Consumer goods, tech and luxury

Consumer goods, tech & luxury

Graham Bednash

Creative consumer marketing director, Google UK Graham Bednash has been at Google for seven years, taking responsibility for delivering creative strategy and ideas across brand, search, Pixel, Google Home and Assistant, as well as the company’s nationwide digital training programme. Bednash has led many of Google’s acclaimed creative projects across social, experience, TV and content, including the 2019 campaign for Google’s Chromebook and Google Home. In January, Chromebook partnered with Netflix Original series Sex Education to mark the show’s second season. The collaboration featured a series of mini-films called ‘Wouldn’t Happen with a Chromebook’, positioning the laptop as the solution to tech disasters at work, school and home. Bednash said it was a great way for Google to reach its student audience and shine a light on the Chromebook features. In 2020, 20 million Chromebooks are forecast to be shipped globally, an increase of 17% on 2019, growth partly fuelled by the shift to homeworking amid Covid-19. Revenue at Google UK hit £1.6bn for the year to 30 June 2019, up by £193m on the previous year.■

Chief marketing officer, Microsoft UK Microsoft is experiencing something of a renaissance in 2020. UK CMO Paul Bolt describes the tech giant’s response to the Covid-19 crisis as adopting the role of “digital first responders” enabling the shift to home working and supporting the NHS. While Teams was already showing signs of outperforming competitors such as Slack and Google Hangouts pre-pandemic, three years since the messaging service launched it has notched up daily user figures of 44 million. A staggering 2.7 billion minutes of meeting time were recorded on the platform in a single day in late March, up 200% in usage from earlier in the month. On Bolt’s watch Microsoft ramped up its global skills initiative, which aims to educate 25 million people in digital skills. It also forged partnerships with McLaren and Ford to develop state-of-the-art ventilators for the NHS. The company claimed third place in the 2020 BrandZ top 100 ranking, growing its value by 30%to $327bn (£249bn). This puts Microsoft ahead of the likes of Google, Facebook and Visa, and makes it the second fastest-growing brand in the top 10 behind Amazon.■

CHARITY & NOT-FOR-PROFIT

consumer goods, tech & luxury

FINANCIAL SERVICES

FMCG

Food & drink

FOOD & DRINK RETAIL

GENERAL RETAIL

MEDIA & TELECOMS

REGULATED INDUSTRIES

TRAVEL, LEISURE & HOSPITALITY

meet the judges

TOP100 hOME

methodology

The top100 list

Paul Bolt

Benjamin Braun

Chief marketing officer (Europe), Samsung Former Audi UK marketing and digital director Benjamin Braun joined Samsung in early 2019, tasked with making complicated things easier for people to grasp. On joining, he set out a 90-day plan consisting of four elements: creating a clear vision; setting clear goals that were measurable and time-bound; shutting down so-called “zombie projects” which had lost relevance; and enhancing Samsung’s internal organisation and agency network. October 2019 saw the launch of Samsung’s first marketing campaign under Braun – the ‘SpaceSelfie’. Selfies were transmitted from Earth and layered over real-time shots of the planet to promote its Galaxy smartphones and coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. Sales of 5G phones were much better than Samsung expected in 2019, with 6.7 million phones sold, including the Galaxy S10 5G – the phone used by Cara Delevingne to send her SpaceSelfie into the stratosphere at the launch event. Braun is now on a mission to increase personalisation and is working on three ‘top secret’ innovations this year.■

Director of brand marketing EMEA and LATAM, LinkedIn Darain Faraz was promoted to director of brand marketing EMEA and LATAM for LinkedIn in April this year, after nine years at the company. Faraz oversaw the launch of LinkedIn’s biggest UK campaign and first foray into TV advertising in 2019, which showcased the human side of the brand by using the stories of real people who have found new roles via the platform. The work is part of LinkedIn’s broader ‘In It Together’ positioning, with Faraz’s team responsible for ensuring that the marketing is relevant in local markets. After seeing content sharing rise 50% year-on-year on the platform during the pandemic, Faraz was inspired to develop new UK campaign ‘Working It Out’. The campaign follows three stories of adapting to the ‘new normal’ – a virtual job interview, starting a new job remotely and delivering an important presentation from home. In February 2020, Faraz co-founded People Like Us, a quarterly networking event for BAME media and marcomms professionals. He is also a mentor in the BME Mentoring Scheme from BME PR Pros.■

Darain Faraz

Andrew Garrihy

Global chief brand officer, Huawei Promoted to global chief brand officer in July 2019, Andrew Garrihy said in October last year that Huawei’s marketing must be as innovative as its R&D, an area in which the company invests billions. When the annual Mobile World Congress was cancelled due to Covid-19, Huawei staged a virtual launch where it unveiled a variety of 5G products and discussed its wider strategy, communicating the strength and depth of the portfolio. Now in its fourth year, Huawei’s Next-Image photography contest has become the world’s largest smartphone photography and videography competition, attracting over 520,000 entries last year. Garrihy is one of the judges for 2020. Despite challenges presented by the government’s decision to remove Huawei from the UK 5G network, the Chinese tech giant continues to grow. Huawei was second in the 2019 global smartphone market claiming a 17.6% share, trailing Samsung with 21.8% and above Apple with 14.5%. Garrihy has gone on record saying that while the company has experienced some “unique challenges”, Huawei remains committed to the UK and will focus on communicating all it is doing to prioritise privacy.■

