Consumer
goods
CMO, Britvic
Matt Barwell
Tapping into the low-alcohol, low-sugar trends without losing taste is Matt Barwell’s challenge. Since the sugar tax, Pepsi’s sugar-free variants, which are bottled and distributed in the UK and Ireland by Britvic, have seen years of strong growth. Barwell’s team has also relaunched Tango, taking the brand back to its outrageous 1990s heyday of its ‘Orangeman’ ads, with new executions featuring sexting and vibrators. He has also overseen a swing towards adult soft drinks consumption with premium brands, capitalising on the trend towards lower and zero alcohol consumption.
Having signed the UK Plastics Pact, Barwell says Britvic has already removed hundreds of tonnes of primary plastic from its supply chain and is moving to lighter weight and recycled plastic bottles. Barwell is a Fellow of The Marketing Society, a council member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain, and a member of the IPA effectiveness group and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
Stéphane Bérubé
CMO, Western Europe, L’Oréal
The beauty market still has great potential for growth and globally is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.3% by 2024, according to market research firm Imarc. Growth is being driven by multifunctional products and the influence of social media. Product innovation is also fuelling growth and L’Oréal is one of the key players in that market.
Stéphane Bérubé is looking into how L’Oréal can start selling services rather than just products to its customers, as he aims for the cosmetics giant to become the number one beauty tech company. This is hot on the heels of the company’s purchase of Modiface, which uses AR to create custom beauty apps, one of which could let customers try on different make-up looks. Bérubé helped create the Beauty Tech Labs model with agency Essence, which sees agency and client merge – physically and intellectually. Staff from both client and agency work together and share digital resources to speed up the way L’Oréal makes decisions and promotes innovation.
Steve Challouma
Marketing director, Birds Eye, Aunt Bessie’sand Goodfella’s,
Nomad Foods
Steve Challouma is bringing some old favourites back to life and injecting some nostalgia with a shot of modernism. By refocusing on hero products, Birds Eye has turned a 6% sales decline into a 2% increase and now the company is on an even keel, Challouma is looking to more proactive brand and marketing strategies to expand Birds Eye’s reach.
While many marketers are looking to disrupt and challenge norms, Challouma discovered that the key to reviving Birds Eye’s fortunes was to return to the brand’s heartland of 1970s and 1980s childhoods. There was immense brand equity from that time that had been ‘modernised’ out. By returning to the iconic Captain Birds Eye, Challouma could tap back into that emotion. Challouma has also managed to turn frozen food into a simple, nutritious solution to the question of food waste and healthy eating. He draws on his 20-plus years’ experience in FMCG as a prominent speaker and industry awards judge.
Nicola Coronado
Regional marketing director, Essity
There is no room for squeamishness in Nicola Coronado’s team as Bodyform rewrites the rule book around marketing women’s health. She has been proactive in leading the campaign to normalise periods with its #Bloodnormal campaign, doing away with the blue liquid representing blood in adverts and using red instead.
Number three in the UK feminine care market, Bodyform is effectively a challenger brand to Always and Tampax. It builds its brand on a campaigning platform and breaking taboos, sometimes being too challenging for TV, with French authorities banning its ads. This generated more conversation and advocacy, and gave future campaigns momentum, as well as changing perceptions over what was and was not acceptable to air. Coronado is behind a three-year campaign to end period poverty. Part of that campaign sees the company donating 200,000 packs of sanitary products by 2020. She also linked up with The Homeless Period campaign to help women living in shelters, where they often have to decide between food or sanitary protection.
Saskia Meyer
Marketing director, Fever-Tree
Saskia Meyer has put tonic water and other mixers front and centre of the drinks category, as FeverTree has been responsible for transforming mixers into desirable and sophisticated drinks. Gin has been enjoying a renaissance and has pulled the whole mixer category along with it. Fever-Tree has become a leader in the space, producing more artisanal tonic variants and broadening its reach beyond gin.
Awareness-raising tactics such as taking over from Aegon as The Queen’s Club tennis sponsor and other events such as the Cowes yacht race has contributed to the company’s rapidly rising sales, which jumped 53% in the UK in 2018. Meyer has also announced a partnership with Caffè Nero to create a grown-up, non-alcoholic mixer drink, the ‘espresso & tonic’, to cater to the non-gin and non-alcoholic crowd. Meyer’s positioning of Fever-Tree has been to find what she calls a “sweet spot” between premium and affordable, reflected in the company’s messaging, ‘If three-quarters of your G&T is tonic, make sure you use the best’.
