Top UK marketer moves up at American Express

American Express has promoted its top UK marketer Katherine Whitton to vice-president of product management for its UK consumer card business.

Whitton was responsible for a series of fashion and music sponsorships, such as the brand’s backing for the fashion duo Boudicca and its sponsorship of the MTV Europe Music Awards.

She also oversaw the relaunch of the Amex Blue credit card in 2000, which was originally introduced in 1998 to appeal to younger consumers and to complement its long established charge card.

Amex is rumoured to be sponsoring this year’s Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships, but the company would not comment on its involvement.

Amex is looking both internally and externally to fill Whitton’s post of director of brand and communications, which carries responsibility for advertising.

Whitton was involved in the development of its current “Long live dreams” campaign, created by Ogilvy & Mather, Amex’s global advertising agency. Amex is in the process of reviewing its $600m (&£330m) global media buying and planning account held by MindShare, but the &£15m UK media buying and planning held by Carat is not affected (MW Dec 18).

Whitton replaces Rob Wilsher, who has left the company on a one-year sabbatical. Whitton joined Amex in 1998 after working for a number of advertising agencies, including Publicis and Rapier.