travel, leisure & hospitality
Chief customer and marketing officer
EasyJet
EasyJet poached Asos’s Robert Birge for the newly created chief customer and marketing officer position in August, two years after scrapping the CMO role. The new position unites several key areas under one leader, including marketing, digital, customer service, customer experience and insight, with Birge also sitting on the airline’s management board.
In March, EasyJet launched its first pan-European campaign since the onset of the pandemic, with a new tagline and brand platform: ‘NextGen EasyJet’.
During his tenure at Asos, Birge had to navigate some tough times. The retailer grappled with rising shipping costs, higher wages and a slowdown in online shopping, as well as being without a CEO for seven months.
Under his watch, marketing helped deliver revenue growth of 4% in the six months to 28 February 2022 and an adjusted profit before tax of £14.8m. In April 2022, Asos revealed plans to increase its marketing investment in order to focus long term and drive brand awareness. The retailer also outlined an ambition to develop its customer offer via personalisation and enhance its data strategy.■
Robert Birge
CMO
On the Beach
Zoe Harris joined On the Beach in January 2021 from her role as CMO of what is now known as Go.Compare and CEO of the group’s Look After My Bills business.
Seven months later, On the Beach joined several high-profile brands signing an open letter condemning the “lack of adequate action” taken by social media companies following the racist abuse suffered by members of the England men’s football squad. Harris was happy to speak up, stating: “I hope we stand together to hold social media platforms to account, unafraid to speak out and demand change despite their dominance.”
She’s also not afraid to do the right thing, even if it might appear counterintuitive. On the Beach courted controversy last summer by deciding not to sell holidays until 1 September, despite the relaxation of restrictions. Harris explained the company wanted to protect customers and its reputation in an uncertain environment.
She also braved the Twitter trolls following the launch of its ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ campaign, featuring the famous festive song, when it wasn’t Christmas. Despite the online hate, the campaign drove record increases in spontaneous awareness and consideration.■
Zoe Harris
Sales and marketing director for Midway, UK and Ireland
Merlin Entertainments
Sara Holt is playing a key role in Merlin Entertainments' ambition to rise from second biggest location-based entertainment business in the world to the largest, overtaking Disney. She is confident the company can achieve this within the “next few years”.
Merlin’s Midway marketing teams underwent a reorganisation post-pandemic, which Holt said has made the business more efficient. The restructure has brought all the UK marketing teams together and allowed Merlin to consolidate its agencies.
A Marketing Academy fellow and member of WACL, Holt also serves as chair of the London Recovery Board marketing directors’ group. She believes the capital would not have recovered as fast as it has post-Covid for international tourism without Merlin’s involvement.
This summer Merlin focused on domestic tourists, with Holt describing the approach as “mainstream Britain marketing”. This strategy included a summer campaign for Blackpool, designed to reaffirm the town’s status as “the UK’s capital of fun”, supporting Merlin’s attractions in the town, such as the Blackpool Tower. Launched in June, the ad features straight-talking ‘spokesbird’ Nigel C Gull, voiced by actor and comedian Johnny Vegas.■
Sara Holt
CMO, UK and Ireland
TUI
Katie McAlister has overseen numerous changes to TUI’s marketing approach since becoming CMO in June 2018, following 10 years at the company. One such change is the accelerated rate at which TUI uses customer insight, which came about as a result of the pandemic. Decisions that might have taken months before are now implemented within days, which McAlister said has shown “just how quickly the organisation can get stuff done when it’s focused on what’s really important”.
TUI continued this momentum, relaunching its brand identity in October 2021. The ‘Live Happy’ campaign is a long-term platform intended to reposition TUI as a “modern, progressive travel company”.
The business also introduced new creative principles and broke brand spend down into four tasks, from maintaining fame to driving reappraisal. TUI used frameworks set out by the Advertising Association’s black representation in marketing (BRiM) initiative to show greater diversity in its creative.
In November 2021, TUI announced its intention to spend 20% more on brand advertising to drive business online, with McAlister highlighting the need for the company to broaden its proposition.■
Katie McAlister
neW
Chief customer officer
Riviera Travel
Before Simon Michaelides joined Riviera Travel in the newly-created board-level role of chief customer officer in August, he spent more than a decade at UKTV.
Michaelides was part of the leadership team responsible for establishing the company as the country’s largest non-public service broadcaster and building the business to a £1bn enterprise value, before its sale to BBC Studios in 2019.
Over the past two years he co-led UKTV’s response to the Covid-19 crisis, during which time the broadcaster’s market share grew by 8% year on year, video-on-demand views rose 48% and registrations soared by 33% to 4 million users.
The pandemic adaptation process saw UKTV refine and refresh the proposition for all eight of its brands. The rethink was driven by a three-point action plan devised by Michaelides. The aim was to refresh marketers’ understanding of brand building best practice, drive closer cross-functional collaboration and enlist the help of agency partners. The result was market share gains across all UKTV channels.
