About.

Marketing leader. AI builder. Storyteller.

Rubina Carlson, smiling, in a black top and black fascinator.

The journey.

Adelaide-based, 15+ years in marketing across three very different sectors. Tourism at SeaLink Travel Group. Agency at Refuel Creative. Tech and SaaS at 90 Seconds.

The through-line across all three: small teams, limited budgets, against real numbers. At SeaLink, took the Bruny Island NPS from −50 to +10 launching a new ferry service into a community that did not want it. At Refuel, won the 2023 HubSpot Impact Award for Platform Excellence after a comprehensive HubSpot rebuild for K-TIG. At 90 Seconds, generated $5M in pipeline opportunities since June 2024 and shipped AI tooling from the marketing seat.

Outside the day job, ten years as a Director of Digital Adelaide. Grew the conference from 40 delegates in a UniSA tutorial room to 200+ at Adelaide Oval. Lectured in marketing at UniSA and TAFE SA on and off since 2011. Delivered the first tertiary social media course in Australia at TAFE SA in 2011, well before the creator economy made it obvious.

Right now.

Head of Marketing at 90 Seconds, leading the global marketing function from APAC. The team is APAC-based. The work covers the business globally, partnering with sales counterparts in the US, UK and EMEA on go-to-market.

Alongside the marketing work, I build. Replit, Claude Code and the Anthropic API are daily tools. Live builds include 90Labs, a sales-enablement workspace with 29+ assets and a Pitch Builder in beta with the global sales team. Contributed to the GTM OS, an internal operations platform, alongside our VP of Product. Configured Scout, the 90 Seconds HubSpot Customer Agent. Migrated 300+ pages using an AI-scored content inventory and an Anthropic-API-powered automated migrator.

The two things feed each other. The marketing work tells me what the team actually needs. The build work means I can ship the thing rather than write a brief for someone else to ship.

How I work.

Long-cycle positioning beats short-cycle pipeline pressure. The temptation in any marketing seat is to chase the quarter. The work that compounds is the work that earns the right to a conversation 18 months from now.

Less template, more bespoke. AI lets a small team punch well above its weight, but only if you use the time to think harder, not to ship more sameness faster.

Build the thing rather than commission a brief. Most of the best ideas die in the gap between strategy and execution. The AI tools collapse that gap.

The stack.

What I use day to day. Not exhaustive. Updated when the workflow shifts.

AI tooling

Claude (Sonnet, Opus, Code)Anthropic APIReplitMidjourneyKlingElevenLabsOpusClip

Design and prototyping

FigmaMakeFigma

Marketing platforms

HubSpot (Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS, Customer Agent)Google AdsGoogle AnalyticsMeta AdsLinkedIn Campaign ManagerSEMrush

Project management

LinearNotion

Recognition.

  • 2023HubSpot Impact Award, Platform Excellence. K-TIG. 172% lead lift.
  • 2022BDO Fast Movers List. Refuel Creative named top 25 fastest-moving companies in SA.
  • 2020HubSpot Impact Award, Grow Better: Sales. SaaS startup, 445% subscription increase.
  • 2020HubSpot Impact Award, Integrations Innovation. Same SaaS client.

Education and credentials.

  • 2022Certified Practising Marketer (CPM), Australian Marketing Institute.
  • 2022Scrum Master Certified (SMC), SCRUM Alliance.
  • 2020Inbound Certified, HubSpot Academy.
  • 2013Bachelor of Media in Marketing, University of Adelaide.

Get in touch.