From Blockbuster to Paddy Power: One marketer on why brand allure is not enough
Despite falling into marketing thanks to a university prospectus, WW (formerly Weight Watchers) marketing director Jemma Banks has forged a 20-year career that has seen her follow her passions from high street retail to betting and now wellbeing.
Jemma Banks’ journey into marketing started in a somewhat unconventional manner. Studying product design at university, Banks loved the creativity of the subject but realised eight weeks in that the practical side of the curriculum was not for her.
Flipping through the university’s prospectus she landed on marketing and thought it sounded interesting, so she gave it a go. And from there a 20-year career in the industry began.
On completing her degree, Banks joined Argos. After working in roles from advertising to point-of-sale, which laid the foundation for her love of marketing, Banks was approached by a former colleague to join entertainment company Blockbuster.
The move made sense thanks to her love of films and offered the chance to work in a smaller team across the wider marketing mix. “Argos is a machine of an organisation. There were more than 100 people in marketing and 1,500 in head office, whereas at Blockbuster it was in an old manor house with a team of 40,” Banks recalls. “It was so much smaller; there were only five people in marketing.”