John Broome is to exit Unilever, just over a year after joining as chief marketing officer. His departure follows a trend within the global Unilever business to axe the CMO role in local markets.
AdNews understands it has been restructuring in this way globally for the last 18 months despite the fact that locally, the opposite occured.
Broome, who was formerly CMO of Kellogg, joined 13 months ago when Unilever Australia restructured the senior marketing leadership which previously had two marketing director positions. The two roles, held by Andrea Martens and Hugo Verkuil, were combined into the one CMO role.
It's understood that Unilever now has marketing heads in each of its three business units; ice cream, personal care and food.
The shift is symptomatic of the cost pressures FMCG companies are facing and the focus on trade marketing spend delivered through the supermarkets rather than on consumer facing marketing campaigns.
It also plays into the globalisation trend. The local marketing team is around 30 people responsible for executing global campaigns as well as localised activity.
Broome, who has 25 years of experience leading global brands, is likely to look towards a role outside of FMCG.
A Unilever spokesperson says: "We would like to thank John for his contribution to Unilever in Australia and New Zealand and we wish him all the very best.”
Last year Unilever moved its $59m media account to PHD out of Mindshare.
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