Ramsay tells us about his typical day, the skills needed in his role, and which marketing he admires.

Please describe your job: What do you do?

I lead all of BT’s advertising and communications for UK Consumers, and also own our sales and churn performance for the four categories we operate in – broadband, mobile, pay TV and live sport. Our annual revenue is c.£5bn and my team directly influences around a third of that.

Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?

I am within the Consumer division of BT, which also includes EE and Plusnet. We own the relationship with all UK Consumers.

What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?

There are three that get used most days:

  1. Creative judgement – stepping outside of the marketing bubble and judging how the target consumer will react to a piece of communication is vital. It’s essential to actively decide when you’re being “sold” creative work, vs creative work that sells itself.
  2. Stakeholder management – lots of my work is very visible and of course somewhat subjective…
  3. People leadership – the most important one last – everything gets done by my team so 90% of office hours are spent leading and delivering through them.

dan ramsay

Tell us about a typical working day…

I am an early bird so will start work on the train around 06.45. At that time of the morning I’ll plan out what I need to do that day and typically try and tackle the biggest challenges whilst I have most energy.

I arrive at work around 08.00 and normally have back to back meetings 09.00-17.00. Lunch is bought on the way into the office so that I can graze on it throughout the day – it helps maintain my energy.

Once a week I will usually attend an industry event or agency dinner after work. Most days I’m in bed by 22.00 and will read for 20 minutes or so. On a Tuesday and Friday I always leave the office by 1700 to see my family, without fail.

What do you love about your job? What sucks?

I love almost all of it. I consider myself really lucky to have a job in such a fast paced industry and with such breadth… the purchase drivers for broadband are somewhat different to those for BT Sport! The bits that frustrate me include pushy sales people bombarding my inbox and unnecessary bureaucracy.

What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?

We have all the usual ones you’d expect from a large organisation, like ROMI/ cost per acquisition etc. But the one that matters most is of course NPS because without happy customers we can’t achieve our commercial goals.

What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?

I couldn’t live without my iPhone and AirPods. I’m pretty organised so the diary on the iPhone is managed to within an inch of its life.

Which companies do you admire for their approach to marketing?

I love my BA American Express card. Rationally it’s a piece of plastic and a bill each month, but emotionally it connects me to a world of flights and adventure by rewarding me with Avios. When BA were hacked a few months ago they emailed me to say “don’t worry, we’ve got it covered” – which was a small gesture but had a big impact on me.

Do you have any advice for organisations struggling with digital transformation?

Hire smart people that know how to do it and then get the hell out of their way. Seriously.

Looking to kickstart your marketing career? See our range of training courses.