WFA creates three new groups to address key marketer priorities

WFA has created three new forums where global and regional marketers can share knowledge and experience around key areas of increasing concern for WFA members: marketing capabilities, agency management and in-housing.

Each forum will be headed by a senior global marketer:

• The Agency Management Forum will be headed up by Tammy Hourigan, Global Agency Relations Director at Unilever; and
• The In-house Forum will be led by Tracy Stallard, Global VP, Experiential & In House Agency (draftLine) at AB InBev.
• The Marketing Capability Forum will be chaired by Becky Verano, Global Director of Marketing Operations and Capabilities at Reckitt;

From left to right: Tammy Hourigan, Unilever, Tracy Stallard, AB InBev, Becky Verano, Reckitt

“We’re delighted that three such senior marketers have stepped up to expand our range of specialist groups addressing major challenges that many regional and global companies can struggle with. In bringing our best-in-class peer-to-peer learning environments to these increasingly critical areas, we hope to equip our members with the knowledge they need to tackle their individual challenges,” said Stephan Loerke, CEO of WFA.

WFA Forums bring together experts from across WFA’s global membership to exchange best practice on common topics. Value is delivered through research and reports, peer-to-peer meetings and online tools and benchmarking services aiming to provide clarity and guidance in an ever increasingly complex environment.

Upcoming meetings for the three new groups include an Agency Management Forum session on 14 September on pitching, an In-House Forum session in September on capabilities and skillsets and a Marketing Capability Forum meeting on 20 October to discuss measurement.

“Recent tumultuous events have highlighted areas where brands need greater skills, notably around purpose and D&I as well as the digital ecosystem and particularly ecommerce. The Marketing Capability Forum will look to share learnings around how you drive the data driven marketing agenda and enable a marketing culture for embracing diversity and inclusion as well as measuring the performance of engaging capability building programmes”, said Becky Verano, Global Director of Marketing Operations and Capabilities at Reckitt.

“Agency management is critical for any advertiser focused on creating the optimal conditions for creativity. Accelerated by the pandemic, many advertisers are evolving the role of their agency partners to drive inclusion and better connect their brands with culture and communities. In the coming months, the work of the Agency Management Forum will be focused on sharing knowledge around the transformation of agency roster models, pitching and integrated briefing to drive best practice”, said Tammy Hourigan, Global Agency Relations Director at Unilever.

“In-housing has become a major part of the marketing organization model, so moving forward we’ll be prioritizing agile ways of working, internal structures and how brands measure performance and success in what is a rapidly growing areas for many brands,” said Tracy Stallard, Global VP, Experiential & In House Agency (draftLine) at AB InBev.