CMO Manisha Seewal steps down from Gumtree Australia, returns to SG

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Manisha Seewal has stepped down as CMO of Gumtree Australia, CarsGuide and Autotrader Group Australia after one year. Seewal (pictured) said on LinkedIn that the last one year has been exciting and challenging - moving to a new country, adapting to a new culture, new company and a new way of life. "I have thoroughly enjoyed spearheading the marketing function for three brands with a special focus on sustainability and automotive," she added.

At Gumtree, she was responsible for building on the strengths of each brand to cement Gumtree’s position as Australia’s favorite local marketplace and build a leading destination for buyers and sellers in the Aussie automotive market through CarsGuide and Autotrader.

Seewal told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that during the last year, she has thoroughly enjoyed being a brand ambassador and showcasing the power of the Gumtree, Carsguide and Autorader network, which reaches over seven million Australians. This includes top-tier media and industry-leading platforms such as the AADA 2022 - Australia’s largest Auto dealership event where she chaired a panel of industry experts from Maserati and Alto Group to discuss Impactful marketing strategies for automotive Industry.

"One of the key projects that I am extremely proud of happened in August 2022. We launched a very successful Gumtree House of Circularity in partnership with Planet Ark where, for the first time, an entire house was styled with pre-loved, sustainably sourced items from Gumtree. It received great feedback and was visited by both our internal staff and covered extensively by Australia’s several top-tier media channels. It truly brought the brand to life," she said.

In the coming months, Seewal plans to be in Sydney and do several road trips around Australia in her Miata before heading back home to Singapore. "I will also be on the lookout for exciting opportunities in Singapore or anywhere elsewhere in the world," she added.

Gumtree, as the marketplace empowering economic opportunity through responsible living; CarsGuide, as a popular automotive editorial guiding customers to confidently buy and sell cars; and Autotrader, as a renowned automotive marketplace. In August, Australian business and finance publisher The Market Herald acquired Gumtree from Adevinta for US$60 million. This came two years after eBay sold Gumtree to Adevinta for US$9 billion.

She also thanked Gumtree MD Mark Kehoe for giving her the opportunity to be part of the leadership team. "I have learnt a lot alongside some of the smartest colleagues in business and will take to heart the leadership values of being passionate and courageous while being empathetic and adaptable for my next adventure," she added.

She joined the team last October from Carro where she was previously group CMO since 2018. At Carro, Seewal scaled up the marketing function across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. She was also responsible for forming in-house marketing teams in those four markets which include brand, PR, social, SEO, performance marketing capabilities and an entire creative hub. In March 2020, Seewal also started double-hatting as the CEO of Jualo.com, Indonesia’s third-largest C2C e-classifieds marketplace which was acquired by Carro in 2019. Under her leadership, Jualo’s appeal grew especially amongst the younger Indonesians (age 18-24).

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