Confused.com marketing boss Russell heads off to online estate agency Purplebricks

Online estate agency seems to be where the money is these days – hardly surprising with house prices at record levels in parts of the UK – and price comparison site Confused.com’s marketing boss Joby Russell (left) is off to join one of the main players, Purplebricks.com, as CMO. Under Russell Confused produced its ‘Brian the Robot’ campaign through Publicis.

Russell is already a non-executive director at Purplebricks. He takes over from John Kydd who is staying with the company.

Purplebricks CEO Michael Bruce says: “This is a perfect solution for us. James thrives in fast growth businesses and he has done a great job at Purplebricks so far – there are many areas of the business that we want to develop and he is well-suited to help us in those areas. Having Joby working with us full time will help us build on the success we have achieved so far and we are delighted to have persuaded him to join.”

Russell says: “I’ve had a brilliant time at Confused.com for the past six years, but having been a non-exec at Purplebricks over the last few months and seen the growth potential first hand, this was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down. I’m really excited about working for such a dynamic company that is fundamentally changing the way we sellor let properties in the UK.”