Ladbrokes appoints marketing chief
Ladbrokes has appointed former Thomas Cook and Sainsbury’s marketer Stephen Vowles to lead the bookmakers’ global marketing and loyalty strategy.
Vowles will take on the newly created director of customer experience role. He will be responsible for all for marketing, loyalty and customer values.
The appointment follows the restructure of the company’s marketing operations in August that saw all marketing activities centralised.
The change, a spokesman told Marketing Week, was aimed at putting the “customer at the heart of everything we do”.
The change comes as Ladbrokes continues to try and close the gap on rival William Hill, which underwent its own marketing strategy review under the stewardship of brand and marketing director Kristof Fahy at the turn of the year.
Both companies recently reported a World Cup inspired bump in revenue and profit for the third quarter. In 2009, William Hill increased net revenue to £997m, while Ladbrokes’ fell to £963.7m.
Vowles joins Ladbrokes from international food retailer Ahold where he was senior vice president of marketing responsible for the Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets.
He has also had stints at Thomas Cook, as marketing director, and at Sainsbury’s where he held the position of customer marketing director.
Richard Glynn, chief executive of Ladbrokes, says: “Stephen’s international expertise will further assist in ensuring that the Ladbrokes brand and product proposition is front of mind in a competitive market environment.”
