Career Spotlight with Mark Evans of Direct Line

We were delighted to welcome Mark Evans, Managing Director of Marketing and Digital, Direct Line Group, for a chat recently at the Digital Marketing Institute.

In June 2018 Mark was voted UK Marketing Leader of the Year due to his impressive work at Direct Line insurance and his "pinsharp focus on customer experience".

In this interview with Cathal Melinn of Digital Marketing Institute Mark discusses the path that brought him to this point in his career. He began with a degree in Economics and never expected to end up in marketing. With a strong background in rugby, he hs used many elements from that to guide his pofessional life, a key maxim being:

Spot the gap... go for it... take the right people with you.

When asked what advice he would give to his younger self, he tells a compelling story of the guidance given by his best friend's father on the night of their graduation (at a Nottingham curry house) 20 years ago: aim to achieve significance, not simply success.  

He is encouraged by the state of marketing at the moment, that the Brand has become everything and the customer experience is seen as being key. As he sees it, most companies now see that "the things that are realy easy for customers are also cheaper for the company".

He talks about the importance of side projects and how they can give you perspective in your main career: in his case he works with cancer research fundraising and neurodiversity. 

Mark is also a member of the Digital Marketing Institute's Global Industry Advisory Council (GIAC).

Listen to the Audio Version:

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