food & drink retail
CMO
Domino's
Upon Sarah Barron’s appointment to CMO of Domino’s 18 months ago, digital was brought under the remit of marketing for the first time, and the restructured team is already showing clear signs of success. The launch of its ‘Domin-Oh-Hoo-Hoo’ campaign in 2021 and a spate of digital developments have been credited for driving growth during what CEO Dominic Paul has described as a “transformational” year. But the digital transformation is far from over, with the brand committing to spending £20m on its digital acceleration over the next three years, something which Barron will be spearheading.
Following the success of its brand-led Domin-Oh-Hoo-Hoo campaign, Barron is now switching gears from brand-building to accelerating spend. As part of this strategy, the brand recently launched its first national price campaign in two years.
Domino’s confidence in its marketers’ ability to deliver growth is indicated by its intention to step up marketing investment by 45% in the second half of 2022. Barron and her team are gearing up for a big end to the year, with Domino’s focusing activity on the FIFA Men’s World Cup, which starts in November.■
Sarah Barron
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Chief customer officer
Tesco
Few marketers have the influence of Alessandra Bellini. As chief customer officer at the UK’s largest supermarket, a role which she took on in 2017, Bellini oversees all marketing, advertising, innovation and insight, with her priorities directly impacting the fortunes of thousands of the brands listed on its shelves.
Her instincts have proven right time and time again. Brought in by then CEO Dave Lewis to help him overhaul Tesco’s branding and communications strategy, Bellini has successfully repositioned the supermarket and brought it back to health.
Bellini’s role only looks set to increase in importance at Tesco, with current CEO Ken Murphy stating earlier this year that marketing would be “more important than ever” at the brand given the cost of living crisis. He also said the business has seen sustained improvement in its overall brand health as a result of the actions it has taken over the past two years, which is in large part thanks to Bellini and her team.
As well as leading marketing at the UK’s biggest grocer, Bellini is also president of the Advertising Association.■
Alessandra Bellini
Commercial and customer director
Costa Coffee
With foot traffic picking up post-pandemic, 2022 has been a much better year for coffee shop chains like Costa. Commercial and customer director Becky Brock has been working hard to make sure the business is positioned to take advantage of consumers returning to high streets.
In September last year, Costa joined forces with M&S to introduce some of the retailer’s food into its branches. This allowed the coffee shop to boost its credentials around fresh food by teaming up with a brand known for quality. Brock has been focused on expanding this line, recognising its ability to draw customers in.
Digital sales have been another area of focus, with Costa’s percentage of digital sales going from 0% in late 2020 when Brock first joined, to 10% by March 2022.
Brock is also a key force behind a revitalisation of Costa Coffee’s loyalty scheme. This saw the brand move away from a points-based system to one focused on rewards. The scheme is part of Brock’s wider goal of creating a great experience for customers at Costa.■
Becky Brock
Marketing director
M&S Food
In her role as marketing director of M&S Food, Sharry Cramond’s goal is to increase the relevance of the retailer, emphasise its value and encourage families to make healthier choices. As if that isn’t enough, in 2022 she also took on the additional responsibility of director of hospitality, taking charge of the retailer’s 330 coffee shops.
Now two years into its five-year transformation plan, M&S is working to make its food more relevant to more people more often. As part of this drive, it partnered with the home nations football teams – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – to encourage healthy eating, as well as launching a second season of its ITV show Cooking with the Stars.
Cramond has also been striving to bridge the gap between marketers on her team and those within clothing and home, believing marketers from different parts of the organisation work “better together”.
An advocate for getting people from socially diverse backgrounds into marketing, she is also keen to address marketing’s lack of socio-economic diversity. As part of this she mentors a group of girls from a school in an under-privileged community in Scotland.■
Sharry Cramond
Chief customer and marketing officer
Morrisons
Morrisons went shopping at Sainsbury’s when it was looking for a new chief customer and marketing officer in 2021, and recruited the rival grocer’s group head of brand communications, Rachel Eyre.
Eyre joined in the middle of one of Morrison’s most challenging periods, but that hasn’t stopped her from working on some impressive new initiatives. Last year, the supermarket relaunched its loyalty offer, with the MyMorrisons app providing consumers with more tailored offers. The supermarket has also been activating under its ‘Make Good Things Happen’ brand platform, as it looks to highlight the quality and sustainability of its produce. With the cost of living rising, price has also been a major focus, with Morrisons cutting hundreds of prices representing an investment of £100m.
The festive season is one where all the retailers are competing to outdo each other, and last Christmas saw Eyre pull a cracker by delivering one of the most effective ads of the season. Its campaign featuring ‘Farmer Christmas’ scored 4.7 out of 5.9, according to System 1 analysis.■
Rachel Eyre
Marketing director
Lidl UK
Claire Farrant has helped cement Lidl UK’s status as a brand known for its clever, creative and tongue-in-cheek campaigns, that have helped challenge perceptions around the quality of its products and attract a new generation of bargain-hungry middle-class shoppers into stores.
