Vouchercodes appoints former Sky heavyweight Matt Turner as VP of marketing
Affiliate publisher Vouchercodes has appointed BSkyB’s former head of online and marketing Matt Turner as vice president of marketing as it looks to drive its above-the-line activity and become a more personalised destination for users.
Turner, who joined the company just over six weeks ago, was previously online sales and marketing chief at BSkyB, and prior to that head of digital acquisitions for American Express.
He told The Drum his focus for next year will be on driving more in-store affiliate opportunities for retailers and customers, increasing its above-the-line marketing and creating a more personalised experience for consumes throughout their online journeys.
“The affiliate space has traditionally been centred on driving sales online for merchants and retailers, but there is a huge opportunity for us as a business to deliver more value to both the consumers and retailers by driving additional foot fall, and placing some compelling offers and discounts in front of their customers in-store,” he said.
Turner is eyeing a bigger push into personalisation next year, which will see it place increased focus on its customer behavioural data to better understand their demands and expectations.
It has kick-started this process by soft launching a sign-up process where customers are encouraged to specify which brands and categories they prefer when they register for accounts. Next year it will focus on mining behavioural data to better understand how to anticipate consumers’ preferences.
Turner said personalisation remained an “untapped” area. “Rather than showing generic offers and deals on the site we are trying to leap frog head first into a world where if there are specific brands you like and ways you have interacted with their sites before, we need to do a better job of catering to that and refining the experience around what customers want to see and engage with,” he explained.
To fulfill its ambition of becoming a more engaging, personalised omnichannel experience for users the business will also look to evolve the site to become more of a content destination, according to Turner.
“I’m keen to start thinking more about how to position ourselves as a destination so we can move up the funnel. Rather than providing vouchers and offers and opportunities as and when people are thinking of buying a specific gift or purchase, actually providing a discovery tool for them.
“So whenever they think to buy something, rather than just going off to Google a or specific brand, they will think to come to us and we can guide them through that process all the way through from the very top of funnel, offering ideas and interesting items within specific verticals,” he said.
Meanwhile Vouchercodes is also planning a bigger push into above-the-line activity with more focus on brand awareness campaigns next year, having previously been more dominant in digital advertising, specifically search, according to Turner.
“We have a strong foundation in digital advertising and next year you will see a lot more above-the-line activity form us. We are running some small tests now in display and digital outdoor, but we are only just dipping our toe in the water and starting to experiment. From Q2 onwards next year will give a big push in above the line brand awareness and consideration marketing,” he said.
He revealed that TV advertising was also a possibility next year, although it is yet to be confirmed if this will be the right marketing medium for the brand. If it does launch into TV then it is likely Sky’s highly targeted TV ad Adsmart service, would be part of the plans, according to Turner.