Lloyds TSB names Visa Italy boss as top brand marketer

Lloyds TSB has appointed Visa marketer Mario Mazzocchi as its head of brand marketing.

He fills a position left vacant since January, when Georgina Smith was poached by Orange to be its head of brand.

Mazzocchi will report to Lloyds TSB director of group marketing and UK retail banking strategy Helen Stevenson, who joined the bank in January from Masterfoods, where she was European marketing director.

At Visa, Mazzocchi was a senior brand manager with responsibility for Italy. He leaves the company this week and Visa has not yet found a replacement.

Earlier this year, Lloyds TSB revived its iconic black horse imagery, last used in the Eighties, in a campaign created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.

Lloyds TSB’s new chief executive, Eric Daniels, who started last month, has said he will be conducting a wide-ranging review of the business, which will include the future of the Scottish Widows subsidiary. The company has denied speculation that Scottish Widows chief executive Mike Ross is to retire.

Like rival Abbey National, the bank is selling peripheral parts of its business to focus on core high street retail services in the UK.