There was a time when Eloi Casali had no love for branding. Now, the Kingfisher head of media tells Tim Healey how he demonstrates the unmistakable impact of brand marketing back to the budget holders at the B&Q, Screwfix and Tradepoint owner. Eloi Casali is head of media at DIY giant Kingfisher You’ve been brand manager, a search specialist and then rose through the ranks at Zenith from an account director to global strategy director before moving up through iProspect as a managing partner.
Next, you joined Kingfisher, where you’re now head of media. Please walk us through your journey to your current role. About 20 years ago, as I concluded my degree, my end-of-year dissertation was called ‘The Rise of Internet Advertising’ – because it wasn’t ‘a thing’ yet but Second Life (the early metaverse ) was seeing huge investment from brands like IBM.
The central point I was making in my dissertation back in the day, was that interaction under any guise or form, whether it be mental or physical, increases retention of the advertising message. After university, I started working in a very small search agency, where I saw what I had written in my dissertation come to life: people were clicking with immense intent on search results, and then buying a huge amount of products and services from our clients. That was a big moment for me: I really understood the business impact of advertising immediately.
As I continued my career at Publicis, new media channels like Faceboo.