Q&A: Industry newcomer Dominic Grounsell on making an early impact at Ladbrokes Coral

Marketing veteran Dominic Grounsell joined GVC as CMO of UK sports brands in April 2019 as part of a marketing reshuffle that saw Ladbrokes Coral close its Tel Aviv office.

Fast-forward five months and Grounsell has already switched roles at the London-listed operator, taking over as managing director of GVC’s UK sports brands.

Based in Gibraltar, Grounsell wasted no time shaking things up. He oversaw the restructuring of the sports brands leadership team for Ladbrokes Coral in Gibraltar, resulting in the departure of marketing director Alexis Zamboglou. Grounsell also created a new brand marketing function within the group and decided to switch the marketing promotions team to the sportsbook department.

Below, Grounsell talks to EGR Marketing about finding a new advertising agency for Ladbrokes Coral and keeping the brand proposition separate for the two UK bookmakers.

EGR Marketing: How have you found working in the industry so far?

Dominic Grounsell (DG): As an industry, it’s incredibly exciting. The pace and the volume of activity that we’re doing as a business and the properties we get to work with in terms of sports and gaming – it’s really refreshing to work in a category with this much dynamism having previously worked in retail financial services, which is very intellectually stimulating, but definitely slower. This is more fast paced and fun.

EGR Marketing: When you started you were obviously appointed CMO of Ladbrokes Coral but then your role changed very quickly within the group. How did that happen?

DG: I was initially recruited to be CMO across Ladbrokes Coral digital and retail, which was a new role we created to really maximise the opportunity across channels. That was the role I was going to do initially, and there was always a succession plan for me to move into Mark Kemp’s role. As it happened, due to the changes that we’ve had here in terms of Andy Hornby departing, and then Mark departing, there was an opportunity for me to succeed in that role more quickly so I just grabbed the opportunity when I could.

EGR Marketing: Did you have time to put your imprint on the business in your spell as CMO during a five-month period?

DG: I was obviously on a very steep learning curve for the first several months and trying to get to grips with a business in this category. But there have certainly been some steps forward in relation to marketing strategy in terms of how we think about integration across retail and digital and also in terms of team structure and capabilities. So, we’ve definitely made steps forward and even in the MD role, there is still a lot of opportunity to drive a new way of working in marketing because for all intents and purposes within the GVC structure, the local businesses are very much marketing-orientated organisations. So, it’s very much still in my sweet spot, despite the fact that it’s a general management position.

EGR Marketing: One of the things you did was to create a new brand marketing function within the group. Why did you think that was necessary?

DG: The business has got two fantastic brands in the UK, so it’s really important we have the right brand marketing strategies and capabilities to ensure we can use our brands to create competitive advantage. We had a very effective and efficient marketing function in place when I joined but it felt to me like creating a clear delineation of responsibilities between the brand marketing world and the performance marketing world would allow us to manage the focus of the wider business more effectively. So far, it’s definitely doing that and we are seeing a lot of benefits from the guys really being able to drill down on key areas of specialism.

EGR Marketing: So, was brand marketing and performance marketing interlinked before?

DG: To some degree, and there was a marketing function that was overseeing the broader strategy in the budget allocation and thinking about propositions and messaging. That bled into performance marketing which was managed by our Tel Aviv office. We have obviously changed that where we have brand marketing and increasingly performance marketing here in Gibraltar separate in terms of team responsibilities, but integrated in terms of creating an overarching marketing plan for both Ladbrokes and Coral independently.

EGR Marketing: Is it those changes that have seen Dominic Chambers join the business? How is he getting on?

DG: Yes, Dominic Chambers joined us as interim marketing director in September. He’s done a fantastic job, even in the ratio of time he’s been here. He has a wealth of experience in marketing from a wide variety of blue-chip brands, both local and global. That very quick injection of expertise and experience has been massively valuable for me and to the team. You can see that in the way that they’re working, but also in the pace we’re driving some activity. It was recently reported that we’ve moved quickly to do a new agency pitch for both our brands on the creative side, and Dominic is very much spearheading that agenda.

EGR Marketing: What are his key responsibilities, as well as looking for new creative agencies?

