Most Creative Marketers: Michelle McEttrick

“Surely, you’re not going to another big job?” is the question her husband asked her when she first talked to him about leaving Tesco. “I think, I am,” was her reply. In 2015, Michelle was handpicked by the then chief executive Dave Lewis, to turnaround the troubled supermarket brand. Six years later, after rebuilding marketing at the heart of the Tesco business and re-establishing the brand in the hearts of British consumers, she’s leaving.

“By the time I showed up in 2015 Tesco, the brand, had been ravaged over the years. It was not looked after, it was not nurtured. And so the brand had to be built from scratch.”

So what next for Michelle? Is she heading off to do another turnaround, I ask her? After all, this American marketer in Britain has always been seen striding into beleaguered brands and businesses and helping them thrive.

In her previous role as managing director of group brand and marketing at Barclays, where Michelle launched ‘Barclays Values’ to help restore faith in the banking sector, she joined when Barclays was still the poster child for the Libor scandal in 2010. She joined from Barclay’s advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH), where she headed the bank’s creative account. It was not a hugely different story when Michelle left the bank to join Tesco in 2015 - the supermarket was facing a huge loss of trust among shoppers, following a £250 million accounting scandal.

“And don’t forget British Airways, I was leading that account at BBH,” she reminds me. It was the annus horribilis period for BA - the chaotic opening of Terminal 5, followed by the financial crisis which depressed BA’s traffic numbers and triggered industrial relations tensions.

“I think I’m drawn to these scenarios,” she says talking about her squiggly career. From BA to Barclays to Tesco, her career has not so much been about throwing caution to the wind but understanding the complexities of large-scale businesses. “If these businesses do not experience serious setbacks, the culture of these businesses and their brands will kind of float along and protect itself as opposed to really making some significant changes that need to be put in place. And I’m absolutely drawn to such businesses.”

Michelle has worked on both sides of the Atlantic and on both sides of the client-agency divide. Her agency journey took her from McCann Erickson, Seattle, to BBDO in Portugal and then BBH London. An experience that’s served her well for her creative convictions, especially as a marketer.

Most senior marketers, she thinks, are certain about the role of creativity and how it transforms business or drives innovation and effectiveness for brands. “And yet they are also marketers, who need to be selling their brand to the audience that is buying. And if the sell into your CEO or your board is that everything is measurable, that’s fine too. Because that can be the headline, and how you push the creative levers to do just that can be under the covers.”

What about her creative inspiration? Sitting in her husband Mike Eggers’ music room surrounded by guitars hanging on the walls, Michelle about her love for karaoke. “I grew up playing the piano and love music but the musical talent in the house is all my husband.” Mike is in a band, My Fine Companion, with creative director/writer Nick Kidney.

Her creative inspiration she draws from the people she’s worked with, including her former boss at Barclays and now one of her “closest friends” veteran marketer David Wheldon. She describes him as being an “unabashed supporter for creativity and a larger-than-life character able to convince hardcore ‘numbers people’ to invest in creativity”. She also includes the former BBH ECD, Nick Gill who created the “brilliant” waterslide ad campaign for contactless payments.

But really what next for Michelle? For someone who describes herself as a creative and strategic CMO, and is painted by those who have worked with her as being suited to the era of empathetic leadership, is the next step becoming a CEO?

“It’s not out of consideration,” she says. I’m perhaps getting ahead of myself, as she explains how all encompassing her job at Tesco has been and how when she first started it was a year-and-a-half before she could even find some time to exercise. “I remember vividly, I went to the Olympics swimming pool.”

But not one to sit still, Michelle has been volunteering for the Liberal Democrats' London Mayor candidate Luisa Porritt. She’s particularly fascinated with Porritt’s ‘Homes in the Heart of the City' policy - the Lib Dems want to follow in the footsteps of Rotterdam and convert new empty office space into high-quality, affordable homes. Is British politics her thing? “I’m really interested in politics, and I know nothing about it. But I'm not interested in being a politician, but in some of the things that really could come into play like how to solve big problems. There's opportunities for creativity everywhere.”

Her next move, she says, will probably be as much of a surprise to her as everyone else.

Michelle’s boldest creative play

In 2017, Tesco became the first UK supermarket to cover the cost of the tampon tax for customers, after it cut the price of nearly 100 women’s sanitary products by 5 percent.

“I do not define creativity as an advertising campaign. Yes, creativity is absolutely part of it. And a very important part. But I like to think about creative problem solving. And when we took off the ‘tampon tax’ for our customers, that will always be one of my proudest moments as a marketer.

“I remember, at the time, watching campaigners around the world demanding that the government scraps VAT entirely on women’s sanitary products. And I was with Karen Martin from BBH [the agency CEO] saying how ridiculous it is to tax an essential item like sanitary products for women. So we decided to do something about it. And we did. But by that time the brand was in a place where customers were ready to hear something positive about Tesco. And to see that Tesco was actually doing something that was not just talking about half-price lamb, but doing something that was actually helping them.”

The initiative to cut the price of women's sanitary products was spearheaded by BBH and included a 30-second film.

The Barclays’ years

“I came to BBH specifically to run the Barclays business. When I was poached by the client, I knew the brand from the inside, even the things that were were positive about it. I knew the stakes were high enough that it was either going to be an amazing experience or an absolute shit show.”

Michelle went through three CEOs during her four years at the bank and describes her experience as “absolutely amazing.” But it was also the time during which she went through breast cancer treatment for a year in 2011. It was a role that wasn’t just about marketing, she adds, but was about being part of big cultural shifts in a business that needed to change.

Michelle’s creative heroes

• English designer, Thomas Heatherwick for his design of the London 2012 Olympic Cauldron.

• Her “creative sounding board” - her niece, Michaela McEttrick. Currently at Amazon Prime, among Michaela’s projects is Cheap Thrills, a DIY series that celebrates and satirises hypebeast culture with host Tabasko Sweet demonstrating how to make premium streetwear for a fraction of the price. She’s also behind the irreverent lifestyle series Turnt Beauty that’s been described by Cosmopolitan as “magical” and “tough to beat” by Teen Vogue. “I expect to see more breakout creative from her soon."