eMobile is eircom’s mobile phone service. After the launch in September 2010, the marketing team faced the challenge of building momentum to build a customer base and ensure delivery of key brand KPIs in a fiercely competitive environment. With a new brand, the team had to act as brand champions, applying core brand values across all activities, including challenging the organisation to ensure all new products and services adhered to the principles of doing things differently and keeping things simple. The team set the strategic direction for eMobile and developed a stream of compelling product offers including the ‘unlimited’ proposition. The team exceeded all their marketing goals for 2011.

The Jacob’s brand portfolio was suffering from years of underinvestment and brand metrics were in decline. This was turned around by building a new marketing team which would be analytical, strategic and credible. New talent had to be sourced and the mix of skills was critical, with all six team members having to possess a strong commercial focus. The team set about revitalising the Jacobs brands, with clear ownership and targets, together with metrics and reporting mechanisms. The team halted the 3-year double digit sales decline, and have managed the most successful biscuit launch for a decade, extended the Jacob’s brand into the healthy snack bar segment, and revitalised and repositioned several other major brands.

The marketing team at KBC Bank Ireland entered 2011 with big ambitions and many challenges. With intense competition, low brand awareness and no branch network, the team had to manage a shift from B2B to B2C marketing, and effectively launch the brand and new products into the consumer arena. The team grew significantly during 2011, and delivered an impressive brand and product launch in a very tight timeframe. A new e-commerce website was launched, an integrated marketing campaign was delivered, and internal staff audiences were engaged with the new brand proposition. In addition to doubling brand awareness, the team delivered the ambitious customer numbers and sales targets for the bank.

With the newspaper industry facing significant changes and challenges, The Irish Times acted to reduce expenditure and all functions felt the pressure on resources. The marketing team assumed full responsibility for the implementation of a new strategic direction based on a segmentation framework which would provide a means of differentiation. The team focused on five key narrow markets and tailored the marketing mix to these. The team was restructured to incorporate digital, and team members acted as segment champions. A new focus was put on CRM, and the use of data became central to the marketing. The team’s new approach has been transformational in the marketing capability of The Irish Times.