Media & Telecomms

Chief marketing officer, inclusion and diversity director, Channel 4 Zaid Al-Qassab has played an instrumental role in Channel 4’s strategy to survive and thrive in a digital age since he took on the top marketing job in September 2019, which last year saw All 4 views increase by 30% and digital viewing account for a record 12.5% share. With Channel 4 aiming to double All 4 viewing and increase digital ad revenues to 30% by 2025, Al-Qassab’s continued efforts to forge a digital-first identity will focus on using the wealth of first-party data Channel 4 has to “delight viewers” by offering more personalised experiences through programming, recommendations and the way Channel 4 communicates. Channel 4 became one of the first companies to introduce a number of key anti-racism pledges and commitments last summer, while also dedicating its annual Diversity in Advertising award to BAME representation. “I can only be responsible for what Channel 4 is doing and making sure that we have a plan, we’re measuring it, we’re involving our staff and we’re trying to improve even faster,” Al-Qassab said.■

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The top100 list

Zaid Al-Qassab

Chief marketing officer, O2 (former) Nina Bibby was at the helm of O2’s marketing for eight years and recently led the marketing team through a record period of growth for the business. The company posted its largest ever first quarter profit this year, up 7.6% year on year to £478m. Bibby is most proud of her team's ability to drive commercial growth while delivering for customers. She firmly believes treating existing customers “like they are in a hotel, not a prison” has been key to O2’s ability to keep customer churn steady at just 0.9%, as well as holding on to its net promoter score of 37. For Bibby, this is proof that a business can be profitable, deliver a great experience and have customer-leading loyalty; that brands can make great creative that drives acquisition. Bibby has been responsible for the introduction of O2’s brand mascot Bubl, the gender-neutral robot which has appeared in a number of ads since September 2020. Created to be the “physical embodiment” of the brand, Bubl stands for compassion, empathy and “the customer-first mentality of O2”. Following its merger with Virgin Media earlier this year, Bibby stepped down from her role at the telecoms business to move on to pastures new.■

Nina Bibby

media & telecomms

UK marketing director, The Athletic Sinead Bunting joined The Athletic’s mission to become “the gospel” for football fans in September 2020. It has been a strong year for the subscription-based digital sports media company, which saw it surpass 1 million global subscribers, launch its first TV ad, make its foray into podcasts and start developing new product enhancements - including a new front page and breaking news elements - in a bid to better compete in the market. Specialising in performance and subscriptions marketing, Bunting will play a key role in building and maintaining trust and integrity with The Athletic’s loyal audience as it officially begins its expansion into the UK. Bunting is a passionate advocate for advancing equality and inclusion in business and the wider world and co-founded the award-winning charity Tech Talent Charter in 2015, which aims to deliver a more diverse workforce in tech. She has also created the Monster Confidence programme, which worked with social enterprise Stemettes for four years to help students across the UK and Ireland gain greater confidence in STEM subjects.■

Sinead Bunting

Director of marketing and audiences, BBC Having spent more than 12 years in senior marketing roles at Microsoft, Paul Davies joined the BBC as director of marketing and audiences in March 2020, tasked with overseeing the broadcaster’s content, radio and education divisions. With growing competition from streaming giants and subscription on-demand services, Davies joined the BBC at a pivotal time as the broadcaster looked to step up its marketing of iPlayer. The launch of a campaign in November promoting iPlayer’s role in popular culture is part of that drive, positioning it as an entertainment destination ‘Like Nowhere Else’. The campaign highlighted the service’s combination of live and on-demand content and also included a refreshed identity. iPlayer had its best quarter on record in the first three months of 2021 with over 1.7 billion streams - a 22% increase on the same period during 2020. 2020 also saw the BBC ramp up its diversity and inclusion agenda, with the broadcaster committing £100m to increase diversity on TV and £12m to improve the diversity of content and talent within radio and music.■

Paul Davies

Group chief marketing, corporate affairs and people officer, Sky Sky’s marketing has undergone a noticeable shift under Debbie Klein’s leadership, with the former European CEO of Engine Creative steering it away from a focus on products and features to one that puts customers back at the heart of the brand. While the second quarter of 2020 was a particularly challenging period for Sky - which lost over 200,000 customers, saw revenues plunge 15.5% and cut ad spend by 60% - the broadcaster returned to advertising with a major brand-building campaign in October and is almost back to pre-pandemic subscriber levels with 98.9% of 2019’s figure. Klein is also responsible for Sky’s corporate social responsibility, which last year saw the media brand commit to challenging harmful stereotypes and gender inequality in advertising by joining the newly-created Unstereotype Alliance UK, as well as sign up to the Advertising Association’s AdGreen initiative to tackle the ad industry’s carbon footprint. Sky recently launched its £2m ‘Sky Zero Footprint Fund’ to encourage positive environmental change and fast-track sustainable initiatives through advertising. According to Kantar’s annual BrandZ, Sky was the seventh most-valuable UK brand in 2020 with a value of $8.9bn.■