A fellow of the Marketing Society, Michaelides is also an alumnus of The Marketing Academy Fellowship.■
Simon Michaelides
CMO
Camelot
Named Marketer of the Year at the 2021 Marketing Week Awards, Keith Moor also saw Camelot win big, claiming the accolade for Long-Term Brand Building Excellence for its work on The National Lottery. Under Moor’s leadership, marketing investment has increased and advertising shifted from shorter-term, product-based activity to building a narrative around the wider societal benefits of playing The National Lottery.
Despite fierce competition and a challenging year, Camelot generated £8bn in annual sales for The National Lottery, passing this milestone for the second time in two years. The lottery operator claimed performance was driven by an “unmissable brand connection”, with Camelot generating more than £1.9bn for good causes during the 2021/2022 financial year, £36m a week.
Camelot supported several initiatives to boost the entertainment, sport and tourism industries post-Covid, while the brand also launched The National Lottery’s Big Jubilee Street Party on ITV to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.
In June, Camelot promised to continue to “invest and innovate” around the brand, despite losing its bid to extend its licence for The National Lottery beyond 2024.■
Keith Moor
Regional marketing director, EMEA
Airbnb
EMEA marketing boss Lulu Skinner has been at Airbnb for six and half years. The start of her current role in August 2021 coincided with the travel business ramping up its investment in brand building.
In the company’s fourth quarter 2021 results, Airbnb said it had made the right decision to shift its strategy from being “dependent” on search engine marketing to being more brand-driven. At the time, the business claimed to be experiencing “great success” from its brand marketing, the intention being to expand into more countries.
Indeed, during the second quarter of 2022 Airbnb’s sales and marketing spend rose to £315m from £283.5m the previous quarter, as the travel giant worked on maintaining “high marketing efficiency”.
Airbnb says it is “very happy” with its approach to brand spend. In December the business followed ‘Made Possible by Hosts’, its first large-scale marketing campaign in five years, with ‘Strangers’, a campaign aimed at recruiting hosts. The approach paid off, with traffic to Airbnb’s host landing page in campaign countries increasing by nearly 40% versus the fourth quarter of 2019.■
Lulu Skinner
Marketing and brand director, UK and Ireland
Paddy Power
Since joining Paddy Power in 2018 from Irish broadcaster RTE, Michelle Spillane has overseen all marketing and brand efforts across the UK and Ireland. Describing Paddy Power as not just a gambling business but an “entertainment brand”, Spillane is a firm believer humour should be present in marketing, although it requires bravery and must be part of the brand’s DNA.
She is also passionate about marketing effectiveness, explaining the benefits of having an internal econometrics team helping her marketers contextualise their modelling and understand customer behaviour in real time.
In May 2022, Spillane oversaw the final TV instalment of Paddy Power’s ‘More Chances’ gaming campaign, a series featuring outtakes from awkward moments in everyday life, first launched in February 2022.
Then in August, the gambling brand launched its first campaign with Droga5 London since Paddy Power teamed up with the creative agency earlier this year. ‘Love Football. Intimately’ sees former footballer Peter Crouch and ex-referee Mark Clattenburg parodying romcoms to show their love of the beautiful game in the run up to November’s World Cup.■
Michelle Spillane
Global customer director
Premier Inn
Focused on customer experience and business performance, Tamara Strauss joined Premier Inn from Hilton Hotels & Resorts in 2019.
In April 2021, she oversaw the launch of Premier Inn’s new brand platform, ‘Rest Easy’, an integrated campaign, which saw Sir Lenny Henry return as the voice of the brand. Rest Easy coincided with the re-opening of Premier Inns post-pandemic, offering prime-time visibility at a crucial pre-summer booking moment. The campaign centred on a 60-second TV spot, supported by outdoor, social, print and radio.
In April 2022, Premier Inn’s owner, Whitbread returned to profit after being boosted by a strong recovery and “improving” business travel demand in the UK.
In June, the business hailed its continued “outperformance” in the UK, with Premier Inn accommodation sales 27.2 percentage points ahead of the market, driven in part by the “inherent strengths” of the brand. UK sales for the 2023 full year are 235.6% ahead of last year and 31% up on the same period in 2020.
In December 2021, Strauss was selected by The Marketing Academy for its 2022 Fellowship programme.■
Tamara Strauss
General manager and senior vice-president, Northern Europe
Adidas
Before joining Adidas in November 2021, Kathryn Swarbrick spent two years as commercial and marketing director at The Football Association.
Swarbrick has brought her football experience to the sportswear giant, campaigning to get more women, girls and non-binary people into football. Through the launch of the brand’s ‘Pitch, Please’ campaign in July, Adidas offered female-identifying, trans and non-binary players regular access to pitch space across London for the duration of the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament.
During her time at the FA, Swarbrick oversaw the creation of a single consumer-facing brand designed to bring together grassroots and participation programmes, products and content via a digital hub.
The DTC platform ‘England Football’ promotes participation, connecting users with players, fans, coaches and volunteers. The rebrand included a revamped Three Lions crest, featuring a cub and a lioness, to promote greater inclusivity.
In September 2021, The FA agreed a deal with ITV to broadcast England Women’s matches until the end of the 2024/25 season, a partnership Swarbrick described as critical in driving the reach and profile of the women’s senior team.■
Kathryn Swarbrick
analysis
methodology
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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
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