fmcg
Chief digital and commercial officer
Unilever
In April this year, Unilever made the call to drop ‘marketing’ from Conny Braams’ job title replacing it with ‘commercial’, a move she said was designed to remove the traditional siloes between sales and marketing, as well as reflect a desire by Unilever to use commerce channels to build brands. By bringing both functions under marketing’s leadership, Braams wants to create a consistent consumer experience across all channels. It’s a forward-looking approach and one typical of both the consumer goods company behind brands like Dove and Marmite, and Braams herself.
To ensure her marketing team is future-fit, Braams is a big advocate of on-the-job training, particularly when it comes to digital, so Unilever’s marketers remain at the top of their game. She describes her approach to upskilling as a “continuous effort” and one that will never be finished as new tech emerges and new skills are required.
Among Braams’ many accolades for this bold and proactive approach include being recognised as one of the World’s Most Influential CMOs by Forbes and being named Global Marketer of the Year 2021 by the World Federation of Advertisers.■
Conny Braams
Chief marketing and digital officer, UK & Ireland
L’Oréal
In an age in which it’s all too easy for marketers to embrace the next big thing without considering its impact, Lex Bradshaw-Zanger is a voice of calm and experience. He believes marketing has got to be useful and integrate seamlessly into the customer experience.
In championing this approach at L’Oréal UK, Bradshaw-Zanger has agilely steered the cosmetics brand owner toward a new dynamic marketing mix, one that devotes more resources to digital channels, focuses on data-driven decision making and explores the potential in less mainstream media, such as product placement.
The CMO now has his heart set on positioning the company as an “amazing marketing organisation” for future talent. He is proactively opening up roles to a more diverse array of talent by offering different routes into the business, from internships and apprenticeships to industrial placements and graduate schemes. All which are designed to both demystify the process of getting into the business, and demonstrate the integral role that marketing – and marketers – play.■
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger
Business strategy director
Essity
Health and hygiene company Essity has gone on the record as saying that courage is a critical part of success. And it’s an ethos the company’s top marketer takes seriously. In her time at the business Nicola Coronado has overseen a panoply of hard-hitting campaigns that take an unabashed look at often taboo subjects. Essity followed up its 2020 ‘#WombStories’ campaign for Bodyform, which chronicled the complex relationships women have with their wombs, with the agenda-setting ‘Pain Stories’ last year. This included the launch of a global research document called the Pain Report that explores the shame and stigma surrounding pain, and The Pain Dictionary for NGOs and GPs, which uses real descriptions from endometriosis sufferers, to help increase the rate of women being diagnosed with the condition.
Coronado has been rewarded for her fearlessness, being given an extended portfolio in 2021, and most recently being promoted from regional marketing director to business strategy director for ecommerce and marketing within consumer goods. Her remit now is to identify current and future opportunities, with a focus on ecommerce.■
Nicola Coronado
Chief marketing transformation officer
PZ Cussons
In July 2021, Andrew Geoghegen joined personal healthcare company PZ Cussons in the newly created role of chief marketing transformation officer. He has been tasked with strengthening its brand portfolio and stemming growth decline, working collaboratively with marketing teams, business unit managing directors and others across the company to “develop and drive local brand building activities and capabilities”.
Having spent 15 years at Diageo, where he oversaw 52 countries, Geoghegan seems undaunted by the size of the task. He’s advocated staunchly for the benefits of investing in brands despite inflationary pressures. Since his appointment the company has also acquired a 92% interest in award-winning cosmetics brand Child’s Farm in a deal reported to be worth nearly £40m.
Geoghegan clearly has the backing of new boss too, with the PZ Cussons CEO describing him as having “direct experience of driving innovation” and a track record in “building marketing capabilities” following his appointment. With like-for-like sales on track for a 3% uplift despite challenging market conditions, it would seem he’s made a strong start.■
Andrew Geoghegan
neW
Vice-president of marketing, UK & Ireland
Coty
It may have been a brave move by Coty to increase marketing investment when a global pandemic still raged on, but under the regional leadership of Ian McCarthy in the UK, it is now reaping the rewards of what the company has called “undoubtedly the right decision”. The beauty giant increased advertising and consumer promotions spend to 30% of sales in Q2 of 2021/22 (versus 26% of sales in Q1) and channelled resources into initiatives with a strong ROI to fuel growth and capitalise on the growing momentum of its stable of beauty brands – as well as new launches. Across the EMEA region, sales rose 14% on a like-for-like basis in the first half of its 2021/22 fiscal year, and 14% in Q2 as a result.
That success is in no small part thanks to the fastidiousness of McCarthy in refreshing and reworking marketing for even Coty’s most established brands. He has repositioned both Rimmel and Max Factor to great effect, with the revamp reinforcing Rimmel’s top spot and Max Factor gaining market share for the first time in years.■
Ian McCarthy
Vice-president of Beauty Care
Procter & Gamble
Katharine Newby Grant has said she thrives on the dynamic and competitive working environment created by working at one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies. It’s a gig that has seen Newby Grant spend more than 20 years in multiple roles, both in the UK and Switzerland, and working as media director in the Northern Europe business in the midst of its digital overhaul.
