We’ve singled out five ‘Leading lights’ from the 100 stars: BT’s Zaid Al-Qassab, Barclays' Sara Bennison, Tesco’s Michelle McEttrick, Amazon’s Simon Morris and Unilever’s Keith Weed. Those who know them well have offered their insights into how each one is facing some of marketing’s biggest challenges head-on, and what makes them tick.
We are also drawing a spotlight onto a group of marketers who have moved above and beyond the department to lead their business.
Halfords’ Jill McDonald, BT’s Gavin Patterson, The Body Shop's Jeremy Schwartz, Dow Jones’ Katie Vanneck-Smith, British Gas’ Will Orr, Guardian News & Media’s David Pemsel and The FA’s Martin Glenn are all examples of the power of marketing to lead from the front.
To celebrate longevity in marketing leadership, look out for a star – this represents those who have made the list for five or more years, joining the Marketing Hall of Fame.
Above & beyond
This group of marketers has moved above and beyond the department to lead their business.
Martin Glenn
The Football Association
Chief executive
After stints at the top of PepsiCo, Birds Eye Igloo and United Biscuits, over the years Martin Glenn has proved a shining example of how a determined marketer could go on to lead a major business.
His move to the Football Association this year, overseeing England’s national obsession, places him under a new level of public scrutiny.
Will Orr
British Gas
Managing director of home installations
Orr was promoted from commercial director at British Gas to managing director of its £320m home installations business in summer 2014. Since then, he has overseen 2250 employees working across sales and installations of central heating systems, Hive and combined heat and power. Before British Gas, Orr was agency-side as CEO of WCRS.
David Pemsel
Guardian Media Group
Chief executive
Pemsel was promoted to chief executive in July 2015. His remit has been to keep on top of the rapidly shifting media landscape, building international audiences across the group and capitalising on commercial and digital opportunities. Before joining The Guardian publisher as chief marketing officer in 2011, Pemsel was group marketing director at ITV.
Katie Vanneck-Smith
Dow Jones
Chief customer officer and global managing director
Vanneck-Smith joined The Times as a trainee in 1996, rising through the ranks of the high-powered world of media marketing, before taking up the top role at Dow Jones in September 2014. Previously chief marketing officer at News UK, Vanneck-Smith also sits on the Digital Media Advisory Board and the Marketing Group of Great Britain.
Experience Matters
Every year, Marketing’s Power 100 brings us a comprehensively researched list of the most influential people in marketing. The majority of the Power 100 are ‘veterans’; they consistently make the list not because of length of service, but because they continue to keep their brands relevant in an age of rapid and radical change. The remainder – this year more than a third of the 100 named individuals – are new to the list, although many of the brands they represent are not. What does it all mean? That customer experience matters. Now the paramount indicator of brand performance, customer experience is forcing brand promise and technology together – and, more than ever, powerful marketers know how to operate at the intersection.
1 Don’t just make promises. Deliver them
Successful marketers balance the ‘say’ and the ‘do’. They have adjusted their focus from making the brand promise in advertising and marketing messages to creating customer experiences that fulfil that brand promise; products and services as marketing. Blurring those lines will deliver the utility and value that consumers increasingly expect from brands.
2 Cut through with purpose
The issue of ad-blocking is presented largely as a content providers’ challenge, but it raises concerns for brand owners, too. The greater and more differentiated a brand’s purpose, the more insulated it is from the effect of consumer resistance to targeting and perceived intrusion – particularly in the online and mobile environments. A glance at the Power 100 list shows a host of brands and marketers that possess a purpose quickly and easily understood by consumers across the brand, digital and commerce spaces.
3 Identify with the full customer journey
The customer doesn’t care which bit of the business they are interacting with, whether it be the retail team in-store; the customer service team via a call centre or social media; the tech team through the website; or the marketing team via advertising and marketing activity. Successful marketers empower all customer touchpoints to deliver the brand narrative and ensure that customer experience is universally excellent and differentiated.
4 Understand the whole business
More than ever, marketing and marketers cannot operate in isolation. As many leading businesses look at the challenge of digital transformation and what it means for the entire organisation, marketers are realising they are primary digital stakeholders alongside IT, sales, service, finance and the operational supply chain.
5 Develop hybrid skills
The emergence of new roles and job titles is a reflection that the scope of marketing is broadening, and that traditional structures and silos run contrary to the need to put customer experience at the core. Among this year’s Power 100, Asda’s Barry Williams and Tesco’s Robin Terrell both answer to the title chief customer officer, while BA’s Troy Warfield has the job title executive director of board and director of customer experience. Whatever the job title, the person who best understands the brand’s purpose, its consumers, and how to make their experience with the brand a positive and seamless one, is the one with whom future success and power will lie.
