Conny Braams, Chief Digital and Marketing Officer of Unilever, has been named WFA Global Marketer of the Year 2021. She was awarded this honour following a combined vote from an expert jury and the industry at large including WFA members, with each accounting for a half of the final score.
Global Marketer of the Year 2021
Global Marketer of the Year 2021
Conny Braams, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, Unilever
“It was an honour to be included amongst a line up of heavy weights in the WFA’s Global Marketer of the Year shortlist, and it’s a fantastic acknowledgement to win! Of course, this award is not about me, it recognises the outstanding marketing community at Unilever who grow our brands, powered by purpose, innovation and creativity. Thank you.”
Our shortlist
After attentively considering all the eligible names as part of the shortlisting process, our expert jury helped select the following seven marketers for the final voting round:
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Andrea Álvares Andrea Chief Brand, Innovation, International and Sustainability Officer, NaturaAndrea has helped empower the company’s consultants’ network, providing representatives with new digital tools, extending payment terms and supporting them during the pandemic. She has also played a strong role in helping Natura drive up its innovation index, which has risen nearly 10 percentage points in the last two years.
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Conny Braams Conny Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, UnileverConny is Unilever’s first-ever Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, leading the company’s end-to-end digital transformation and identifying new opportunities for growth. She believes brands have a responsibility to make sustainable behaviours easy and every day.
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Rupen Desai Rupen Global CMO, Dole Sunshine CompanyRupen has developed a new business model for Dole – driven by a clear purpose that good nutrition is a human right – that is delivering sustainable growth. He has worked with Piñatex to turn pineapple leaves into vegan leather, resulting in a new series of Nike shoes, and helped set up the Sunshine for All Fund, which allows start-ups to evaluate and test new technology within the business.
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Cristina Diezhandino Cristina Chief Marketing Officer, DiageoCristina has re-imagined how the company’s 1,200-strong marketing team works. She and her team have introduced quarterly plans and small challenge teams to address specific short-term problems. During the pandemic she focused on enabling consumers to recreate that bar feeling at home, growing the ecommerce business, while also supporting bars and bar staff.
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Julia Goldin Julia EVP, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, LEGO GroupJulia’s remit covers product development, licensing and partnerships as well as marketing, research and the company’s in-house creative agency. During the pandemic she and her team devised the #letsbuildtogether campaign to support isolated children and their parents in just two weeks.
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Pratik Thakar Pratik Head of Global Creative Strategy and Content, Coca-Cola, The Coca-Cola CompanyPratik has led structural changes that have allowed Coca-Cola’s marketing teams and agency partners to collaborate even more closely during the pandemic. He has created new merchandising partnerships and launched the company’s game-themed “One Coke Away from Each Other” campaign.
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Jane Wakely Jane Lead CMO, Mars, Inc.Jane is driving the transformation of Mars’ marketing function, delivering a new mandate – building brands for mutual value – to create a roadmap for sustainable growth. Recent campaigns include Sheba’s Hope Reef product, where the brand partnered with National Geographic to help regrow coral at the site in Indonesia.
Meet the nominees
Celebrating great marketers making a real difference
Senior global and regional marketers can have a huge impact in multiple ways.
Whether it’s creating effective purpose-driven campaigns, restructuring the way their internal and external teams work together or playing an industry leadership role, for example around furthering the Diversity & Inclusion agenda, great marketers make a real difference.
Since 2017, the WFA Global Marketer of the Year Award has been seeking to identify the person in a global or regional role who has, over the last 12 months, made the most impact on their company, our industry and the reputation of marketing among consumers.
In 2022, the Global Marketer of the Year Award went to Cristina Diezhandino, Chief Marketing Officer of Diageo.
Our Jury
Our 2021 jury represents a hugely experienced team of marketers, consultants and industry experts.
Chaired by Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, it includes a wide range of sector and regional expertise, making it perfectly equipped to identify those who are making the biggest impact on the increasingly global marketing business.
Atul Agrawal Atul Senior Vice President - Corporate Brand and Marketing, Tata
Mary Gerzema Mary SVP Digital Marketing - Media and Consumer Insights, Shiseido
Susanne Kunz Susanne Managing Director, German Advertisers Association (OWM)
Stephan Loerke Stephan Chief Executive Officer, WFAStephan manages the WFA secretariat, oversees all work carried out on behalf of its members and is the WFA’s main spokesperson. He sits on all WFA public affairs and marketing committees, as well as on the WFA Executive Committee.
Prior to joining WFA, Stephan worked at the United Nations in New York and later in both marketing and management roles at L'Oréal. Combining French and German nationalities, Stephan speaks French, German, English, Dutch and Spanish.
Charlotte McEleny Charlotte Asia Editor, The Drum
Elizabeth Melo Elizabeth Executive President, Colombian National Advertisers Association (ANDA)
Kadri Mohamed Taib Kadri President, Malaysian Advertisers Association (MAA)
Debbie Morrison Debbie Managing Director Global Partnerships & Events, Ebiquity
Eloísa Moscardó Eloísa Head of Corporate Advertising and Content, Santander Group
Edward Oswe Edward Chief Executive Officer, Marketing Society of Kenya (MSK)
Lucinda Peniston-Baines Lucinda Co-founder & Managing Partner, The Observatory International
Raja Rajamannar Raja WFA President and Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and President Healthcare, MastercardRaja is responsible for building the Mastercard brand, driving business for its products and services and advancing sustainable competitive differentiation for the company. Raja comes to Mastercard with a history of innovation and business transformation. Before joining the company, he served as the Chief Transformation Officer of Anthem (formerly, WellPoint), a Fortune 500 health insurance company. Earlier, he was at Citigroup for 15 years holding a number of leadership roles, including Global Chief Marketing Officer, Cards and Payments, and before that he spent 7 years with Unilever in sales and product management roles. He started his career with Asian Paints in India.
Magid Souhami Magid President & Partner, Global Data Bank
Jonathan Turner Jonathan Chairman, OxfordSM
Amanda Woo Amanda CEO, AirAsia Super App
Award timeline
Call for nominations
24 August '23 - 11 October '23
Call for votes
4 December '23 - 14 January '24
Winner announced
Late January '24
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