Has some football background from working at Arsenal. Could be a fresh, young talent coming in with new ideas so good luck to him and welcome to Charlton.
Rumour, if you believe it or not, is that he applied for the operations job and has been offered the marketing job instead.
He initially turned down the CMO role on the basis he has no marketing experience (which seems to be confirmed by his Linkedin profile (below)
From Linkedin
Ben Kensell's Overview
Current
Commercial Operations Manager at Arsenal Football Club
Past
Events Manager at Ambro Events
Events Officer at Demontfort University
Education
De Montfort University
Archbishops School
Connections
Ben Kensell's Experience
Commercial Operations Manager
Arsenal Football Club
Nonprofit; 11-50 employees; Sports industry
September 2006 – Present (6 years 5 months)
Events Manager
Ambro Events
Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Events Services industry
May 2004 – September 2006 (2 years 5 months)
Events Officer
Demontfort University
May 2003 – February 2005 (1 year 10 months)
Ben Kensell's Skills & Expertise
Sports
Event Planning
Business Development
Revenue Streams
Catering
Venue Management
Sports Venues
Stadiums
Financial Accounting
Account Management
Project Management
Major Events
Ben Kensell's Education
De Montfort University
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Theatre/Theatre Arts Management
1999 – 2003
Archbishops School
1993 – 1999
0
Comments
And that's at some global blue chip companies!
How old is he? 28?
Maybe I'm just jealous. Not that I'm interested in working for the club at the moment...
He'll soon get found out if his lack of experience on paper is detrimental or doesn't add any value to the club but they have obviously seen something in him to offer him the job.
Rather that than paying top whack to someone with an impressive marketing cv who could turn out to be there for the cash before jumping ship when a sexier/ better paid position came knocking.
Chris Powell had no management experience and the boy done good.
Football is so strange, I can't believe you'd ever get a "Chief" marketing job in any other industry with no tangible marketing skills/experience. The competition for marketing positions at the moment is so intense.
No experience, numpty degree from a numpty university. wtf.
Thank you
When I went into marketing it was a serious career in big consumer goods companies, led by P&G and Unilever. In my own case it was United Biscuits, God preserve their Hobnobs. Over the years the term has been much more widely adopted by all kind of two bob companies - in this case football clubs are two bob companies - but they often only have hazy idea of what marketing is. There ar various definitions, but my favorite is that of the late lamented Professor Peter Doyle of Warwick University, and it is " the matching of what customers need and want, with what the company can produce or provide, in a way which maximizes long term profit". Note that this implies listening to your customers in the first place, and note "long term". Short term profit is produced by good salespeople. They can sell a bad product, once. In football clubs you generally find that the marketing person seems to be measured by finding something crass to sponsor and getting people to pay for it, flogging exec boxes, and various events. This guy actually has experience of some of that. To his credit, he probably doesn't think of that as marketing, but he probably found that this is exactly what messrs Slater and Jiminez think it is. And I'd expect nothing else from a lawyer and a property dealer.
As to what marketing in a football club actually is, that is tricky, but basically the more important part as I see it is the work which Airman and the others started in the 90s. Thinking about who the customers are, what they want and what stops them from buying the product. As he has demonstrated here many times Airman is able to discuss in great detail whether a particular price promotion actually delivered a profit and whether it might have contributed to people returning regularly ( profit in the long term).
So I think this guy will sell a good box and organize some good events. And maybe his bosses will be satisfied. It's not what I call marketing, but either way, the responsibility lies with the people who hired him, as it always does in management hiring.