Samantha Stroud- B2B marketing manager, EOn

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Samantha Stroud was seven when she attended her first football match with her father and three brothers. Many a weekend was spent kicking the ball around in the garden; every Leicester City game was reverently monitored, and keeping up with her brothers’ abilities to do ‘keepie-uppies’ was a great challenge for young Sam.

This upbringing is one of several reasons the sponsorship of the FA Cup by EOn – the company where she has been B2B marketing manager since December 2006 – resonates deeply with her.

“To get involved with football at such an early age did really set me up to understand the FA Cup and what it meant to people,” says Stroud, a gregarious, alert woman with a boisterous halo of auburn curls.

“We have this huge experiential opportunity for people to experience the magic of the [event],” she says of the power of the sponsorship.

Stroud’s current remit includes businesses of all sizes – from large corporations like Corus to the smallest of manufacturer SMEs, for example.

She has been with EOn since 2001 in a variety of marketing roles – originally within the retail department, then the SME unit, finally settling in B2B in 2005.

The forty-one-year-old describes herself as an accidental marketer, and had previously considered being a policewoman or a teacher.

In 1991 she joined Boots in a temporary position, but one of her superiors quickly noticed her aptitude for marketing, and guided her in the right direction. She hasn’t looked back since.

 

It’s the challenges presented by the complex energy industry that keep her stimulated and passionate about her work, she says.

“B2B is really exciting,” Stroud enthuses. “It’s so unique and different.” One challenge, she explains, is catering for the different roles that energy can play for different businesses. For some, she says, energy is very important, although others ‘couldn’t give two hoots’.

Her marketing approach has to take into consideration things like what kind of business they’re in and what their energy spend is, she explains.

She favours an integrated approach, but tailors this depending on which sector she’s targeting.

“You can’t say what marketing tools you’re going to employ until you sit down and look at who you’re going to speak to,” says Stroud, emphasising the importance of understanding your target audience. “In my job, every day is a school day,” she says, “I learn something new all the time.”

For SMEs she has found broadcast advertising incredibly successful, and also utilises such tried-and-trusted techniques as direct mail and event marketing.

When you get to the larger end, she says, it becomes completely different. “While you can employ some of the traditional marketing methods, it really comes down to personal relationships,” says Stroud.

To exploit this, she provides a variety of support material to the sales team in order for them to forge strong relationships with key clients, but the majority of activity revolves around hospitality.

 

The FA Cup features as a cornerstone of the strategy, not only for the larger end, but for SMEs too.

“It’s a great opportunity to have a dialogue with SMEs,” she says. “In terms of corporate customers, that is very much about hospitality. Key account managers will host them, and make sure they’re able to talk about their energy requirements in a really comfortable environment. It helps us cement those relationships in a much better way.”

The sponsorship of the FA Cup came about three years ago as a means to publicise EOn’s brand transition to a single brand identity. This was especially important for SMEs, which had been trading with EOn under the Powergen brand.

“It was really used for familiarity, to take customers down the brand funnel,” explains Stroud. Nowdays though, the sponsorship functions primarily as a hospitality tool.

EOn leverages the event not only to bond with its own clients, but many business customers use the event to wine and dine customers of their own, something that wins the brand favour.

The sponsorship itself goes far beyond mere branding, assures Stroud.

“We give people an opportunity to have an experience with the FA Cup,” she says. “It’s pretty phenomenal from an emotional experience,” she adds. “It also helps our customers to feel as though they’re part of the sponsorship… they get to touch it.”

 

Carbon costs and consequences have remained close to EOn’s heart, and the ever-changing government legislation is a key point of communication with the businesses, Stroud explains. This will be best leveraged, she suggests, when the recession comes to an end.

“After the recession, people are going to be looking at whether you are a responsible business and how you’re managing your corporate and social responsibility. … Are you doing everything to have green credentials so that people will want to buy from you because you’re a responsible business?”

Starting to place EOn as a thought leader now is the best way forward, she surmises. “Having EOn at an influencing level with stakeholders will mean that the conversation will eventually transcend into business environment, and we can use that to have conversations.”

Forethought is not the only quality this marketer possesses – with Stroud’s energy and verve, the future of EOn’s B2B marketing seems to be in loyal, capable hands.

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