Anna Draper
Head of marketing UK & Ireland
Little Moons
Anna Draper has played a key role in the success of one of the UK’s most notable new FMCG brands of recent years – Little Moons. Since starting as a brand manager in 2018, she has been integral to its growth, moving from brand manager to head of marketing as the brand went from TikTok hit to one of the biggest ice cream brands in the UK.
She cites the significant opportunities afforded by social media advertising as important to future marcomms approaches in FMCG. Speaking of TikTok in particular, she argues it disrupted “so many of the established norms of social media”, and paved the way for organic content featuring branded products to go viral in a way that was almost impossible to replicate on the established social media platforms.
That focus on a creating a ‘call-and-response’ platform has allowed Little Moons to capture a share of the public consciousness, particularly when paired with other marketing activity. She says “there’s no escaping the plethora of new technologies and platforms”, many of which offer new and engaging ways to communicate with consumers.
In order to use TikTok most effectively, she says, brands need to relinquish absolute control of the context in which that social content appears: “Working effectively with TikTok has required a new approach; one where the more senior members of the team were unlikely to be the best people to run the account, and where traditional rules and guidelines that govern so much of what marketers do in other channels don’t apply.”
Despite those shiny opportunities, she believes the optimal approach is to balance the many emerging technologies with offline marketing channels to “create truly holistic campaigns that are still built on strong creative ideas”.
Prior to her work at Little Moons, Draper held the position of account executive at IPG Mediabrands for 18 months from August 2016. The experience gained there provided her with footholds in the marketing world that would go on to pay dividends in her work at Little Moons.
She believes that part of the role of a good marketer is to embrace the opportunity that disruptive platforms can bring.
Disruption can come from anywhere, she adds, not just from within the marketing industry: “I’ve learnt that the best and most respected marketers have a firm understanding of their whole business and all its functions. Don’t put your blinkers on and assume that anything not marketing related isn’t relevant to you, you’ll be surprised how far it’ll get you.”
One of my primary concerns and perhaps the most pertinent for marketers will be how we protect creativity in our industry. We should all be mindful about a slide towards defaulting to AI for creative solutions at the expense of the human imagination.
She notes AI is going to play an increasingly significant role in most industries – and that marketing will be no different: "It wouldn’t surprise me if a larger chunk of our time is spent working with AI in all its various forms. One of my primary concerns and perhaps the most pertinent for marketers will be how we protect creativity in our industry. We should all be mindful about a slide towards defaulting to AI for creative solutions at the expense of the human imagination.”
"One of my primary concerns and perhaps the most pertinent for marketers will be how we protect creativity in our industry. We should all be mindful about a slide towards defaulting to AI for creative solutions at the expense of the human imagination."
She notes that artificial is going to play an increasingly significant role in most industries – and that marketing will be no different:“It wouldn’t surprise me if a larger chunk of our time is spent working with AI in all its various forms. One of my primary concerns and perhaps the most pertinent for marketers will be how we protect creativity in our industry. We should all be mindful about a slide towards defaulting to AI for creative solutions at the expense of the human imagination.”
She notes that, in order to use TikTok most effectively, brands need to relinquish absolute control of the context in which that social content appears: “Working effectively with TikTok has required a new approach; one where the more senior members of the team were unlikely to be the best people to run the account and where traditional rules and guidelines that govern so much of what marketers do in other channels don’t apply.”
Anna Draper, head of marketing for Little Moons, has been nominated for the Future Marketing Leaders award by Ross Farquhar, marketing director at Little Moons.