Debbie Klein

Chief marketing and innovation officer, UKTV Rather than letting Covid-19 put the broadcaster off its stride, Simon Michaelides undertook a major brand repositioning for UKTV in 2020 in a bid to revitalise its challenger mindset, sharpen the brand positioning of each channel, and realign the whole company behind each brand. UKTV recorded its highest ever share of viewing in the first quarter of 2021 at 4.73%, while seeing a 10% uptick in 16- to 34-year-old viewers and a 41% year-on-year increase in direct-to-consumer views on UKTV Play. Michaelides has also been leading UKTV to develop new ways of working across its marketing, creative, media planning, comms and social departments in a bid to deliver campaigns with audiences at their heart. This resulted in the launch of a new 360-degree campaign planning process that is complemented by a 12- to 18-month training programme to upskill marketers. Michaelides felt it was crucially important to send a message to UKTV’s marketers - who “never skipped a beat” when it went into lockdown - that the business was investing in them and giving them opportunities to stretch and develop.■

Simon Michaelides

Managing director, on-demand, ITV Rufus Radcliffe was promoted to head up ITV’s newly formed on-demand business unit at the end of last year, after ITV split its media and entertainment division into two. The broadcast business focuses on its main TV channels, including ITV and ITV2, while the on-demand unit is dedicated to digital product development and growth. Prior to this Radcliffe was group CMO and director of direct-to-consumer, responsible for positioning ITV as a creative force to be reckoned with. Much of that focus has been on delivering ITV’s ‘More Than TV’ strategy, including the broadcaster’s award-winning ‘Britain Get Talking’ campaign which is part of a wider objective to encourage 10 million people to take action and improve their mental or physical wellbeing by 2023. When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, ITV worked quickly to bring forward the launch of the second leg of the campaign, which has since seen more than 6 million people take immediate action to contact a friend or family member. Of the 70% of UK adults that saw the campaign, half said it made them feel better in general and 37% that it made them feel more connected to friends, family and the nation at a difficult time. Radcliffe was named ‘Marketer of the Year’ at Marketing Week’s Masters awards in September 2020.■

Rufus Radcliffe

Chief marketing officer, Giffgaff Sophie Wheater holds on to the marketing reins of a brand in rude health, with Giffgaff revenue up by almost £491m and post-tax profit up by more than £33.5m in its latest results. The mobile virtual network operator also came out on top in the Which? annual UK mobile customer satisfaction survey this year, with 91% of customers saying they would recommend it to a friend. Marketing has played a key role in this growth and it hasn’t taken a back seat amid Covid-19. When the UK went into lockdown for the first time in 2020, Giffgaff worked quickly to bring forward a campaign it was planning to launch later in the year, managing to get it TV-ready in just a week. 2021 has since seen the brand launch its ‘Have a Proper Chat’ campaign, aiming to encourage people across the UK to call someone in need of a conversation. It forms part of the ‘Giffgaff give back’ partnership with Global, which encourages people to support projects around e-waste, isolation and digital inclusion.■

Sophie Wheater

Chief marketing officer, Tesco Mobile When Rachel Swift joined Tesco Mobile in June 2020, she saw a “crucial” opportunity to bring the business closer to the master brand in a bid to differentiate in an increasingly competitive and commoditised mobile market. Since then, the former O2 brand and creative director has launched a new brand identity to dial up Tesco Mobile’s quality cues and change perceptions of the brand. She has also introduced a tie-up with Clubcard Plus that offers new and upgrading Tesco Mobile customers six months’ access to the loyalty scheme. Tesco Mobile launched its biggest-ever integrated campaign in April, 'This is Supermarket Mobile’, and ran a snarky letter of apology on behalf of other mobile providers to highlight how its rivals have made almost £1bn from customers since 2013 by hiking bills mid-contract. According to Ofcom’s annual ranking published in January, Tesco Mobile is the least complained-about pay-monthly provider. Swift is currently exploring how to use Clubcard Plus’s “really strong” NPS to drive loyalty among Tesco Mobile’s 5 million customers.■

Rachel Swift

Marketing director, The Guardian The Guardian’s marketing has gone from strength to strength in recent years as part of the news brand’s strategy to reinforce its purpose and inspire readers to support its journalism. 2020 marked the biggest year for digital reader revenues, which were up 43% in the year that The Guardian continued to build on its award-winning ‘Hope is Power’ brand campaign with the launch of its pro-EU campaign, ‘Hope has no borders’. For Kate Davies, who was promoted from director of brand and awareness to marketing director in November 2020, this was a “brilliant creative opportunity” to support the Guardian’s new ‘This is Europe’ series and a “natural next step” in expanding its Hope is Power campaign. The Guardian’s latest brand campaign, which it launched in April to mark its 200th anniversary, positions the newspaper as a “work in progress” challenger brand, highlighting its legacy, independent ownership and progressive voice. The newspaper also launched its first digital festival this year, which includes a mix of conversations about politics, activism, the environment, TV and music.■

Kate Davies

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