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March 2008 - Strategy Magazine
Marketer of the year

Overall winner: Geoff Craig
Beyond Dove

by Natalia Williams
page 38

Yes, the brand helped put him on the map. Now strategy's Marketer of the Year, Unilever's Geoff Craig, has his sights set on energizing marketing in Canada

Geoff Craig, Unilever Canada's VP/GM brand building, has had a remarkable 2007. He knows it, the awards prove it, and yet again the industry has acknowledged it with strategy's Overall Marketer of the Year title.

"I've never seen anything like it in my 25 years in the business," says Tony Chapman, president of Toronto-based Capital C, of Craig's colossal success. "It's a combination of good fortune, great brands and his leadership.

"Equally important is that he delivered the business results," adds Chapman, who has worked with Craig for three years on such Unilever brands as Sunsilk. "It's not just, 'I ran the Dove pony to death.'"

Yes, Dove. Post-"Evolution," the viral campaign that won everything from Cannes to Clios over the past year, Craig says he's quite aware of "Dove fatigue."

"The industry gets tired of a good story. I don't have Dove fatigue and, most importantly, consumers don't have Dove fatigue," he says, citing that in Canada Dove continues to grow. Craig wouldn't share specifics about recent year-end numbers, but offers: "We did grow share overall. Dove's was double digit."

He's also equally proud of the work and awards his other brands racked up in 2007. A recap: on the Axe brand, a website with a downloadable widget named MINDI by Toronto-based Dashboard won the Yahoo Cream of Venice award at the inaugural Venice Festival of Media, up against 34 finalists from 19 countries.

On Sunsilk there was the "Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out" viral, made for about $3,000, which was an unprecedented YouTube and PR success that attracted 2.8 million views in a few short months as well as coverage in top North American media. It also won a Canadian Grand Prix New Product Award in the Hair Care category from the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors.

And as part of the "Eat for Real" campaign for the repositioned Hellmann's brand, about 50 community vegetable gardens were set up in five Canadian cities to reinforce the brand's "natural" positioning and reach consumers in a unique way.

"I believe we can do it again," he says of his past year's achievements. "Call me an optimist."

That he is. In a conversation peppered with words like "remarkable," "possibilities," "belief," "courage" and "conviction," as well as constant praise of his team and agencies, Craig seems ready to build on past success.

His sense of the possibilities comes in part from crafting a vision with his marketing directors of what marketing at Unilever Canada could be back in 2006, and rolling it out in 2007. It's something he was perhaps poised to shepherd through after having eight different jobs in different departments since joining the company in 1992 - including HR, sales, operations, trade marketing and financing - before winding up in marketing as head of home and personal care. That varied experience has allowed him to have "better conversations" and encourage "better outcomes," he says, as well as inform his goal: "To become Canada's fastest growing CPG," and do it all with meaningful work.

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