommendations to build future-ready teams.
Andrea Martens, CEO of ADMA, said the agreement reflects the accelerating pace of change marketers face, “Marketers across Australasia face the same challenge, building capability at the pace that change demands.
“This partnership with NZMA opens up access to ADMA’s world-leading Capability Compass for New Zealand marketing leaders, a vital step in giving them evidence-based clarity to understand skills, close gaps and make confident decisions about team development.
“This is central to ADMA’s vision of bringing marketers forward into the next era of marketing – equipping them with the tools to navigate what’s ahead. Together we’re creating a shared standard for capability that helps our profession move forward with clarity and impact.”
John Miles, CEO of NZMA, added that the alignment of standards across both markets is a natural evolution, “Capability has always been central to what NZMA does. By endorsing the ADMA Capability Compass, we can give New Zealand marketers a proven framework to benchmark skills, identify gaps and plan with confidence.
“Working with ADMA ensures our members are aligned to the same standards as their Australian peers and ready for the opportunities ahead.”