EE scraps CMO role as BT insists it will keep the brand

Noel Hamill will take over the running of EE’s marketing department in a new role as MD of marketing. He currently works as a director of indirect partnerships at EE, responsible for sales and commercial activities across consumer and business indirect partners and has previously worked in marketing roles at Three and Vodafone in Australia.

He will report directly into EE’s new CEO Marc Allera. The nature of the role has changed, however, given that EE was formerly an independent business and is now part of the wider BT Group.

This means EE is scrapping the CMO role Pippa Dunn had held since 2013, with Dunn opting to leave the brand.

She was pivotal in the launch and growth of the EE brand, which was created following the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. She said she made the decision to leave the business to “try something completely different”.

The move is part of a wider shake-up of the EE leadership team following its acquisition by BT. Max Taylor will now take on responsibility for digital communications and innovation, including sales, service and marketing for omnichannel.

Gerry McQuade, meanwhile, has taken on the role of CMO for non-consumer mobile and is in charge of sales and marketing for the enterprise, wholesale, home and business development areas.

The future of the EE brand

BT is also restructuring its business following the acquisition. It will now run two consumer-facing businesses – EE and BT consumer. The latter will offer phone, broadband and TV services to more than 10 million customers, while EE will retain its high street presence. John Petter will head up BT Consumer as CEO.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO, says: “[BT] will operate a multi-brand strategy with UK customers being able to choose a mix of BT, EE or Plusnet services, depending on which suit them best.

“The acquisition provides us with a chance to refresh our structure and we have done that by creating a major new division that will focus on businesses and the public sector in the UK and Ireland.”

Despite BT insisting that it will keep EE, experts expect the brand will disappear at some point in the future. Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson highlights BT Group’s focus on a “branded house, different identity” strategy as a reason why EE is likely to be replaced in the end.

“The idea that BT Group would sacrifice the strategic focus and inestimable synergies of this architecture to transform itself into a house of brands in order to accommodate EE in the long term is laughable,” he says.

“Expect EE to be gradually phased into the BT brand and ultimately to become just another short chapter in the history of telecommunications branding. Filed somewhere between Cellnet and Motorola.”