That impressive commercial and creative mix has seen her help deliver impressive wins for P&G. In January, the FMCG giant confirmed it had managed to drive a 6% increase in net sales despite reducing marketing spend as a percentage of sales.
Through it all Newby Grant has been mindful of legacy too. In 2021 she pledged P&G’s support for the All In Census, an industry first designed to understand the extent of the diversity and inclusion problem in marketing. In the past P&G has threatened to pull ad spend where its values on diversity aren’t reflected, as well as calling on industry peers and consumers to take action against racism.■
Katharine Newby Grant
neW
neW
Portfolio marketing director natural and health brands, Europe
Mars Petcare
After more than 12 years at Mars, first within confectionary and then leading petcare in the UK and now across Europe for its natural and health brands, Chris Rodi knows the business inside out. He has been a driving force behind Mars Petcare’s innovation strategy, which now focuses multiple brands around key trends rather than looking at innovation on a case by case basis to remove silos.
Rodi has also led the launch of two direct-to-consumer brands over the past two years, including one for UK pet food brand James Wellbeloved. As well as creating a closer relationship with customers it has also led the way for a more collaborative relationship between brand and performance marketers. This cut cost per acquisition by 57% for the James Wellbeloved brand, while creating a far quicker feedback loop to sharpen ads.
The acceleration of Mars Petcare’s DTC efforts has also had the added bonus of making its marketers more data literate and is yet another example of how Rodi’s experience makes him a major asset to the Mars business.■
Chris Rodi
Global CMO
Haleon
When consumer health business Haleon formally separated from GSK in July, global CMO Tamara Rogers was straight out the blocks with her ambitious programme to pursue growth. Marketing is at the centre of the new company’s plans to increase revenues by 4-6%, Rogers confirmed, with strategic tweaks rather than sweeping changes. That includes embedding digital marketers within the main team rather than opting for outdated siloes, and doubling down on its focus for purpose-driven marketing.
Though many would have been daunted by the challenge, Rogers, who first joined the business previously known as GSK Consumer Healthcare from Unilever in 2018, has embraced the opportunity at building a brand identity from scratch. It’s a bold approach, one that she also adopted during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis, implementing rapid decision models that ultimately saw the company’s portfolio of healthcare products capitalise on a sudden interest in health and wellbeing. Having already proven her capacity to react with remarkable agility to market and consumer needs, there’s little doubt Rogers will be in her element as she steers Haleon through its demerger.■
Tamara Rogers
neW
neW
Head of brand and marketing
Yoppie
Having notched up an eye-watering 21,500% annual increase in users, period care brand Yoppie and its marketing lead Hannah Rowe must be doing something seriously right. Not least as, at the core of the D2C, subscription-based brand’s success, has been Rowe’s ability to build a strong, engaged community from scratch. That’s included a personalised sales and marketing funnel for new signees, digital ‘safe spaces’ where users can openly ask questions and share their experiences with periods, and an ongoing dialogue between the brand and its loyal subscribers via direct messages on social media platforms and even a WhatsApp group of ‘Yoppie fans.’
This innovative approach, that does more with less, is to the credit of Rowe. She brings with her a great blend of experience, having been involved in both the grassroots-style brand building required at a startup, joining from TV.FIT in January, as well as the mechanics of a multinational, with three years at the Huawei Consumer Business Group. It’s clearly paying off, with a 1,500% increase in monthly recurring revenue growth at Yoppie as of 2021 as a result of her community building efforts.■
Hannah Rowe
Marketing and digital (consumer brands) director
Henkel
After five years heading up marketing for Henkel's laundry and home care business, Nikki Vadera has just been promoted to oversee digital marketing for all consumer brands after the company made the decision to merge divisions, bringing beauty care under her remit too. This is in addition to her responsibility for marketing laundry and home care across the UK and Ireland, reward for the fact she has continually sought to push boundaries and take risks.
Vadera, who joined Henkel in 2018 after roles at L’Oréal and Danone, is also committed to communicating the value of marketing not only to her own company but the wider business community. Talking at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing last year, she described ROI as “one of the sexiest tools available to a marketer”, while also warning of its limitations, suggesting that if marketers get it right it can be used to prove what advertising spend is delivering and boost the view of marketing within a business.
Vadera also has a keen eye on nurturing future marketing talent. Despite the limitations of the past few years, Henkel has committed to developing early careers talent and taking on board graduates.■
Nikki Vadera
analysis
methodology
judges
CHARITY & NOT-FOR-PROFIT
FOOD & DRINK RETAIL
GENERAL RETAIL
MEDIA & TELECOMS
REGULATED INDUSTRIES
TRAVEL, LEISURE & HOSPITALITY
consumer goods, tech & AUTOMOTIVE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
FMCG
Food & drink
neW
neW
analysis
methodology
judges
CHARITY & NOT-FOR-PROFIT
FOOD & DRINK RETAIL
GENERAL RETAIL
MEDIA & TELECOMS
REGULATED INDUSTRIES
TRAVEL, LEISURE & HOSPITALITY
consumer goods, tech & AUTOMOTIVE
FINANCIAL SERVICES
FMCG
Food & drink