Cristofor Iosub Email & Phone Number

London, England, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Coordinating the agency network infrastructure and processes on the agency's largest global client.

Hamburg - London

Driving the communications strategy, campaign planning and creative for the launch in the Nordics of an innovative brand from the agency's largest global client. The role covers strategic planning, creative development, project management, financial planning, agency team setup and the management of the client relationship.

London, United Kingdom

Geometry Global is a global, integrated marketing agency, born from the merger in 2013 of WPP's OgilvyAction and G2 agencies, whose purpose is to change and shape peoples’ behaviours, turning brand equity into action. My role at Geometry was Global Business Director on an iconic brand of the agency's largest client, a brand with an extraordinarily rich history and cultural legacy. The role was the linchpin of a dedicated agency team, coordinating strategy, creative and project management, for the creation and deployment of integrated marketing campaigns - from branding and packaging to cross-channel comms and activation at global scale.Reporting to the global Head of Brand, the Global Business Director has a strong strategic contribution and at the same time has an operational lead role turning the strategies into action in terms of creative development and brand marketing programs delivery.The scope of the role was very broad - global brand guardianship and creative origination lead, overseeing the development and implementation of all the Lucky Strike brand initiatives and brand experiences large and small – from far-reaching brand transformation programs, to brand expressions and experiences across channels, to new product launches globally and to tactical, market-specific campaigns. As Global Business Director I have coordinated a project / client management team and a creative team, and I have been a key contact for global BAT clients, expert suppliers, as well as for local agencies working on the brand in the key markets.

Zürich Area, Switzerland

BAT Global Travel Retail (GTR) was a stand-alone company based in Zug, Switzerland that was the specialist “travel retail arm” of BAT. The company’s role was to supply the BAT brands to travel retail customers around the world and to drive global brand building for BAT’s core brands in airport retail as the main travel retail marketing channel.OgilvyAction (who became Geometry Global in 2013) was the “agency of record” for BAT in the travel retail channel. Its dedicated travel retail team was responsible for creating and implementing travel retail-specific brand propositions and campaigns across the world, across all BAT’s brands.The agency role of European Business Director (that later became Global Business Director) based at BAT in Switzerland was part of an innovative agency setup that started in 2008 with me in that role. Aiming to build the capability to create and deliver marketing programs in airports globally, while creating efficiencies, the agency organisation consisted in teams based in local offices in the key regions, which I lead as the Ops Director in Zug and key contact with BAT.The marketing challenge was to create a competitive marketing framework and physical & digital tools in order leverage the new opportunities of travel retail for BAT’s global brands, while at the same time creating and deploying brand campaigns and engaging brand experiences across several geographies to achieve very ambitious commercial results in the fast-growing travel retail channel.My team contributed substantially to the BAT marketing strategy development and delivered a massive scope of marketing projects over several years, achieved massive volume and share growth for BAT, while building a strong symbiotic relationship with BAT and delivering at the same time substantial revenue growth for the agency.

Zürich Area, Switzerland

Bucharest, Romania

In 2004 I joined Bates / 141, who on the Romanian market was a tandem of small but creative agencies (owned by WPP) whose future had been until shortly before very uncertain. The agency was reset by its move under the umbrella of the OgilvyGroup. The agencies were rebranded OgilvyOne (the digital & direct marketing arm of Ogilvy) and OgilvyAction (shopper and experiential marketing).My task was to bring strategy, creative and project delivery up to standards in order to stabilize the core clients (BAT, Carrefour, Seat), and at the same time build the new agency brands locally and develop the business, implementing and promoting the proprietary strategy and creative tools of OgilyOne and OgilvyAction.In partnership with the Ogilvy Group’s MD and Creative Director, I drove a successful transformation program of the 2 agencies through a multi-pronged approach:- Lead the creation and delivery of new marketing campaigns for the core clients.- Developed the existing team and introduced strong performance standards, and in parallel brought in specialist talent to substantiate the specialist offer of the agencies- Worked pro-actively with the global HQ to bring the agency strategic tools to life in the local market - Ran an aggressive PR program to build awareness of the agencies’ competencies - Lead the strategic and creative development of campaign proposals for new business clients, from 360 integrated campaigns to digitally-centric activation programs and B2B / technology enabled trade partners engagement programs.In 3 years the agencies grew over 300% in terms of revenue and staff with the addition of an impressive client roster as the agencies became the preferred supplier locally in the areas of digital / direct / shopper and trade marketing for Coca-Cola HBC / Beverage Partners (Nestea, Nescafe Xpress), Diageo, Heineken, Unilever (Dove and Axe / Lynks).

