Consumer Engagement Manager/Events Director
Sun & Sand Sports
Total years of experience :27 years, 6 Months
As Head of Events for the GMG Group, led the event team (direct reports of five with 13 indirect reports) to deliver event success aligning with the biggest brand and sporting moments.
By deploying various efficiency strategies, she saved the business over AED3million during her tenure.
Developed Events Processes and Procedures to govern the service level delivery of both staff and agencies.
Negotiated strategic partnerships to elevate brand awareness and assist in ongoing content development.
Under her guidance her team delivered multiple award-winning campaigns and ensured that SSS became the leading sports destination brand in the GCC.
Notable Projects: 2017 Back to School “School’s Got Talent” (4800 participants) totalling over 1 million views on Youtube; Sun & Sand Fitness Challenge (15k participants); The North Face Rock Run (1300 Trail Runners record number of participants for UAE) that featured a 5k, 10k and 21k route through the mountains of Ras Al Khaimah; Sun & Sand Sports Conquer the Game (1200 participants) GCC’s biggest 1-day football tournament.
Key Accounts: Sun & Sand Sports; Timberland; The North Face; Columbia; Vans; Adidas; Super Care
Hogarth is a post-production agency and Lynette was appointed to lead the Account Management Team of nine direct reports and five indirect reports during the establishment phase of the Dubai Office for the Group.
Established operational processes that streamlined workflows to increase productivity and efficiency.
Led integrated client and AM teams to deliver campaign assets for multiple (on average 600 assets per client) to multiple GCC regions simultaneously.
Trained and developed Client Services team to optimise profitability and “farm” additional work from clients.
Implemented Organisation Talent Planning processes to ensure employee growth and reduce staff churn.
Redirecting work to offshore offices (ie. South Africa and India) to ensure better efficiencies and profitability on accounts where work was not as time sensitive and assisted in achieving aggressive business growth.
Audited individual timesheets to establish account management health. Worked closely with staff to implement training and rehabilitation measures to improve areas of weakness.
Preparing pitch documents and calculating scope of works to develop appropriate rate cards (together with the commercial director in London) for all new business pitches.
Key Accounts: Nike; HSBC; Emirates Airlines; Microsoft; Apple; JWT
Project managed the delivery of the Nike Football Stadium - a project she pitched while at Ogilvy.
Instead of minor refurbishments the Global design team redesigned the facility, which meant that Lynette had to demolish and rebuild within 122 days during a period where Soweto had seen its worst rainfall in 50 Years.
Delivered all the events & programming at the facility including launching the facility with Arsene Wenger; Nike City Cup Football Tournament that ran daily for the duration of world Cup; VIP Visits and press events that included Kobe Bryant; etc.
• Ongoing facilities management (with a team of 5 direct reports) - implemented costs saving / environmental programmes and launched an Event Rental Strategy ensuring that the facility was self-sustaining.
Created dynamic and innovative engagement strategies to support of the integrated marketing plans. These included three mass participation running events (collectively totaling 40k runners).
Negotiated a strategic partnership with City of Johannesburg ensuring access to service delivery and venues.
She also spearheaded The Chance Competition that saw one player reach international professional league and five that were recruited directly through this competition to the local professional league.
Lynette managed all VIP appearance that included Man City Players, Didier Drogba, Man United, etc.
While at Nike Lynette managed multi-level partnerships to maximize brand impact and deliver strong activations across all sports categories.
Headhunted for her football experience, Lynette was appointed to the Nike Football Account.
The key challenge that the agency was facing was creating insight driven campaigns based on authentic football reality and meeting the key turn-around times for the retail executions. Lynette revolutionized the way that Ogilvy handled the Nike Retail business:
- Driving insight sessions to connect with consumers and understand their life and struggles in townships.
- Re-formulating the way the agency managed global adaptation campaigns.
• Identified and brokered the sponsorship deal with the Soweto Football Association that provided access to the venue where the Nike football Training Centre was built and secured direct access to bullseye consumers.
Led the Manchester United Pre-Season tour and developed and executed the Clubs appearances on Nike’s behalf across the country, meeting directly with the club management (including Sir Alex Ferguson) on multiple occasions for final approval.
Pioneered the country’s very first Election TVC that contributed to the re-successful election of the then President Zuma (whose ratings had slipped and was projected to not make a second term).
Zanusi had just recently won the Airport Company of South Africa Account and was tasked to uplift the nine airports across the country from a navigational and branding point of view which included the company CI.
Lynette created a library of footage of all airports and filmed all the work as it was rolled out.
Key Accounts: Airports Company South Africa
Seeking to expand her experience to ATL Lynette moved to Y&R on short-term project to bring to market the 45th Year Birthday Celebration Campaign (a multi-channel campaign that included a full refresh of the entire Brand Corporate Identity) for the leading FMCG group Pick ‘n Pay.
Key Accounts: Pick ‘n Pay - Pick ‘n Pay 40th Year Campaign
Spent the 11 years working her way through the agency, learning the ropes in every department, by the time she left she was an account director with 16 accounts under her charge as an AD.
With her intimate knowledge of football, she built strong relationships with key stakeholders in the football industry and became a reputable marketer within professional football community developing.
In 2004 Lynette won her first Gold Loerie in the category of “Strategic and Integrated: New Marketing Entrant Program” for the development and rollout of the Amakhosi - Kaizer Chiefs Football Club Supporters Programme
Key Accounts: Nestlé; Kimberly-Clark Professional; Hollard; The Rewards Company; Mini; Gensec Bank; First National Bank; Nissan; BMW; Kaizer Chiefs Football Club; MTN; Kaizer Chiefs Financial Services; Caesars Palace; PPS; Pickfords; Capital Alliance Life