RBS poaches top Argos marketer

Argos marketing director Paul Geddes has been poached by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to oversee marketing for the RBS and National Westminster Bank brands.

Geddes will be marketing strategy managing director for retail banking at the RBS Group. He will report to group chief executive for retail banking Benny Higgins. His responsibilities will cover strategy, product and marketing for RBS and NatWest. NatWest brand director Paulette Rowe and RBS brand director Ian Stuttard will report to Geddes.

Former retail banking marketing chief Ian Henderson will take on the role of group retail change managing director, with responsibility for pushing through some of the internal changes still to be made following the merger of RBS and NatWest.

Geddes will leave Argos for RBS at the end of March. His is the second major departure to hit Argos – it lost managing director Kate Swann to WH Smith, where she became chief executive, last year. Geddes denies that he applied for Swann’s job at Argos, having been in talks with RBS since last summer. Argos has yet to replace either Geddes or Swann.

Geddes says: “The scale of the organisation is tremendous. RBS is a very successful bank and has deep relationships with customers. The job is fascinating from a marketer’s perspective.” Geddes, a former Procter & Gamble marketer, says that it is too early to talk about reviewing agency arrangements for both brands.