Dome recruits BT chief

BT consumer division head of advertising Sholto Douglas-Home has been appointed director of marketing and communications for the Millennium Dome.

Douglas-Home has been given a two-year paid secondment from BT and will take up his new role on September 1, reporting to New Millennium Experience Committee managing director Liam Kane.

He remains a BT staff member and intends to return in two years, although in a different capacity. BT is a major sponsor of the Dome, with a 12m investment in the project.

The gap his departure leaves at BT will be filled, at least for the time being, by the company’s head of market management, Judy Dean.

Douglas-Home has worked at BT for four and a half years, two of them in his present role. He controls all BT’s consumer advertising and was responsible for about 70 TV ads over the past year alone. Ads are handled by Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO.

Of his appointment he says: “It is very exciting, it is probably the best marketing challenge around. Everyone involved in the project is committed, enthusiastic and determined to make it succeed.

“The two big challenges on the horizon will be finalising the content and, from my point of view, devising a marketing strategy to ensure over 12 million tickets are sold in the first year.”