DG: As brand marketing director, Dominic’s responsibilities are focused on brand strategy as it relates not just to marketing, but how the brands are articulated across all customers touchpoints. He also has accountability for every channel within the brand marketing mix, including advertising, media and content marketing. Basically, all the things that are top of funnel and about engaging customers in our brands and our propositions in order to create appeal.

EGR Marketing: Is Dominic only at the business on an interim basis? Are you still looking for a permanent successor?

DG: He’s in the business for the foreseeable future. We are looking for a permanent replacement for him and I expect to be able to make an announcement on that in the coming weeks.

EGR Marketing: You have chosen to move the promotions team into the sportsbook department. Is that something you decided to implement yourself or is that how Kenny Alexander likes GVC brands to operate?

DG: It’s not necessarily been a GVC initiative. We are a GVC business and are getting much closer to GVC as an organisation, which is bringing a whole range of fantastic benefits for us. But the opportunity really was to focus in on the commercial performance much more deeply by moving that responsibility into the sportsbook. It really replicates what we’ve seen before, what we do in the gaming part of Ladbrokes Coral already and have done for a long period of time. Promotions and promotional cost management sits within the commercial team, as it does in most of the businesses I’ve worked in. In every category I’ve worked, responsibility for promotional management as it relates to bonus investment always sits in the commercial function, because it’s a very nuanced task that needs to be very tightly managed given the volatility of the consumer market due to player behaviour.

EGR Marketing: How often do you speak to Kenny Alexander? Andy Hornby managed much of the Ladbrokes Coral business in Gibraltar, is that the remit you have taken over?

DG: Within the context of the structure that we have now within GVC, Adam Lewis runs GVC Digital for Kenny, and is responsible for all of the digitally-orientated businesses globally. He’s my direct line manager and the person that I work most closely with on how we drive the business forward, and then Kenny is obviously involved as the CEO of the organisation.

One of the best things we’ve seen through this change in leadership management is our ability to integrate more into the GVC structure and get all the benefits of being part of GVC, which is obviously a hugely successful and very dynamic organisation. There’s a lot that we can take from that here in Ladbrokes Coral. Particularly given the pace and the challenges in the UK market, being able to learn from what GVC is doing around the world and apply this to our business is massively useful.

EGR Marketing: Are you looking to significantly change the tone of Ladbrokes Coral’s advertising?

DG: It’s hard to say whether there will be a massive shift to be honest. I think that question will play out through the lens of the pitch. You usually ask the agency for fresh eyes on the problem. But also looking forward into next year’s plan, we have an opportunity to move in a different direction if we choose to, or not. The key thing is making sure that we find a sustainable brand and creative strategy that can drive fully across the business, and ensure that the customers have a consistent positive experience of both Ladbrokes and Coral, regardless of whether they interact with us. This isn’t just about how we create new TV ads, this is about a fundamental piece of work to decide how we want to approach the customer in order to stand out in the marketplace, which is very cluttered and very noisy. We are in a world where we are surrounded by a large number of very big, well-funded brands.

EGR Marketing: Is this part of a wider industry shift towards brand-led advertising to try and combat the negative perception of gambling advertising?

DG: My personal view is that the category has become white noise to the consumer. I think we have all regressed to a world where we’re trying to shout odds at people, and that doesn’t help the customer understand our products and our services, and certainly doesn’t speak to the positive experience that a lot of our players can have with our brands. For me, there is a real opportunity for brands to start talking to customers about how they think and what they believe in, not just what they’re selling. Part of that is really starting to get serious about how we think about helping the customers navigate the category responsibly and safely. The responsible gambling aspect of both brands will be very important as we move forward because we absolutely want to lead in this space and I think there’s an opportunity for brands to adopt the more responsible approach to the messages and tone that they put out.

EGR Marketing: Ladbrokes and Coral are two well established UK betting brands. How do you market them differently? Is Coral for horseracing bettors and Ladbrokes for acca-backers?

DG: We’ve definitely sought to take a position. I think where we go in the future is still something that we’re working through. But clearly, we want to create daylight between the brands and the proposition that we market to customers. It’s not really about the advertising. It’s about the full suite of messages, products, services that we provide to give the customers an experience that works for them. That means they can understand not just what they’re going to get but see value in it.