Tom Holmes talks to Philip Almond, Director of Marketing and Audiences at the BBC.
Philip joined the BBC in June 2012 having previously worked at Diageo with responsibility for various brands including Baileys and Smirnoff. Whilst at Diageo, he oversaw the launch of Smirnoff Ice and spent two years as Marketing Director of Burger King (then owned by Diageo). Prior to that, Philip worked at Ogilvy & Mather.
TH: As Director of Marketing and Audiences what is your primary focus?
PA: Being the voice of audiences within the BBC, and the voice of the BBC to its audiences.
The primary role the teams I lead at the BBC is to ensure the BBC’s brilliant content meets everyone in the UK’s needs, and to make sure all of us know about and can discover the old favourites and new shows we love across Radio, TV and online.
TH: What is the biggest issue for your brand today and how are you addressing it?
PA: Just like any media owner, the biggest challenges for the BBC is to shift over time from a broadcast, “one to many” model, to a more personalised IP-based offer where we have a two-way & more individual relationship with our audiences.
This is a fundamental shift which will ultimately affect everything we do – but we need to do this while still operating the traditional broadcast model, which is how the vast majority of our audience still access the BBC today.
TH: Is there a broader initiative that you are driving for the brand outside of the day-to-day?
PA: Yes – it’s called myBBC, and it’s a joint project with our Future Media & editorial teams looking at how we can make people’s experience of the BBC more personal. Importantly it’s not just a technology-led project – ultimately it should transform people’s relationship with the BBC and the way we make and serve content for – and even with – them. So we become less “the BBC” and more “my BBC” and “our BBC”.
TH: What attributes do you think are required for success for a CMO today?
PA: We’re doing our jobs in the period of greatest change in media since the advent of television, and the nature of that change is more rapid, diverse and multi-faceted than the broadcast revolution was. No-one knows precisely what the future holds.
So while the core CMO skills – audience insight, strategic clarity, creative flair, executional integration, leadership – are as relevant as ever, we need to be more flexible and prepared to adapt at pace than ever before.There’s too much uncertainty to write the perfect 3 year strategy. We need to set a clear audience-facing direction for our businesses – but rapidly experiment and learn about the way we actually get there.
TH: What work are you most proud of over the course of your career?
PA: Our job is to use audience insight and creativity to create a piece of marketing technology – be that and, a new product or service, a CRM programme – that fundamentally changes the trajectory of the brand or business we work on.
I’m proudest of the work that’s done that – as most of my career was at Diageo many of the examples are, from the launch of Smirnoff Ice, to the Smirnoff Experience marketing programme to returning the Diageo GB and Baileys businesses to growth.
I’m also immensely proud of the work my teams are currently doing at the BBC – from our recent work on BBC Music and Drama to how we are changing the way our Audience Services team responds to people’s enquiries at the BBC. There’s so much great work going on its impossible to mention it all!
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