What does it take to build a brand from nothing in nine weeks, with no assets, no brand book, and a board breathing down your neck? Penny Elmslie did exactly that as the first Marketing Director Xero hired outside of New Zealand, turning a company most Australians confused with a certain photocopier brand into one of the world's most recognised accounting software businesses.
Penny shares the story behind Xero's early Australian growth: the scrappy "Hello, Xero with an X" campaign, guerrilla activations like Cloudstreet, the partner strategy that turned accountants into an army, and the event machine that scaled from 30 people in a winery to thousands globally. She also opens up about joining Affinda as CMO and why AI document processing today mirrors where the cloud was a decade ago.
Guest Introduction
Penny Elmslie is a CMO, Board Director, and marketing coach who spent over a decade at Xero, rising from Australia's first Marketing Director to Global Director of Brand and Community. She is currently CMO at Affinda, a Melbourne-based AI document processing company named one of Australia's fastest-growing tech companies by Deloitte.
Key Topics
- Building Xero's brand in nine weeks: Launching a full campaign with no brand book, no assets, and a tiny budget, and why the insight was simply making people spell the name correctly.
- The accountant-as-channel strategy: How Xero built its go-to-market around accountants and bookkeepers, turning that partner network into the most efficient channel to market.
- From "Hello" to XeroCon: How brand experience evolved from small intro sessions to national roadshows and a flagship conference now running worldwide.
- Cloudstreet and guerrilla marketing: The pop-up activation that scaled from a city storefront into a shipping container touring Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
- B2C thinking in a B2B world: Why Penny approaches every B2B campaign as human-to-human, and how that philosophy shaped her work at Xero.
- Joining Affinda: What drew her to an AI-first scale-up and the brand-building opportunity still ahead.
- Reactive vs. responsive: Why responding to market opportunity beats forcing a proactive plan early in a CMO role.
- Content quality in an AI-flooded world: Why human expertise must stay on the levers, and why brands that commit to their ICP and tone will win.
Resources & Links
People
Companies & Tools
- Affinda- AI document processing platform; Penny's current company
- Affinda Group- Parent company of Affinda, Draftable, Pathfindr, and Vesparum
- Draftable- Document comparison software for legal teams
- Xero- Cloud-based accounting software for small businesses
- MYOB- Accounting software competitor
- Leo Burnett Australia- Creative agency Penny briefed on day one at Xero
- Sputnik Agency- Melbourne agency Penny partnered with to launch Xero's first Australian campaign
Contact & Credits
Host: Shahin Hoda
Guest: Penny Elmslie
Produced by: Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell
Edited by: Alexander Hipwell
Music by: Breakmaster Cylinder
APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth
