Domino’s merges digital and marketing teams

Domino’s is bringing its digital team under the remit of marketing for the first time as it looks to “support increased digital investment” and drive growth.

The newly-merged marketing, digital and communications team will be headed up by CMO Sarah Barron who joins from her role as chief growth officer at Costa Coffee.

Domino’s had a strong 2020 helped by the rise in people staying at home, with delivery orders up 11.8% in Q3 and like-for-like sales jumping 17.5% in the UK and Ireland.

It says the various lockdowns last year accelerated its transformation to a digital business in terms of how it operates and communicates with customers, and how customers interact with the brand.

Domino’s is not the first brand to see the benefit of bringing digital and marketing teams together. Direct Line Group merged its digital and marketing teams in 2019, promoting the brand’s then marketing director Mark Evans to a new role of managing director of marketing and digital as part of its ambition to drive digital transformation.

Barron will report directly to Domino’s CEO Dominic Paul who describes the integration of its digital and marketing teams as “an important step” in the future development of the brand.

Barron joined Costa in 2016 as CMO before taking on the role to lead its global marketing and growth team in 2019. This saw her oversee brand, product innovation, digital, insight and key commercial categories.

Prior to this she spent more than a decade at Cadbury with roles including global brand and innovation director, before becoming managing director of Green & Blacks. She began her career as a brand manager at Boots.

She takes over from Simon Wallis, Domino’s former sales and marketing director and current international managing director, who has been acting CMO. He is due to take on a new role as chief transformation officer on 1 February.

Domino’s hired its first CMO in August 2019, expanding the then role to include sales, marketing, product development and innovation.

The brand brought in former McDonald’s marketer Emily Somers to take on the position. She left last March, however, after less than a year to continue with the growth of her own marketing and communications consultancy.

Barron says: “I see huge opportunity to further increase brand love among customers for Domino’s by building on the great work already achieved by the team. I’ve always been an admirer of the brand and am really looking forward to helping push it forward to achieve even greater heights.”