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Marketing communications manager, UK
Ikea
Kemi Anthony is a big fan of consistency while at the same time avoiding the obvious. Having led marketing in the UK and Ireland for Ikea since 2016, she is no stranger to both. Anthony has been central to the launch of many major campaigns, from ‘Silence the Critics’, which saw household objects taunting homeowners about their lacklustre décor, to the development of its brand platform ‘The Wonderful Everyday’.
Making sustainability accessible for consumers is a major focus for Ikea and in May 2021, Anthony was at the helm when the retailer launched ‘Change a bit for good’, which looked to inspire people to make easy and affordable swaps around the home to help tackle climate change. Its ‘Choices for Change Tracker’ also showed the positive impact customer actions were having on the environment, while its buyback service, launched the same month, enabled customers to sell used furniture back to the retailer.
A champion for improving diversity within advertising, Anthony’s determination and success were rewarded this year when she was asked to take on creative leadership for additional markets, including the US and the Netherlands.■
Kemi Anthony
neW
Marketing director for clothing and home
Marks & Spencer
Anna Braithwaite joined M&S in June 2021 from her role as global brand director for non-food at Tesco, with a mission to reignite people’s love for the brand. Now, just over a year into her three-year plan, she is already shifting the dial.
Last September M&S launched its ‘Anything But Ordinary’ brand platform, with the key ambition of changing consumers’ perceptions of its clothing offer, positioning M&S as a fashion-focused retailer rather than somewhere you only go for underwear and pyjamas. The launch marked the retailer’s biggest clothing marketing push since the onset of Covid, including its first clothing TV ad.
In just over a year, the business has moved style perceptions up by 4 percentage points within the total market and by 5 percentage points among M&S shoppers. Its value for money perceptions among womenswear have also strengthened by 4 percentage points among the total market.
Over the past year, clothing and home sales have increased 3.8%, with online sales up 55.6% to reach 34% of all sales for the division, offsetting a 11.2% reduction in store sales.■
Anna Braithwaite
CMO
Moonpig
There can no higher accolade for a marketer than when a business publicly credits marketing with fuelling growth. On releasing its annual results in June, Moonpig praised its “consistently strong” marketing performance for not only acquiring new customers but building stronger relationships with existing ones. And it’s all thanks to CMO Kristof Fahy and his team.
Fahy, who joined Moonpig in 2019, was the driving force behind the resurrection of the brand’s much-loved mascot and jingle last year. The brand has also ramped up personalisation under Fahy’s watch, with customers being delivered targeted offers to incentivise first-time use of the app and personalised offers encouraging people to add a gift to their order.
On a two-year basis, group revenue for the year to 30 April rose 75.8% to £304.3m, reflecting “significant growth” in its customer base, higher purchase frequency and a further increase in gifting. Over the year Moonpig delivered 39.8 million orders, down from 50.9 million in 2021, but up from 24.3 million in 2020.
The business also began trialling subscription service Moonpig Plus, which offers discounts and benefits in return for an annual fee.■
Kristof Fahy
CMO
Wickes
The pandemic is not often talked about in positive terms, but for Gary Kibble, who joined Wickes as CMO in January 2020, it was the wake-up call marketing needed.
Under his stewardship, the company embarked on a digital transformation project when demand for home improvement products rocketed at the height of the pandemic. The brand’s digital business grew tenfold, with click-and-collect volumes up by 400% and home delivery by 100%. It also began attracting new customers, with a particular spike seen among women.
Since then Kibble has been working to retain these customers. He has introduced a strong focus on content creation, with the development of instructional videos showing users how to build everything from a drop-down desk to an outdoor cinema. It has also ramped up its presence across social media, with the ‘MyWickesMyWay’ hashtag racking up nearly 850,000 views on TikTok alone following a campaign on the app.
Kibble has also been working to better connect online and offline, with a major overhaul of its stores being carried out over the past two years. It’s a strategy that is paying off, with Kibble stating Wickes sees “very healthy financial returns” whenever it refits a store.■
Gary Kibble
CMO
Pentland Brands
Penny Herriman leads the product and marketing teams globally for Pentland Brands, the business behind names including Speedo, Berghaus, Ellesse and Mitre. A passionate believer in creativity and curiosity, she also oversees its in-house creative agency, external communications teams and digital platforms.
The business’s purpose it to pioneer brands that make life better. As part of this plan, under Herriman’s watch, Speedo launched 'Swim United' earlier this year, a UK brand platform designed to break down the barriers to swimming, via a series of 'Swim Stories' featuring underrepresented communities.
Meanwhile, Ellesse has been promoting accessibility and inclusivity through a number of partnerships, such as its tie-up with Exist Loudly, which supports black LGBTQ+ young adults experiencing homelessness. The brand has also been looking to increase awareness among Gen Z, with the launch of a live shoppable TikTok concert in April 2022, enabling viewers to buy any of the Ellesse looks featured. The live experience generated 4.2 billion hashtag views and 92 million engagements.■
Penny Herriman
neW
CMO
Boots
Boots has undergone something of a makeover since the arrival of CMO Pete Markey last year, whose first job was to reposition the brand to drive reappraisal of the high street stalwart.
