Most Creative Marketers: Kirsten Stagg

It’s an industry where nothing much has changed for a very long time. But there’s a new era coming. Whether it's sustainability in the introduction of electric vehicles, a move towards direct ecommerce, or ultimately autonomous driving. “The innovations and opportunities just keep coming,” says Stagg.

With VW Group since joining as a graduate in 1998, Stagg’s stints on Audi and the Volkswagen brands have been bookended by two separate periods working on Škoda: most recently since 2016, when she was made marketing director.

But it was during Stagg’s first role – as Skoda’s communication manager – that she encountered her creative hero, Jeremy Craigen, then creative director at DDB.

“He was creating incredible iconic work for VW. It was a fantastic era for them because he had the ability to spot a fantastic creative idea and knew how to execute it perfectly.”

As a young marketer, Stagg saw how to deliver incredibly emotional and impactful advertising. She worked with Craigen on 'Polo Dad', showing a father-daughter relationship, from bringing her home from the hospital to handing her the keys to a new Polo.

Creativity, says Stagg, is finding ways to make people feel something. For her, it’s finding the perfect way to convey a thought, emotion or message in a way that's never been done before. It connects with people, potentially takes them by surprise, and isn't limited by the way it's been done previously. “That creativity starts with great planning,” says Stagg. “It gives the team a springboard to find a different way to come to a problem.”

The power of creativity

The key, says Stagg, is to rule out creative for vanity’s sake. Her goal is always to connect with people on an emotional level, and to combine that with an astute sense of how best to deliver commercial results for the business. A good creative marketer, says Stagg, has to inspire people around them to believe in the power of creativity.

“Marketing budgets are under a huge amount of scrutiny and pressure, and you really need all stakeholders to buy into the fact that it's really worth investing in great creative to build the brand. And I think to do that you have to earn people's trust. And you have to demonstrate the results that it's delivering.”

Skoda’s work with Paloma Faith and other artists was a bold move for the brand, which is on a journey to transform brand perception in the UK. ‘Make your own kind of music' and ‘I gotta be me’ led to a boost in sales performance for Skoda SUVs, with other brand metrics also outperforming the market.

“It was a step-change for us, we wanted to reach out and appeal to a broader audience of people who are happy to make their own decisions and go their own way, and also to connect with more female and younger customers.

"We wanted be unconstrained by traditional automotive advertising approaches, so we approached Paloma,” Stagg says.

The campaign was organised as a music release, with a music video, a lyric video, a private VIP concert… And Paloma, of her own initiative, would go to stadiums around the UK, singing the song as part of her set, and talking to people about how she felt like a Skoda. “She felt an affinity with what we stood for,” Stagg says.

Marketing can transform how people feel about a brand, and shape the experience they have with a brand. But in order to drive change, Stagg recognises the responsibility that clients have to help their agencies understand what's happening in terms of business performance, challenges and the market so they can help find the best solutions.

She praises the collaborative approach of Leo Burnett’s chief creative Chaka Sobhani, describing an open and honest working relationship.

And with a “fantastic imagination and really brilliant attention to detail” senior creative Gareth Butters, who has been focused on “the intricacy of every element of the execution” of the (yet-to-be-revealed) idea he birthed for the launch of Skoda’s Enyaq iV – the brand’s first all-electric SUV.

Change is a-coming, and Stagg is ready.