Smile hunts for first marketing boss

Smile, the Co-operative’s Internet bank, is seeking its first marketing director.

The position’s creation is a reflection of the bank’s growing number of customers and, according to Smile, “the natural extension of the brand”.

David Conway, marketing director of the Co-operative Bank, has handled marketing for Smile since its launch in October 1999. He will step down from his responsibilities when the new marketing director is appointed.

Smile has a range of products including credit cards, personal loans, current accounts, deposit accounts and mini-cash ISAs.

Smile spokesman Dave Smith says the marketing director will be responsible for the overall business strategy of the brand including product management, PR and “building personalisation into the site”.

He adds: “We want to break into mortgages and other areas but we have no specific plans yet.”

Smith confirms there are no plans for an advertising review. The bank is in the middle of an &£8m campaign, handled by Farm, which will last until the end of the year.

The Co-operative first launched Internet banking services in March 1998 as a test-bed for Smile. Smile was launched in 1999 and now has about 200,000 account holders.

Last September, Gomez, which monitors the level of customer service on websites, gave top place in a recent study of online credit cards to Cahoot, Abbey National’s offshoot. Smile came third, after Egg.