From bringing a circus to Tottenham Court Road and sausage rolls to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to being inspired by dystopian cults and innovating in the face of inflated media prices, these marketers have adapted to and triumphed amid 2024's challenges.
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10. Benjamin Braun
Chief marketing officer,
Samsung Europe
Braun reorganised Samsung’s 12 marketing channels in Europe this year, having worked at the tech brand for six years. A renewed focus on making a return on marketing spend came to life during Samsung's Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics campaign, created by Publicis agencies Marcel and Bartle Bogle Hegarty London. “Open always wins” featured Braun and his team employing athletes as Samsung brand ambassadors to help cut expenditure, owing to the “high cost” of media space during the event. This included athletes being given Galaxy Z Flip6 Olympic Edition devices, alongside a request to unbox them on their own social media channels. Campaign named the Olympic work a Top Social campaign.
9. AJ Coyne
Vice-president of marketing,
Monzo
Coyne, one of the best-dressed marketers in town, hit the ground running upon joining Monzo in January. He oversaw the rollout of its latest brand platform “Money never felt like Monzo”, which was its debut work by Uncommon Creative Studio; hired AnalogFolk as its digital and customer experience partner; and built a sausage-roll-dispensing ATM in partnership with Greggs. Coyne has set his sights on using creativity to help break down taboos regarding money and gain customers’ trust by simplifying monetary matters. At Campaign Live, he also hailed creativity as the way to “differentiate yourself” in the banking category. The year ended on a high when he led his team up on stage to receive the Marketing Society's 2024 Brand of the Year accolade.
8. Mark Given
Chief marketing officer,
Sainsbury’s and Argos
It has been another jam-packed year for Given. There has been the launch of Sainsbury’s "Hey Sainsbury's" brand platform and “Works every time” for its Tu clothing brand (both created by New Commercial Arts), a partnership with Comic Relief to help tackle food poverty, and attending Cannes Lions for the first time to promote Nectar 360, which, Given told Campaign, has delivered “strong returns” for clients. The retailer has also expanded its in-house agency Zest and consolidated its media planning and buying with PHD UK. At the end of the year, Sainsbury's and NCA brought in the much-loved BFG for its Christmas 2024 ad.
7. Michelle Spillane
Managing director of marketing, UK and Ireland,
Paddy Power Betfair
Spillane oversees a brand that knows exactly who it is. Its headline sponsorship of the World Darts Championships tournament benefited from Luke Littler's dramatic journey to the final in early 2024, and the Irish gambling brand raised £1m for its partner Prostate Cancer UK and encouraged nearly 140,000 men to use the charity's online risk checker in the process. Spillane told Campaign the activity was one of the highlights of her year in her Power 100 entry. But that’s not to say high-performing ads aren’t also on Spillane’s radar. She revealed that the playful 60-second Danny Dyer-fronted Euro 2024 spot, “England’s favourites” by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, was Paddy Power’s most searched-for YouTube content in the last eight years, and Dyer returned for a Christmas ad.
6. Anna Braithwaite
Marketing director for Clothing & Home,
Marks & Spencer
Braithwaite set her sights on reshaping Marks & Spencer’s Clothing & Home arm in 2024 by “transforming” every element of its marketing, including point of sale, in copy and within imagery. With the transformation has come style-led, edgier marketing activity from M&S in a bid to broaden its consumer base and elevate style perceptions without losing sight of its traditional customer. This included a multi-sensory takeover of London’s Oxford Circus Tube station by Mother Design, Mother London and Mindshare to promote its summer clothing collection, which was accompanied by a light-hearted film spot. Braithwaite also oversaw a stylish autumn campaign and a magical family-focused Christmas ad.
5. Pete Markey
Chief marketing officer,
Boots
Markey was named president of ISBA in the summer and yet he has still found time to push the expansion of Boots’ media footprint, alongside continuing as executive sponsor of the Boots Marketing for Change initiative and the Boots Pride network. Under his watch, the health and beauty retailer ran its first spring campaign for a decade (called “With you for spring” by the Pharm), added hundreds more screens to its in-store retail media network and introduced more than 25 beauty brands with the help of an omnichannel campaign in the autumn. Mrs Christmas and a gang of elves were the stars of Boots' shiny Christmas spot.
4. Pete Jeavons
Brand and marcomms director,
EE, BT and Plusnet
For Jeavons, this year has been about bedding in EE as the consumer-facing master brand after last year’s repositioning. In November, his team and Saatchi & Saatchi released two ads for EE's “Tech from EE” brand platform – “Tech turmoil” and “Panic mode” – in a bid to demystify gadget purchases. Elsewhere, "Unfinished", also by Saatchi & Saatchi, received a silver Print & Publishing Lion; EE was the lead commercial partner of the Home Nations Teams for Euro 2024 (with an accompanying campaign) and an immersive theatre performance helped people navigate the school summer holidays (one of Campaign's Top Live experiences).
3. Claire Sadler
Chief marketing officer,
British Heart Foundation
Sadler is getting stuck in with broader adland issues, having been named vice-president of Wacl in July, alongside her duties for the British Heart Foundation. She also chaired this year’s Newsworks Awards. In a cluttered environment for football-related marketing activity, BHF achieved cut-through with the poignant “Till I died” campaign ahead of Euro 2024. Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, this comprised 12 handpainted murals across the UK, depicting young football fans who had died early from heart disease. Sadler credits the work, which Campaign named as a Top Out-of-home ad, with driving consideration to donate to BHF to a “record high”. BHF and PHD won gold at the Media Week Awards and snared Campaign's Top Media idea for a campaign flatlining the broadcast of Twitch streamers.
2. Michelle Graham-Clare
Senior vice-president, chief marketing officer, UK and Ireland,
McDonald's
The McDonald’s 2024 Christmas ad, created by its ad agency Leo Burnett, focused on the “satisfaction” that can come from a trip to the fast-food chain. At the very least, Graham-Clare can look back on her year with satisfaction after another strong 12 months. The fast-food giant marked its 50th birthday in the UK over the summer with a nostalgic, 1980s-inspired campaign. With hard-up consumers in mind, Graham-Clare also oversaw the relaunch of its £4.39 breakfast wrap (which overperformed to the point that McDonald's ran out of eggs and had to pull the item from sale) and promoted its Saver Menu with four different executions. She also managed to find time to develop a global marketing leadership curriculum for McDonald’s most talented marketers.
1. Monica Pool
Chief marketing officer, UK and Ireland,
KFC
Pool, who heads up KFC’s 50-strong marketing team, having joined in November 2023, aims to “push boundaries, stand out and be iconic” over the next five years. KFC's repositioning “Believe in chicken" is a step toward achieving those aims. KFC unveiled its new brand platform in two phases. The first was unbranded, cryptic out-of-home work near places such as the Houses of Parliament. A mesmerising, dystopian, dance-filled odyssey of a film came next. Created by Mother, the ad earned a Campaign Pick of the Week. Pool credited the “supremely talented” team of people involved in the work, including Kate Wall, KFC's marketing director for the UK and Ireland.
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