BBC appoints Chief Customer Officer
March 13, 2018
In a move designed to ensure better audience engagement, the BBC has confirmed that Kerris Bright, currently Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media, will take up the new role of Chief Customer Officer. The role will take responsibility for developing a closer, more personal relationship with BBC consumers, licence fee payers and those signing in to BBC services.
The BBC’s existing Marketing and Audiences team and Licence Fee Unit will report into this new role and form a new customer relationship management function.
“This appointment will allow us to better understand and engage with our audiences across all our platforms,” commented Anne Bulford, Deputy Director-General. “Kerris brings a wealth of experience to this role as we look to build on the progress we’ve made towards a more personalised BBC. She has worked at some of the biggest names in UK industry and will help deliver a step-change in our relationship with our audience.”
“Across the BBC, we’re working hard to reinvent the organisation for a new generation,” added Tony Hall, Director-General. “Making sure the BBC of the future is uniquely tailored to everyone, and available when and where audiences want it – will be critical to our success. We’re making good progress with over 12 million people already signed in use the BBC iPlayer, but I want us to step up our efforts on personalisation in the months ahead. Kerris’s appointment will help us be even more ambitious in this area.”
“I’m thrilled to be joining one of the world’s greatest brands at a time when competition for the attention of our audience has never been more challenging and multi-dimensional,” declared Bright. “The opportunity to play a role in creating the next chapter of the BBC’s story was irresistible. In pursuing this goal, I have one very simple governing idea: putting the customer at the heart of what we do will be central to the BBC’s long-term vitality and success.”
Prior to working at Virgin Media, Bright held senior marketing positions at British Airways, ICI Paints and Unilever. The role will report into Bulford and Bright will sit on the BBC Executive Committee. Bright will take up her role in the Summer.