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CV

Professional Summary

I AM a curious senior digital leader with global brands' experience, on a mission, to continuously innovate customer and brand experiences, by using data-driven actionable insights.  

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With 17+ years of working on international brands like Honda, Toyota, IKEA and Dovetail Games, I have successfully managed marketing budgets of up to US $6Million. I am highly skilled in developing and executing innovative digital transformation strategies, leading cross-functional global teams, large-scale projects and driving digital operational excellence. KPI & ROI driven. I am a hybrid agent who has work experience in both - agency and brand operations. Most importantly, I possess a natural sense of curiosity to understand how human interaction is evolving in the digital sphere.

Skills

Integrated Marketing Strategy  Brand Management  Social Media Strategy  Content Strategy  B2B Marketing  B2C Marketing   Performance Marketing  Customer Acquisition  Managing Global Agencies  UX/UI   Campaign Management    Branding 
Social Media    International Events Activations   Creative Initiatives  Data-driven marketing Analytics and data research  Stakeholder engagement  Customer journey process mapping  Paid social  Programmatic advertising  Mobile search  Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)   Paid Search (SEM)  Re-marketing  PR  CRM & Social CRM  Email marketing automation  Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)  PDCA - continuous improvement  Digital trends & training  Managing digital teams  Video Games Marketing

Work Experience

2022 - PRESENT

Director of Marketing - Gallagher Insurance - SME & Personal Lines - UK Retail Division

  • Part of the Senior Leadership and reported directly to Managing Director

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  • Responsible for driving digital transformation & demand within the Digital Distribution & SME – UK Retail Division 

    • Results: Grew Motor Trade Road Risk business into the fastest growing business in UK Retail – 23% YOY (delivering ROI 2.6)

    • Results: Reinvigorated the Gallagher insurance products to SME audiences, growing the business to ROI of 2.6

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  • Conducted the first ever Gallagher UK customer research to define clear customer proposition for Gallagher Home in the UK market

    • Result: This research was referred to across Gallagher divisional businesses and on Gallagher global level

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  • Rebuilt customer feedback process on Trust Pilot for all brands within Gallagher UK, which doubled the results in four months.

    • Result: Gallagher moved from 2.1 to 4.6 ratings

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  • Defined a robust strategy and roll out of UK Retail cross sell initiative

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  • Managing a team of marketing managers, along with agency, supplier, and affinity partners relationship management

2020 - 2021

Global Marketing Director - Dovetail Games 

  • Defined the Global Marketing Strategy with clear long term calculated digital marketing transformational goals, objectives and GTM plans for the globally renowned Trains and Fishing games, across US, UK and German markets

    • Result- Introduced a player first, connected and KPI driven marketing culture within the company

    • Result- Established global industry benchmarks for media performances

    • Result- Rolled out the first-ever Always-on media plan across DTG social media and search for both the franchises, to support sales throughout the year

    • Result- Created tangible key performance indicators on the Dovetail Live website

    • Result- Introduction of TikTok as a new effective engagement and lead gen channel, driving a spectacular conversion rate of up to 23% to first-party channels

    • Result- Deployed a measurable OOH billboard across the underground metro and five prime locations in London (UK)

    • Result- Identified a unique OOH opportunity in the US, in partnership with Amtrak

    • Result- Recognized technological gaps that limited marketing success. Eventually leading to working closely with technology and GDPR compliance teams to refresh the user data strategy.

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  • Deployed the first-ever CRM strategy and rolled out successfully five out of 14 use cases per franchise, to meet acquisition, retention and customer experience objectives

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  • Strategically led the ‘We Are Railfans’ global community initiative with clear success indicators

    • Result- Led the global rollout of the first-ever ‘Railfan Fest’ which increased the community sign-ups by 51%

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  • Responsible for agency management for media and PR

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  • Managed a team of 10, including Product Marketing Directors for both franchises and Head of Brand, as direct reports.

    • Result- Introduced a new continuous improvement process of ‘Stop-Change-Start’ for monthly monitoring of team success

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  • Reported directly to the CEO and the COO

2017 - 2020

Senior Brand & Digital Manager - Honda (UAE)

  • Managed an annual marketing budget of US $6 Million for all B2B and B2C verticals (New Cars, Certified Pre-Owned, Aftersales, Bodyshop and Contact Centre) across United Arab Emirates.

  • Spearheaded 360 brand marketing strategy and overseeing day-to-day execution across the customer journey to ensure omni-channel best-in-class experience and growth in revenue.

    • Result - Overall business growth by 13% YOY

    • Result – Grew social fans & followers to +100K, with engagement rate at 13%

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  • Led Digital Performance for SEO, SEM, Paid Social, PR, OOH, Direct, Radio, Econometrics planning, content creation, social media strategy & management, lead generation & nurturing across the funnel, and enterprise website development/ CMS management; including periodic social media sentiment monitoring and brand health tracking

    • Result – Increased digital conversions from 1% to 3%

    • Result – Developed a daily KPI dashboard for digital leads

    • Result – CRO on website grew organic conversions by 111%

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  • Developed CRM strategies based on extensive customer process journey mapping, bringing together the technology layer (i.e. SAP Hybris SaaS, beefree EDM tool) and the communication layer (ie tailor-made messages) for over 4 Million current & prospective customers

    • Result - Grew incremental business by US $500K by running approximately 180 campaigns in a year

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  • Managed stakeholder relationships including senior executives, Honda principal counterparts, partner agencies and to direct reports

    • Result – Introduced the campaign-specific PDCA with all agencies to promote continuous improvement and collaborative culture