As well as working behind the scenes to reinvent its offer, Boots unveiled its ‘Feel Good as New’ campaign in June at a time when Covid restrictions were lifting and people were ready to go out again. The campaign was a hit, helping Boots achieve its objective of increasing market share and moving brand health metrics above target, while also delivering a £2 return on investment for every £1 spent. The activity also triggered a 15% rise in website visits, with a 700% increase in visitors to the Health Hub alone.
To top it all off, owner Walgreen Boots Alliance credited the campaign with driving a 15% increase in comparable retail sales in the UK in its fourth quarter financial results.
Plus the success of the campaign led to a 20% increase in budget for this year’s follow up, ‘Summer Better Be Ready’, underscoring the business’s belief in marketing under Markey’s leadership.■
Pete Markey
Customer director
John Lewis & Partners
Claire Pointon is the driving force behind the launch of John Lewis’s new brand promise, ‘For all life’s moments’, a key part of its five-year turnaround plan. Launched in September, the platform, which replaces the retailer’s long-standing ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ line, will underpin everything John Lewis does going forward as the business readjusts to better reflect today’s consumers.
Pointon is responsible for giving the retailer a “clear strategic direction” in terms of brand positioning, as it looks to increase consideration for smaller, everyday items, while maintaining its appeal for big occasions, such as weddings and births.
John Lewis began on this journey to broaden its appeal with the launch of its Anyday value range last year. And it appears to be working, as more than 2 million customers shopped the Anyday range for the year ended January 2022, recording sales of over £120m. John Lewis has since added an additional 1,200 items to the range across home, fashion and nursery.
Under Pointon’s watch, John Lewis will also be trialling a new store format next year that groups products together based on occasion rather than category to get people excited about shopping in-store.■
Claire Pointon
CMO
Frasers Group
Frasers Group promoted Beckie Stanion to group CMO in May 2022, two years after hiring her as the first CMO of Sports Direct. She now oversees the brand direction and marketing for all brands within the company, adding Flannels, USC, House of Fraser, Frasers, Evans Cycles, Game and Belong to her remit.
Over the past two years Stanion has been instrumental in leading Sports Direct through a transformation, including a rebrand in spring 2021, which saw the retailer drop the .com from its name, and run its first summer brand campaign, ‘Just a Game!?’. Sports Direct’s brand health has improved significantly on several key measures as a result, with YouGov’s BrandIndex showing its overall index score increased from -6.3 in October 2020 to -0.8 in April 2022.
Under Stanion’s leadership, Sports Direct has also stepped up its work around inclusion, including its ‘Fast Enough’ running podcast aimed at helping Muslim communities explore running at a slower pace during Ramadan; and the evolution of its ‘Equal Play’ initiative, a long-term project in partnership with Women in Sport.■
Beckie Stanion
CMO
Specsavers
Peter Wright joined Specsavers as CMO in May 2021, after nearly 10 years at Ikea. Just two months after joining the retailer, he talked about his plan to add more meaning to the brand, adjust its operations and help to steer it in a global direction – all while keeping its famous ‘Should’ve gone to Specsavers’ tagline alive.
Specsavers launched in Canada – its 11th market – not long after, and despite being present across the globe the family-run business operates as if it is still a UK organisation, according to Wright, whose aim is to drive growth without introducing layers of bureaucracy.
Leading the 105-strong marketing department, Wright has also worked hard to instil a culture of professional development. As well as formal upskilling programmes, which offer on-the-job training, Specsavers has introduced ‘power down sessions’ every Friday afternoon and 15-minute slots for people to discuss their career to date and where they want to go next.
Last year, Specsavers raised more than £1.5m for charity, supporting events such as National Eye Health Week through its marketing to raise awareness of the importance of regular eye examinations.■
Peter Wright
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Chief brand officer
N Brown
Kenyatte Nelson joined N Brown from Missguided in June 2019, taking on responsibility for customer insight, brand strategy, full funnel marketing and all creative production.
In May this year, N Brown Group reduced its stable of strategic brands to Simply Be, JD Williams and Jacamo, concentrating its focus where it has identified most market potential. Home Essentials and Ambrose Wilson were consolidated within a ‘heritage brands’ portfolio centred on protecting value as the organisation continues its transformation into a more focused digital business.
Excluding the impact from closing Figleaves in early FY22, product revenue grew by about 4%, with growth in strategic brands offsetting the managed decline in other heritage brands. Thanks in no small part to Nelson’s efforts, year-end active customers increased for the first time in four years, supported by the improved product offer and focused marketing.
Nelson, who cut his teeth as a marketer at Procter & Gamble before moving into retail, has been a non-executive director of the British Retail Consortium since September 2020, where he supports the BRC and its members with digital communication and connectivity.■
Kenyatte Nelson
neW
analysis
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FOOD & DRINK RETAIL
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