Marketing seems to have taken another powder at Coca-Cola as senior VP of strategic marketing Ivan Pollard is leaving, hard on the heels of global CMO Marcos de Quinto who lost his job in March when new Coke CEO James Quincy abolished the posh in a reorganisation. Francisco Crespo became chief growth officer.
Pollard (left), a former partner at clever media agency Naked, joined Coke in 2011 to boost, among other things, its digital and social efforts.
There’s been a trend recently of culling CMOs and other high-level denizens of the marketing department in favour of multi-tasking execs charged with growth.
In part this seems to be a belated recognition that much modern marketing and its associated heavy media spend – a lot of which is on digital and social – has been a waste of money. Its proponents seem to be paying the price.
Coke says: “We’re grateful to Ivan for his significant contributions to our global and North America marketing organizations in his six-year career with the company. Under Ivan’s guidance, we have successfully reinvented our media buying and connections model, enhanced our digital and social media capabilities, and grown our arsenal of sports and entertainment marketing assets.”
It will be interesting to see where Pollard, a Brit, goes next. Former colleagues Jon Wilkins and Will Collin are now ensconced at Karmarama, now owned by Accenture Interactive.