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  • Developed Strategic Partnerships with global retail brands like - IKEA, ACE, M&S & Robinsons to drive conquest strategies and brand awareness

    • Result – Captured and monitored cross-shopping behaviour of Honda customer across partner brands

    • Result – Acquired new customers from partner database

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  • Led a team of 2 direct reports

2011 - 2017

Head of Digital Marketing - Al-Futtaim Corporate

Al-Futtaim is a large conglomerate headquartered in UAE, employing over 42,000 people in 29 countries through more than 200 companies

 

  • Developed digital marketing strategies and social media roadmaps with Group Executives and Heads of Marketing for Retail and Automotive brands in 14 countries

    • Result - Launched 20 enterprise-level websites (platform: Gforces SaaS Netdirector) including ecommerce solutions (platform: IBM Websphere), for brands like Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Automall and Hertz

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  • Managed a dedicated team for Toyota UAE digital marketing activities

    • Result - Won 2 industry awards for Toyota campaigns

    • Result – Increased digital lead conversions from 0.3% to 1%

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  • Spearheaded digital marketing RFPs and vendor management processes and procedures

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  • Led a team of 6 direct reports

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  • Reporting directly to CMO of Al-Futtaim Group

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Brands managed:

Al-Futtaim Automotive Group, Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Hertz, Volvo, Lotus, Automall, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, RAM, Nobel, AF Credit Card, Festival City, IKEA and many more

Education

2019

University of Oxford - Said Business School (UK)

Delivering Value Through Digital - Executive Program

1996 - 1999

Excelsior College (USA)

Bachelors in Information Management Systems

References

Fardeen Sara - General Manager Sales and Marketing

at Al-Futtaim Honda

It was a pleasure working with Basit. Proactive, Dedicated and a Broadminded individual. He was my go-to-Digital & CRM guy with great analytical skills. Basit did some fabulous work for Honda, Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM and Volvo. Give Abdul a job- he gets it done and how! He is reliable, forward-thinking but most importantly an inspiring team player. Basit will make a great leader - comes to him naturally!

Charles Awad - Director, Group Marketing and Communications

at Al-Futtaim 

Abdul Basit is a highly motivated, results-driven, forward thinking individual. His passion and knowledge in digital marketing and CRM were extremely valuable. He was well respected among his peers. He had an excellent working relationship within the group and could think in a crowded environment independently. He denotes a lot of analytical capability. He always showed keen willingness for both personal and professional development. His knowledge and organizational skills have been invaluable to the Al-Futtaim Group. I would recommend Abdul Basit without any hesitation.

Fadi Chivi - General Manager, Group Marketing and Communications

at Al-Futtaim 

If there's anyone who is just "all-digital" - it would have to be none other than Abdul Basit (aka AB). During the period we worked together at Al-Futtaim, AB delivered not just 1, 2 or 3 completely revamped websites but 15+ websites for the likes of Toyota, Lexus, Honda, Group Automotive, Ace, Plug-Ins....etc. all this while leading the digital marketing strategies for each - driving traffic, engagement and ultimately conversion. His passion for phy-gital delivered world-class digital activation programs for Toyota at Dubai International Motorshow (x2) and other massive events like Sundance and Jazz Festival. Oh - he also happens to be a wanna-be Steven Spielberg. How is this related to the above? Simple, he understands the power of visual stimulus, effective storytelling ... which is what digital should be all about! Bottom line, AB is super talented and understands Digital Marketing like no other - I hope one day we can work together again.

Anish Pandit - General Manager - Digital Marketing, Insights and Customer Engagement 

at Al-Futtaim 

I have had the distinct pleasure of having Abdul Basit work in my team as a Digital Account Director for 5 years. During this period, I have noted his strong passion for digital marketing - which supported his success in building and managing profitable new business initiatives.

 

Abdul Basit is highly performance driven individual, he possess strong team leadership qualities and a sound strategic acumen. His knowledge of the digital industry, keen attention to detail, solution oriented attitude and creative thinking makes him a strong team contributor. He is genuinely committed to timelines and is remarkable at maintaining his cool at all times.

 

Abdul Basit’s has very good social skills that support him in expanding his professional network and building relationships.

 

Abdul Basit has been involved in and led some very smart and effective digital campaigns for many globally renowned brands, including some that were shortlisted and won regional awards.

 

I am confident that he will always prove to be an asset to any team he works with.

Roxane Negrillo - General Manager  - Al Futtaim Group

I've known Abdul Basit both as a colleague and as a client. As a colleague in GMASCO before, he demonstrated strong leadership skills as a Digital Director. He was collaborative, a joy to work with and very accountable. Afterwards, he became my client at Honda where he was in-charge of marketing communications, full funnel marketing, data and analytics. He is a numbers guy, passionate about performance marketing and always committed to delivering better ROI through optimizations. He's also open-minded and valued relationships with his agency partners.

Ahmed Salam - Creative Director 

at Plan Digital

This letter is my personal recommendation for Abdul Basit. Until just recently, I have been Abdul Basit's colleague for several years. I found him to be consistently pleasant, tackling all assignments with dedication and a smile.

 

Besides being a joy to work with, Abdul Basit is a take-charge person who is able to present creative ideas and communicate the benefits. He has successfully developed several marketing plans for the company.

 

Though he was an asset to our marketing efforts, Abdul Basit was also extraordinarily helpful in other areas of the company. Abdul Basit had a leadership role in sales meetings, inspiring and motivating other employees.

 

I wish him all the best for the future.

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