RedBalloon has lured former Mastercard marketer Rapthi Thanapalasingam and Lux Group CTO Brett Raven to join the online experience retailer as it reshuffles its leadership roles.
The news coincides with the exit of head of marketing Bonnie Thorn and chief technology officer Simon Farrell. Thorn’s role was absorbed by the CMO position – a first for the business.
CEO Nick Baker tells AdNews the CMO and CTO roles are vital for the future growth of RedBalloon as it gears up for a big 2017.
“We introduced the CMO position because we wanted to show the seniority of the position and the relevance to the company’s future direction. The CMO and CTO roles are vital, so we wanted to make sure these positions appeared of equal ranking,” he says.
“The CMO role also gives RedBalloon more space to develop people into other senior roles in the marketing division.
“Both Farrell and Thorn left behind very strong teams and left the business in good shape for Raven and Thanapalasingam to build on. There are no plans to restructure the teams further, but any changes will come in course.”
Rapthi Thanapalasingam
Thanapalasingam and Baker worked together previously during their time at Tourism Australia, when Baker was in the CMO position. Thanapalasingam was head of digital for two years.
In her new role, Baker is confident Thanapalasingam will help the brand challenge perceptions in the gifting category.
“We have traditionally been used to gift experience to others, rather than buy experiences for themselves, however we have found about 30% of people are using it for ourselves, which is growing, but this year we want our marketing to challenge perceptions and communicate our new orientation to the market,” Baker says.
“The gifting category is a very cluttered and fragmented space. Standing out in terms of getting the right products is vital and delivering them in the most relevant way is really important for us.”
From her time at Tourism Australia, Thanapalasingam says she understands the role brands can play in the future of travel and tourism.
“RedBalloon has embarked on a journey to create a single customer view. Brands tend to shy away from that because it’s quite a huge task.
"One of the challenges for the category is being able to cut through the noise and clutter, but once you know your audience paired with great creative, you can be top of mind for consumers. That will be a key stand for us this year,” she says.
Another area of focus for RedBalloon this year will be technology. Over the Christmas period the site saw 60% of its traffic come from mobile, up 20% to the year before.
“We are looking at what we can do in the technology space; whether that is with chat bots, user experience or what we can do to give greater personalisation and data insights. That will come to the forefront this year,” Baker says.
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