Mark Hodge: The Marketer Masterminding McCain's Brand Building

The brief: Find a marketer that realises the profit potential of their brands and has the confidence to be more long-term, more brand-focused and – ultimately – more successful.

The answer: Mark Hodge.

The result: Scooping one of the industry’s top awards - landing the IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix for his agency adam&eveDDB for not only rebuilding the McCain brand but using advertising to generate £79 million of incremental gross profits while total company gross profits rose by 32 per cent. A brilliant achievement for any brand and its marketing leader - a robust demonstration of an effectiveness framework that joins up the dots and links the commercial, growth, marketing with its commercial creativity agenda.

The enduring decade-long relationship with his agency (Hodge appointed adam&eveDDB to the business in October 2014), the McCain brand has celebrated the joyful reality of family teatime, which has delivered a 56 per cent increase in sales value and a profit ROI of £1.48 per £1 invested in a challenging market. His agency developed a strategy and range of objectives focusing on brand-building to grow sales profitably in a time of raging inflation, changing shopper behaviour and a cost of living crisis.

In addition to the Grand Prix, the McCain submission won The Channon Prize for Best New Learning and a gold award, while adam&eveDDB has been named Effectiveness Company of the Year.

A Mainstay Marketer

Hodge has been with the brand for almost close to two decades - a rare achievement in the marketing world where changing jobs frequently is almost always seen as good for career development, but what really are the unintended consequences for brand building?

He started at McCain in 2005 as the head of brand. The role of any good marketer is to play the long-term, strategic game of not only attracting customers, but retaining them. But if, as a recent survey suggests, two-thirds of marketers have only been in their current role for a maximum of three years and just 15.9 per cent have been in their current role for more than seven years, then how do you invest in a brand's long-term effectiveness? Hodge happens to be a rare marketing beast in that context, and this is what makes Hodge our marketer of the week.

So what else makes Mark Hodge such a standout marketer? The answer is grounded in his humanity and empathy.

"It’s our ten-year anniversary of working with Mark and his team at McCain, so it feels right that the stars are aligning with a trio of weighty IPA effectiveness awards to recognise the impact of the 'We are Family' campaign he has spearheaded. His engagement, trust and persistent commitment to creativity and consistency have been the hallmarks of our partnership." says Miranda Hipwell, chief executive of adam&eveDDB.

"Mark has a deep knowledge of every aspect of his business and his thoughtful, considered approach is a breath of fresh air in a world where we’re often swayed by shiny, new things to the detriment of impact and effectiveness. The best of what we do is only possible when working with clients like Mark - he’s a brilliant partner and we have a lot to thank him for," she continues.

Described by agencies and colleagues as a "spirited marketer", he has held various titles at McCain including marketing director and head of brand. Prior to McCain, he has worked at other FMCG brands including PZ Cussons and Goodfella's (Northern Foods). Described as a keen customer champion, Hodge - as evidenced in the Grand Prix and Gold IPA Effectiveness wins - is known to use insights to change culture, products or business models to better suit customer needs. He also sits on the board of the Kebab Alliance, which raises awareness of the important economic and cultural role of kebabs in the UK.

In the winning IPA Effectiveness submission, Hodge said: "McCain is a global business. Through the UK’s activity, we have demonstrated in objective terms the power of long-term brand building. This has become an important case study for the global business. At the core of this success story is the mindset shift to see brands as being built over years and decades, not quarters. This testament to long-term thinking is something that is now encouraged across markets as well as upheld in our own.

I’m proud of what we’ve achieved with our agency partners, through a long-standing relationship of trust and a shared commitment to the long-term goal. We had to be disciplined, focused and patient – but our shared belief in creative consistency and focusing our energy on the right things has truly paid off."

Congratulating the agency and the brand on the win, Nationwide chief customer officer Catherine Kehoe, who was chair of judges at the IPA Effectiveness Awards added: "A bold decision to support the brand rather than default to price promotions really paid off. If ever there was a paper to take to the CFO to justify investment in advertising, this is it.”