Lidl reported “record” footfall over the festive period after the launch of its Christmas ad in 2021, for example, which doubled down on its promise to provide quality food at low prices. This led to sales growing by 2.6% year on year, and 21% on a two-year basis. Lidl has also committed to maintaining low prices despite its rising costs.
Once known for nothing more than low price products piled high in the aisles, Lidl UK is now a major force within UK grocery, and brilliant marketing by the likes of Farrant is a major part of that turnaround. With rival discounter Aldi finally displacing one of the ‘big four’, Lidl will likely be looking to step up and increase its share with the help of marketing leaders like Farrant.■
Claire Farrant
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CMO UK and Ireland
KFC
Jack Hinchliffe was the obvious choice to fill the role of KFC’s UK CMO when Meghan Farren left the business in 2021. He had been at the fast-food chain for more than six years, and worked closely with Farren in transforming the brand from a “fading old man” stuck in its ways, to one with its finger firmly on the cultural pulse.
Described by senior leadership at the brand as having “a deep commercial understanding and operational expertise” that make him not only a great marketer but a great leader, Hinchliffe has spent the last year carrying on the work he kicked off alongside Farren. That work was recognised when KFC won Brand of the Year at the Marketing Week Awards in 2021.
Hinchcliffe and his team know how to speak to KFC’s consumers. In April, the company launched its ‘Love at First Bite’ campaign, a fun and sensorial look at the brand, which firmly targets younger consumers. This younger audience was also front of mind when KFC teamed up with fashion brand Hype in August on a range of clothing and accessories. The collaboration was a hit, with the Hype x KFC bucket hat selling out within 10 minutes.■
Jack Hinchliffe
neW
Customer and marketing director
Greggs
Not many companies can say Covid-19 left them a “stronger and better business” but that’s exactly what high street bakery Greggs claimed as it posted a 34% increase in pre-tax profits compared to 2019 in March of this year.
Central to this success has been a radical transformation in customer perceptions of and experience with the brand in recent years. Customer and marketing director Hannah Squirrell has been one of the key figures in helping to drive this success for the brand.
The Greggs business has created a strong delivery channel from scratch, extending its partnership with Just Eat from 600 to 1,000 shops nationwide over 2021. It hasn’t neglected stores either, pursuing later opening hours across many outlets and launching a click-and-collect option. It also relaunched its app-based loyalty scheme, with a commitment to increase marketing investment to grow membership. Coupled with fun and quirky marketing activity – Greggs recently launched its second clothing collaboration with Primark – the bakery brand has perhaps never been in a sweeter spot in the market.■
Hannah Squirrell
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CMO
Gousto
When Tom Wallis joined recipe box business Gousto in 2016 it was a relatively unknown brand, with no clear marketing strategy to speak of. Fast forward six years, and under Wallis’s leadership all that has changed. Having been wholly focused on performance marketing in its early days, Gousto took its first step toward brand-building in 2019 with the launch of its ‘Give it some Gousto’ TV campaign. The impact has been profound. While 80% of sign-ups came through performance marketing in 2018, by late 2021, 82% of registrations came organically and through referral.
Ever since, Wallis has overseen a series of initiatives focused on building brand awareness and driving engagement. From disruptive out of home activity to an immersive two-day event that invited guests to try cuisines from all over the world, the CMO has helped drive unprecedented growth off the back of marketing that’s as fresh as its food.
In fact, having unequivocally proven the value marketing can deliver, Wallis was given the go-ahead to nearly double his team, with the addition of 30 people in marketing and tech last year.■
Tom Wallis
Chief customer officer
Nando's UK & Ireland
Sarah Warby brought with her a raft of diverse marketing and operational experience when she took on the role of chief customer officer at Nando’s UK in 2021. Prior to her most recent role as CEO of Lovehoney, Warby was chief growth officer at startup HypeJar and marketing director at Sainsbury’s.
The chicken restaurant, which is known for its tongue-in-cheek tone, demonstrated it is on the pulse, as well as its ability to be agile, with a play on the brand’s famous ‘Peri-Ometer’, which normally indicates the spice level of Nando’s food, to capture the UK’s reaction to a sudden summer heatwave.
Nando’s has also been working on its green credentials and achieved carbon-neutral status in November 2021. It implemented measures such as increasing the use of renewable energy in its restaurants and using more sustainable materials to reach this goal.
Outside of her role at Nando’s, Warby is a non-executive director at the Moneysupermarket Group and chair of the Fellowship Alumni Council at the Marketing Academy.■
Sarah Warby
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FOOD & DRINK RETAIL
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FMCG
Food & drink
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