Executive Head: Brand and Marketing

Purpose of the role

The Executive Head: Brand & Marketing is responsible for shaping and driving Santam’s enterprise-wide marketing, brand, and customer strategy to support sustainable growth, competitive differentiation, and market leadership.
This role blends commercial acumen, brand leadership, customer insight, and digital innovation across personal, commercial, specialist, agriculture and partnership segments in short-term insurance

Key Accountabilities

1. Enterprise Marketing & Brand Strategy:
•    Define and execute the integrated marketing and brand strategy aligned to Santam’s growth ambitions and channel strategy
•    Build a distinctive, trusted, and customer-centric brand across all markets and geographies
•    Ensure consistent brand positioning across Santam, MiWay, and specialist businesses in line with the group strategy and operating model
2. Customer & Market Insight: 
•    Lead customer segmentation, insights, and analytics to inform business strategy
•    Drive a deep understanding of evolving customer needs, behaviours, and market trends
•    Translate insights into actionable strategies that improve acquisition, retention, and lifetime value
3. Commercial Growth & Distribution Enablement:
•    Partner with business units (Broker, Client, Partner Solutions, Direct) to: 
o    Strengthen value propositions
o    Enable cross-sell and up-sell opportunities
o    Enhance partner ecosystem positioning (B2B2C focus)
•    Drive measurable marketing ROI linked to revenue and growth outcomes
4. Digital & Data-Driven Marketing:
•    Lead digital transformation across marketing, including: Performance marketing; Martech stack optimisation; Personalisation and customer journeys
•    Leverage data and AI to improve targeting, engagement, and conversion
5. Customer Experience & Brand Experience:
•    Partner with Client Experience and business teams to deliver seamless, consistent customer journeys
•    Ensure brand promise is translated into tangible customer experiences
6. Leadership & Capability Building:
•    Build and lead a high-performing, future-fit marketing and brand function
•    Drive capability in: Digital marketing; Data and insights; Commercial marketing
•    Foster a culture aligned to Santam values and Leadership manifesto (Live, Lead, Serve)

Key Measures of Success

•    Brand strength, experience and reputation metrics (NPS, awareness, trust) 
•    Brand experience across every colleague touchpoint (eNPS)
•    Drive a growth and customer obsession through shared capability marketing engine
•    Customer growth, retention, and share of wallet
•    Marketing ROI and contribution to revenue growth
•    Digital performance (conversion rates, engagement, cost per acquisition)
•    A world class marketing capability driving Partner/channel growth and effectiveness 

Qualifications and Experience

• Relevant postgraduate qualification (MBA advantageous)
• 15+ years’ experience in senior marketing leadership roles as well as managing a group marketing function
• Proven track record in: Complex, multi-channel organisations; Financial services / insurance (or related industry); Driving commercial outcomes through marketing
• Strong experience in digital, data analytics, and customer-led strategy

Key Competencies & Skills

•    Strategic leadership – shapes enterprise-wide direction
•    Commercial acumen – links marketing to revenue and growth
•    Customer centricity – deep understanding of client needs
•    Influence & stakeholder management – operates at Exco level
•    Innovation and Growth mindset – embraces digital and new ways of working
•    Execution excellence – delivers measurable impact 
•    Collaboration – drives performance in collaboration with Santam and Sanlam group of companies
•    Strategic Marketing & Brand Leadership - Proven capability to build, lead, and continuously evolve a high-performing, future-fit marketing and brand function aligned to business strategy and market shifts.