What created the need for the role was the recognition that Kraft Foods had to significantly improve the pace and success rate of new product development in established categories, while at the same time expand the business by launching locally new categories that they had expertise in globally or regionally.In my role I had a double responsibility. One part of the role consisted in bringing to life a new innovation framework together with regional experts and lead the development and research of new product concepts. The other task was to assess the market opportunity for new product categories (such as cream cheese and potato chips) and create business plans and recommendations (from market analysis to capital investment and P&L projections) for the launch of these categories.I lead concept development and new product concepts testing, using a rigorous and consistent methodology across confectionary and coffee, resulting in a transformative 5 year new product pipeline. In parallel, I drew the business plans and secured board approval for the launch of the Philadelphia cream cheese which in time became a new pillar for the company’s growth.

Bucharest, Romania

Sugar confectionery had been a traditional, high volume business before 2000 for Kraft Foods, but the category volume, the Kraft market share of it, and the profitability had declined in recent years. The market had become more competitive and sophisticated, related categories such as chewing gum and chocolate had taken a lead in terms of product innovation while sugar confectionery was now lagging behind.My main task as Senior Brand Manager was to stop the decline and put the sugar confectionery category back on a growth path. I achieved this in 2 years by launching an all-encompassing category overhaul program. Based on a deep dive journey in consumer / brand / category insights and leveraging the regional R&D capabilities, I created and got the company’s board support for a new category strategy that involved a new portfolio architecture, an ambitious new product development roadmap, new brand positioning for the Silvana and Sugus brands, and a new marketing mix from brand identity and packaging to retail expression and comms campaigns.To deploy the new category strategy I lead a team formed of R&D, Manufacturing, Brand and Trade Marketing and together we succeeded in reshaping the category and bringing back profitable volume growth.In the interim, I managed in parallel the short-term brand marketing activities for the category as a matter of continuity in order to maintain brand health indicators and deliver on volume/profit targets.

Bucharest, Romania

D’Arcy was by far the most sought-after and awarded advertising / integrated marketing agency in Romania in the late 1990’s – early 00’s. It’s where I had the privilege to learn the ropes in the advertising business, an agency that grew from 10 to over 100 staff in less than 5 years and offered tremendous challenges and growth opportunities. I supported and then lead campaigns across a broad spread of clients from food & beverages (Coke, Heineken, Danone, Kraft Foods), to telecom (Vodafone), personal care (Always, L’Oreal) and services (Kodak Express), in a variety of marketing channels with a focus on experiential, shopper marketing, events and promotions.I had a chance to take a lead on several successful marketing campaigns however a few stand out. Multi-channel consumer promotions for Kraft Foods involving live interventions within sponsored TV shows and POS activation, that ran for 4 years in a row. The launch of the L’Oreal make up line through a bespoke TV show in partnership with a major TV station, all based around a large scale live event for local influencers, with Claudia Schiffer in a lead role - driving national awareness practically overnight. In a very different category, I was in charge of setting up and leading for 3 years (with a network of over 100 ambassadors) a national educational program for Always that was one of the most effective experiential platform of P&G in terms of creating trial at the point of category entry.

Post Graduate Diploma, Digital Marketing, Distinction

Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Marketing

Professional Certificate In Management, General Management, Finance, Marketing

Professional Certificate in Management