George Rivers
Head of campaigns
Tesco
George Rivers is testament to why training and promoting staff from within is effective. Joining the supermarket giant in 2012 as a marketing graduate, Rivers has worked his way up to become Tesco's head of campaigns for food.
Described by his nominator as a “strong creative practitioner”, this is evident in Tesco’s celebrated ‘Food Love Stories’ brand platform. Rivers has been key to innovative and creative executions such as the ‘Magic of Eid’ campaign for Ramadan, where he helped ensure the campaign felt authentic by liaising and listening to voices from within the Muslim community.
In addition, he is praised for his excellent agency and partner management skills, demonstrated through his strong feedback scores.
Rivers has also dedicated himself to giving back to the programme where he developed his own skills, by spearheading the learning on the customer graduate scheme.
For his part, Rivers believes the biggest change in marketing since he started his career is that the “customer has been put back at the heart of the business” after a spell when it had been overtaken by “accountants and consultants”. But, despite those improvements, he warns that marketers can’t throw away this newfound credibility by chasing technological fads.
"There’s no doubt that technology will impact how we do our jobs, but it has to be used to augment the fundamentals, not replace them."
“Given the credibility that marketers have regained in the board room, we risk it all if we look like we’re faddish and undisciplined – lest we forget how the metaverse was meant to have changed everything by now,” he says.
“There’s no doubt that technology will impact how we do our jobs, but it has to be used to augment the fundamentals, not replace them.”
Rivers believes that marketing straddles the line between art and science – and while he acknowledges that measurement, effectiveness and analytical rigour will continue to be key disciplines for marketers to master, it is creative and novel thinking, he says, that will set you apart from the rest.
“To make a real impact, you need to find that sweet spot between customer-centricity, creativity, and business acumen. Combine those with an openness to change and you’re onto a winner,” he concludes.
