{"id":2310,"date":"2026-02-17T16:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:08:15","slug":"cra-appoints-helena-odowd-head-of-commercial-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/cra-appoints-helena-odowd-head-of-commercial-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"CRA APPOINTS HELENA O\u2019DOWD HEAD OF COMMERCIAL STRATEGY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) today announced the appointment of Helena O\u2019Dowd as Head of Commercial Strategy. The new role is focused on the delivery of key industry-wide initiatives, driving audience and revenue growth across the sector as part of CRA\u2019s 2030 Strategic Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this role, O\u2019Dowd is responsible for understanding the needs of customers – consumers and clients – and developing solutions to address them at an industry level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Dowd brings more than 20 years\u2019 experience across marketing and media, connecting brands and audiences across multiple platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, O\u2019Dowd served as Nine\u2019s Director of Growth and Retention, working across all facets of the business including 9Network, 9Now, Nine Publishing, Nine Radio, Stan, Domain, Drive and Pedestrian, as well as Nine\u2019s external partners including the NRL, Tennis Australia, Rugby Australia, Australian Olympic Committee, International Olympic Committee, and Paralympics Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to Nine, she held senior roles at OMD and EssenceMediacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Head<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pictured:<\/em><\/strong> Helena O’Dowd, Head of Commercial Strategy, CRA<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRA CEO LizzieYoung said<\/strong>: \u201cThis is an exciting appointment for CRA and the entire industry. Helena’s understanding of the consumer marketing landscape, as well as commercial realities, make her exceptionally well placed to understand the challenges facing marketers today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have incredible audience scale, data which demonstrates the power of audio and its ability to drive profitable growth for brands, and an innovation pipeline centered around our strategic priorities to grow audience and make audio easier to buy. This role with a dedicated customer focus in market complements our existing activities and the broader CRA team which supports our members – Australia\u2019s commercial audio broadcasting sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of Commercial Strategy, Helena O\u2019Dowd said: <\/strong>\u201cLooking at the landscape, audio is in growth, demonstrating that consumers are making it clear the role audio plays in their lives. I am excited to step into the world of CRA where collaboration and appetite amongst the industry and members to move at pace has been overwhelmingly positive; ensuring the future is bright for the category. I look forward to helping customers access some of Australia\u2019s leading brands in a more seamless way to help solve business problems and deliver results\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Dowd\u2019s appointment comes ahead of HEARD ’26 on 18 February, as 1,000 marketers, agency executives and creative leaders gather at ICC Sydney for the audio industry’s annual showcase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) today announced the appointment of Helena O\u2019Dowd as Head of Commercial Strategy. The new role is focused on the delivery of key industry-wide initiatives, driving audience and revenue growth across the sector as part of CRA\u2019s 2030 Strategic Plan. In this role, O\u2019Dowd is responsible for understanding the needs of … Continue reading “CRA APPOINTS HELENA O\u2019DOWD HEAD OF COMMERCIAL STRATEGY”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2310\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioindustrynews.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}