Most Creative Marketers: Phil Almond

Just as Phil Almond was getting comfortable in his new role at Cancer Research UK, the first pandemic lockdown hit. In March 2020, doors to the charity’s 600 stores were locked, it couldn’t run Race for Life - its biggest series of fundraising events, and its community fundraising almost vanished. The £500m raised each year from charity shops, individual giving events and third-party mass events like the London Marathon, was suddenly at risk.

And fearing the worst, in summer 2020 the charity publicly warned that it expected a £300m decline in fundraising income, which would significantly reduce the amount it could spend on its cancer-beating research, and the number of staff it could employ.

Almond’s first job was to guide the charity through the Covid crisis, while finding innovative ways to fundraise around it. The team put a lot of work into new online fundraising pathways, a strategy that's been remarkably successful, he says. “We're making between £15 to £20 million more a year than we did – even before the pandemic – by pivoting into digital, by trying many new things, and by working much more closely with partners like Facebook.”

It's been a chance to reset, explains Almond, who has since restructured the charity’s marketing department. “It was a very siloed organisation, but now we have brought all 120 marketers from 12 different teams around the charity into one place, and we've made enormous progress through that.”

Marketing for CRUK will now move from what was historically a traditional advertising-led model to a more diverse strategy, incorporating more digital and loyalty-building elements, through digital marketing agency MSQ, creative agency Anomaly and its media planning and buying agency, MediaCom. This year, despite the headwinds, the charity will beat its fundraising targets “by some margin”.

“We have not come through the crisis unscathed, but better than we expected. And now we've got real momentum and a clear direction going forward,” he says. It is hugely rewarding, explains Almond, given that his team’s efforts go towards beating cancer.

“CRUK scientists believe we’re on the brink of a golden era, because we have the genomics now,” he says. “Twenty years ago, we were just mapping one human genome. Now we can do hundreds in a weekend. We've got AI, we've got immunotherapy where we can use the body's own immune system to attack the cancer. There are so many elements coming together now that there's a real chance to have maximum impact over the next 10 to 20 years, which we're phenomenally excited about, and that's what we're continuing to try and raise money for.”

Combining creativity and effectiveness

When Almond joined CRUK at the end of 2019, he brought a wealth of experience from senior roles at Diageo, the BBC and Burger King. Responsible for the launch of Smirnoff Ice in the late 1990s, Almond has a reputation for combining creativity and effectiveness. The success of the brand, which became a £100m business for Diageo GB and a £1bn business globally in three years, was based on core insight, and a deep understanding of the category.

“Men were drinking this category, but they felt ashamed of doing so. We broadened appeal by leveraging a credible brand – Smirnoff – and then built that proposition with rigour and real creativity,” Almond says. [The much-talked about campaign at the time was created by JWT].

At the time, it was also a daring move to enlist male actors to go to top bars in Manchester, where the product was first launched in the UK, buy Smirnoff Ice and very publicly drink it.

“Otherwise, the assumption about the category was that it was female,” Almond says. “And before the advertising broke, it was important that the product was adopted in that way. I think it's about being very clear on opportunities you're going for, sticking to that, and being really clear about it.”

The most helpful lesson Almond has learnt, and which he still applies today, is to remember that “marketing is in service of business goals.”

“As marketers, we can get obsessed with the pretty pictures, rather than what we're trying to achieve. And it goes wrong when we get distracted by the baubles, rather than the real purpose of what we're trying to do. Creativity is not an end in itself, and marketing is not an end in itself,” Almond says. “It's creativity in order to achieve something effective.”

Staying close to business goals was high on the agenda at the BBC where, as chief marketer, Almond introduced a new creative system in 2014, setting up an in-house team to create the channels 600+ trails a year, plus larger pieces of creative work. The risk paid off, saving more than £1m a year for the corporation, and with the newly installed creative directors winning Gold at Cannes in their first year.

“It was a risk, but sometimes we marketers overdo the bravery bit. No-one was going to die. Yes, there's sometimes a bit of risk-taking, and people might not like it, but then you move on to the next thing,” he says.

At Cancer Research, Almond has proved once again that taking chances and doing things differently can deliver resoundingly valuable results. And while no one is going to die of a poorly judged marketing decision, in Almond’s case it’s the exact opposite. What excites him about the future is simple: “people living longer and better lives through the work CRUK is doing.”

How I see it: the world according to Phil Almond

Who is your creative hero?

“Charles Dickens is my creative hero because he’s such a fantastic storyteller. The story always has some purpose to it and, yes, it's great literature, but it's also that he was the most popular writer of his day. He was the EastEnders of his time, and his writing still has that broad appeal. It captures the imagination with the breadth and depth of his characters. My favourite Dickens novel is Bleak House.”

What’s been feeding your imagination lately?

“I sing in a choir and we're currently tackling quite a difficult piece called Mass In Blue by a young British composer, Will Todd. It's a blues piece, but it's also a traditional mass. It's taxing, but I find singing immensely rewarding because you have to listen hard and concentrate on it. It's a team sport. And having done it for a couple of hours, usually very good ideas come afterwards, because you’ve cleared your mind.”

What frustrates you?

“I think it's when the people-politics get in the way of getting good stuff done. When people are more concerned about their own position and what they get out of it, than getting to the best result. To everyone I work with, I say: be outcome-focused, think about where we are we trying to get to. If you help get us there, then everything will be alright. And you don't have to worry about those bits in between. It's when people allow that stuff to get in the way of making progress, it really frustrates me.”