Katharine Newby Grant
Marketing director, Northern Europe, Procter & Gamble
As the large FMCG groups are realising their size can be a force for good, Katherine Newby Grant is finding ways to showcase Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) commitment to causes. Following trends towards sustainability and plant-based products, the company is investing in ‘natural’ products, whose sales quadrupled in 2018.
Meeting sustainability targets has been a key goal and P&G skincare brand Olay is one of the first to trial refillable packaging to reduce waste. Pods are added to the original container and will be shipped in 100% recycled paper. This trial follows the launch of P&G’s Ambition 2030 programme to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging. Newby Grant says P&G “can use [its] advertising as a force for good”, noting, for example, that the FIFA Women’s World Cup was “a really important moment”, driving “social consciousness”. As such, Head & Shoulders has heavily featured female footballers in its ads to help inspire young girls.
Liam Newton
VP of marketing, Carlsberg UK
In his three years at Carlsberg UK, Liam Newton has shaken up the marketing strategy with a number of its biggest brands as the company looks to revitalise its portfolio. It has brought Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen on board as the global face of its brand after a successful rejuvenation of its more premium beer, Carlsberg Export, that helped boost sales by 20%. It is also looking to revitalise “sleeping giant” Tetley and focus on craft after buying London Fields.
But perhaps Newton’s biggest bet has been on an overhaul of its namesake Carlsberg lager. In a marketing campaign that could easily have backfired, Carlsberg used its famous strapline to admit it ‘probably wasn’t the best beer in the world’ and then revealed an overhaul of everything from the recipe to the glassware. It certainly created awareness, and early signs are that it is helping to shift perceptions. Newton has also been forwarding Carlsberg’s sustainability agenda. That includes the launch of its Snap Pack, which glues cans together rather than using plastic rings.
Syl Saller
Chief marketing and innovation officer, Diageo
A campaigning CMO, Syl Saller has led on the issue of diversity, personally writing to every one of Diageo’s agencies asking to see their stats on gender diversity and pay gaps. That work has borne fruit, with agencies pledging initiatives so their workplaces mirror Diageo’s for representation. The company’s own initiatives include working with the UN Unstereotype Alliance and Free The Bid, which aim to increase the number of female directors in the industry. Part of the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, Saller is working with social media platforms to ensure alcohol ads are only shown to people who want to see them and are kept away from underage audiences. She is also a member of Diageo’s executive committee and takes the lead on innovation, ensuring the company continues to thrive given the rapidly changing consumer environment. This has included tapping into the growing popularity of gin and the craze for posting on Instagram with the launch of Gordon’s Pink, Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla and a super-premium Italian gin, Villa Ascenti.
Aline Santos
EVP of global marketing, Unilever
With a strong campaigning voice and resolve to make things happen, Aline Santos is front and centre of Unilever’s marketing organisation. The FMCG giant’s pivot to purpose-driven and inclusive marketing has almost certainly contributed to something of a sea-change in attitudes to advertising. Working with UN Women, Unilever launched the Unstereotype Alliance to fight gender stereotyping, for example, which came ahead of the Committee of Advertising Practice introducing new rules banning “harmful” gender stereotypes in June 2019. Santos welcomed the ban but still thinks more must be done, not just to remove the bad players but to “advance progressive, empowering characters”.
As part of the Unstereotype initiative, Unilever asked 63 of its top marketers to take ancestry DNA tests to disrupt the way it and its agency partners think about diversity. They also received classes from psychologists at UCL on how to stop stereotyping. Santos has been leading from the front on this issue in her capacity as chief diversity and inclusion officer at Unilever, speaking extensively on the topic, earning her a slew of awards.
Francesca Theokli
Marketing director, Weetabix UK and Ireland
Francesca Theokli is an advocate for knowing what your brand is good at and sticking with it, but that’s not to say innovation isn’t key. Weetabix is unashamedly a breakfast brand, but that hasn’t stopped Theokli looking to every potential avenue for brand extensions. The launch of its on-the-go breakfast drinks means it now has a 63% share of the breakfast drinks market, which is worth £24m, according to Nielsen Scantrack. Its latest brand extension is a partnership with baking brand Kara to create a range of low-fat, high-fibre muffins.
Weetabix is now the 32nd biggest brand in the UK, according to Theokli, after growing 3.8% in 2017, with a share of advertising voice ahead of its share of sales. In 2018, it invested in growing its innovation team to continue supporting this growth, while in 2019 it launched the £10m ‘Any-which-way-abix’ campaign, which taps into a trend among consumers to personalise their food by adding their twist.
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