Marketing director, international, Peloton Interactive With a career spanning gaming, fashion and travel, Marian Holties joined Peloton Interactive as UK marketing director in July 2018. Her task was to launch the bike and fitness-streaming company into the UK, a market where the company has invested £50m, including £7m in advertising. Holties recruited a team of three, with the company carrying out a lot of marketing in-house, and was promoted to marketing director of international in December 2018. Ahead of its flotation in September 2019, Peloton expanded its offering beyond the bike to sell treadmills, as well as streaming yoga, strength training and meditation classes. Then, in November last year, Peloton launched a UK Christmas campaign featuring a 30-second TV ad which transports the viewer into a Peloton class. Holties said it was designed to “hero” the class experience. Revenue rose 66% year-on-year to $524.6m (£413m) during the third quarter of 2020 as Covid-19 drove demand for home fitness, suggesting Peloton’s work establishing its reputation prior to the pandemic is paying off. In April 2020, the company held its largest-ever virtual class, with more than 23,000 people streaming it from home.■

Marian Holties

Alison Orsi

Vice-president and chief marketing officer, IBM Europe After spending three years in New York, Alison Orsi returned to London in January 2019 to lead marketing for IBM Europe. With 27 years at the company under her belt, she now heads up a large international team responsible for marketing strategy and delivery of IBM’s brand and reputation, as well as its sales pipeline development. Orsi has been heavily involved in IBM Europe’s journey to adopt agile as a marketing function, saying that the approach is a crucial part of the company’s goal to become truly customer-centric. Around 5,000 marketers have now been instructed in agile principles. In October 2019, IBM released the ‘Every Second Counts’ campaign, which demonstrated the dangers of cybercrime to customers. The work used real-time experiences that brought to life the pressures of a cyberattack. Videos, GIFs and social posts were shared on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, targeting CIOs and IT leaders. Orsi is a member of the IBM global marketing leadership team and a marketing ambassador. She is also a fellow of The Marketing Society UK and The Marketing Academy.■

Marketing director, Google UK Nishma Robb was promoted from Google’s ads marketing director UK to marketing director in September 2019. She assumed responsibility for the tech company’s brand and reputation, as well as leading advertising and industry marketing for Google and YouTube. In July 2019, YouTube launched a campaign aimed at giving the advertising industry a glimpse into celebrities’ favourite videos. Rolled out across YouTube, LinkedIn, print and experiential, the creative featured the likes Sara Cox, David Walliams and DJ Yoda. Robb said the campaign intended to communicate the magic of YouTube by bringing it to life in a personal way and she hoped the creative would inspire adland to appreciate “what YouTube means to different people”. Despite the impact of the pandemic on marketing budgets, YouTube ad revenue rose to $3.8bn (£2.9bn) during the second quarter of 2020. A champion for diversity and equality, including mentoring diverse talent, Robb previously served as chair of Women@Google.■

Nishma Robb

Michelle Roberts

Marketing director, BMW Group UK 2019 was a record year for BMW, which sold 2.52 million cars, a 1.2% increase on 2018 fuelled in part by the company’s Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) range. Hybrid tech is just one of many innovations Michelle Roberts has seen in her 20 years at BMW, where she started as a graduate and now leads a team of more than 70 people. In March, she developed an integrated campaign communicating how PHEVs combine the performance of petrol with the efficiency of electric. The resulting strap line – ‘Sometimes electric. Always BMW’ – featured on a cinematic film which ran across TV, social media, digital and outdoor across Europe. Roberts also oversaw the launch of a new 10-episode podcast series #PlayNext in August, exploring pioneering new music and featuring industry legends such as composer Hans Zimmer. In March, Roberts appeared at British Vogue’s first Forces For Change event at the Women Of The World Festival, run in partnership with BMW and AB InBev. It gave inspiring leaders and rising stars a platform to discuss issues supporting positive cultural change.■

Vice-president global marketing, The Lego Group Promoted from head of marketing for Central Europe to vice-president of global marketing in June 2019, Rebecca Snell is in the hot seat at an exciting time as Lego continues to invest and innovate. Last year saw the launch of ‘Rebuild the World’, Lego’s first integrated global brand advertising campaign in more than 30 years. The campaign was designed to fire up children’s creativity and provide them with the skills to succeed in the future job market. In late 2019, Lego also acquired BrickLink, the world’s largest digital platform for adult fans of Lego, which has more than a million members. After notching up 5.6% global consumer sales growth in 2019, Lego had planned pre-lockdown to upgrade its ecommerce site and open 150 branded shops globally in 2020. Since the implementation of lockdowns worldwide, Lego has launched a series of creative challenges – known as Small Builds for Big Conversations – offering parents and children a guided method to engage in conversations about the importance of online safety. The company also paused all paid social media spend during July in a bid to create an “inclusive digital environment free from hate speech”.■

Rebecca Snell

Charity & not-for-profit

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