A profile of Mars United’s award-winning Managing Director-APAC
Sally Tobin, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific at Mars UnitedSM Commerce, was named a winner this summer in the Industry Impact category of the Path to Purchase Institute’s 9th annual Women of Excellence competition. The following is a profile of the qualities and characteristics that earned her the award.
As part of a restructuring undertaken in May, Sally Tobin was named Mars UnitedSM Commerce’s Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region. The promotion reflects the exceptional success she’s had building Mars United’s business in Australia-New Zealand in the two years since the company acquired her agency, the former XPO Brands.
While building the business, however, Tobin also has been helping to define and expand commerce marketing in the region by elevating the emerging practices of retail media and marketing analytics in the two nations. Mars United is now recognized as a leader in both disciplines in the area.
Sally has long been a leader in Australia’s marketing community. She served as chair of the Shop! organization’s regional chapter from 2019-2022, spearheading the development of industry benchmarks for marketing measurement that would optimize processes and spending practices. She then shared the framework with the world at the Euroshop conference in Germany in 2023.
Such industry-leading success is nothing new for Sally. By the age of 23, she had developed her first software platform and sold her first agency business. She founded XPO Brands in 2011, and steadily built the company into a multimillion-dollar agency delivering first-class shopper, customer, and experiential marketing services to Australia and New Zealand’s leading brands.
Through her leadership, XPO gained an unrivalled reputation, becoming the most awarded local commerce agency for three years running and attracting the attention of Mars United, which acquired the shop in 2022. Sally immediately stepped into an agency-wide leadership role, driving client success globally and expanding our capabilities locally into retail media, ecommerce, and marketing analytics. In early 2024, she helped Mars United strengthen its regional prowess through the acquisition of New Zealand’s The In Group.
Sally’s passion for innovation inspired her to create multiple tech platforms that drive operational efficiency for the company and its clients. These accomplishments led to recognition as a “Women Leading Tech” finalist in B&T Magazine’s 2023 competition.
However, she might be most passionate about helping young talent —speaking regularly at a leading university, personally mentoring three under-30 professionals into business ownership roles, and sitting on mentor program boards for several startups. Through these efforts, she is working toward making an impact on the industry’s future by guiding the young executives who will pave the way forward.
