Ben Bradshaw: Marketing and brand leader in sustainability, energy, and clean technology

About this Episode

Ben Bradshaw is an experienced brand and marketing leader in energy and cleantech. He helps progressive businesses in the Energy Transition create a standout brand, and marketing that powers profitable and sustainable growth.

He has 25 years’ experience as a marketer in the UK energy & cleantech sectors and particular strengths in marcomms, brand, strategy, planning, insight for B2C, B2B, corporations or start-ups. Ben has held Head of Marketing positions transforming brands and building teams - with a passion for sustainability, brand and culture.

He is now seeking his next senior marketing role with an ambitious pioneer in the clean energy sector.

Transcript

Mark Reed-Edwards: Welcome to this special episode of Confessions of a Marketer. I'm Mark Reed-Edwards. It's been a while, but we're back with this mini series of shows I've dubbed the Talent Showcase. These episodes will focus on people in marketing, communications, PR, and allied fields who are looking for the next opportunity.

My guests will share their stories, successes, and how they can help their next employer or client. We have about five episodes lined up and today I'm joined by Ben Bradshaw.

Ben is an experienced brand and marketing leader in energy and clean tech. He helps progressive businesses in the energy transition create a standout brand and marketing that powers profitable and sustainable growth. He has 25 years experience as a marketer in the UK energy and clean tech sectors and particular strengths in marcomms, brand, strategy, planning, insight for B2C, B2B corporations or startups.

Ben has held head of marketing positions, transforming brands and building teams with a passion for sustainability, brand and culture. He's now seeking his next senior marketing role with an ambitious pioneer in the clean tech sector.

Ben, welcome.

Ben Bradshaw: Oh, well, good to meet you, Mark. Thank you very much for inviting me on the show.

Mark: Yeah, it's great to have you here. So can you tell me about yourself, your background and career path beyond what I just shared with the audience?

Ben: Yeah, sure. So as you said, I've been in the energy industry—UK-based—for over 25 years and I've got a personal passion in sustainability and got a career in marketing. Really I've brought those two interests of mine to create a career to support the growth of renewable, sustainability, clean technology. So we're talking about EV charging, solar panels, battery storage. And I'm really excited about the opportunity here because it's growing massively. And I, I was really involved in sustainability from the start from my environmental engineering over almost 30 years ago now.

And I've already dedicated a career in supporting businesses to further their brand and to develop marketing to really grow, take up an interest in these new products and services. And I've worked in the last four years in early stage businesses, startups, establishing a marketing function a brand and a team within those businesses that are rapidly growing for the first time. So, really, for me, it's looking at my next opportunity. It'll be in the space of energy and clean technology. And I'm looking for head of marketing positions. And really helping those businesses power growth, whether they're early stage startups scale ups, or established corporations who are diversifying into sustainability services.

Mark: And you're based in the UK.

Ben: I'm based in the UK, I'm based in Nottingham but the hybrid working arrangement now means that where I could work is broadened out.

Mark: So what is one of your most important career accomplishments, do you think?

Ben: Well, I mean, I've been in the energy industry in the UK for, as I said, over 25 years and seen huge change moving from it being, you know, just gas and electricity powered by fossil fuels, all the way to, now, renewable energy and growth in that space. I've also seen huge change in terms of consolidations.
And that was one of the areas that I got involved in. So, I was working for Powergen. It was one of the largest energy suppliers in the UK. And the global energy provider, E. ON, bought out Powergen as a route to access the UK market. I led the strategy and the rebranding from Powergen to E.ON and really supported the growth of the E. ON brand via a gradual transition strategy moving from Powergen, a household name back in 2006 and in three years rebranded to E. ON and move from a 10 percent awareness of, Of of of Eon to a 65 percent brand awareness in three years, supported, of course, by investment into the brand TV -led campaigns the sponsorship of the F. A. Cup and new products. And I was really delighted to be involved in that three year strategy and leading it to success.

Mark: So thinking about all that, and my introduction to you earlier, what do you think you can offer your next employer or client?

Ben: Well, I think it comes down to about four things, really. And there's quite a lot within each of the four. One is powering growth. When I say growth, I'm talking about really using marketing and branding to engender more engagement and more interest into the product or the brand. And that drives inquiries, that drives interest, that drives revenue growth, and ultimately profit.

So that's the first thing, driving growth. The second one's really, and again, about driving growth, but probably more so on, in the medium to long term. This is about setting a standout brand, defining a strategy, an identity, for the brand that allows that business to grow, particularly understanding the needs and interests of the target audience and really, and really building that.

But it also supports the engagement and motivation of all the employees as well, of course. The third one is related to growth, but it's the commercial performance. It's making sure that the marketing is delivering the return on investment it needs to, making sure there's the investment needed into the brand, and demonstrating how that's delivering a return, whether it's in the short term, or medium, or long.

And then the final point, I think I mentioned it, was really developing a culture. Brand is such a, an all pervasive notion that impacts not just customers, but also employees, investors. Partners and particularly for early stage businesses, getting that right and defining the right culture to enable that growth and ensuring there's alignment between the brand, the culture and the customer experience.

Because ultimately a great promise can be great, but it's got to be delivered through the entire process. So those four things kind of characterize the things I'll be looking to offer my next employer.

Mark: Yeah, that's a great list and I think you've shared your background really well here and, Ben, I really want to thank you for joining me and I hope this this little time that we had together will help you find your next gig.

Ben: Absolutely. And if anyone is interested to get in touch, I'm on LinkedIn. Be more than happy to respond to any messages and take it from there.

Mark: Thanks, Ben. I'm Mark Reed Edwards. Join me on the next Confessions of a Marketer.

Ben: Thanks, Mark.