NDA Editor-in-Chief Justin Pearse sat down with Jamie Irving, VP Digital Marketing and CRM at Pentland Brands to discuss how he is guiding the online marketing for a portfolio that includes Speedo, Berghaus, and ellesse.
How are your brands evolving in today’s fast-changing media landscape?
Each of our brands – from Speedo to ellesse – is going through its own marketing and product evolution. What’s exciting is the position I’m in, working across them all. I’m here to support the DTC (direct-to-consumer) side from a marketing perspective, helping ensure we use media in the most effective way.
With media constantly shifting, keeping up the right level of investment and finding ways to link better with consumers remains a core challenge.
Media effectiveness is something brands are always grappling with. How are you approaching it?
Measurement is the biggest challenge, as always.
But honestly, I see the deprecation of cookies as a bit of a positive. It pushes us back to a world where marketing is less black and white – it’s about emotion and behavior. From a digital lens, that means understanding your existing consumer base in detail: lifetime value, frequency of purchase, and personalisation.
There’s also the question of scale. Sometimes, it’s about betting big – like our Liam Gallagher mural for Berghaus. It didn’t just deliver reach, it became a PR moment and extended the campaign’s life. Sponsoring TNT was another big moment for us. That kind of effectiveness only comes from leveraging scale across our brand portfolio.
What about measurement specifically – what’s working well for you now?
Econometrics is really making a comeback, and for good reason.
Multi-touch attribution promised accuracy, but it wasn’t really delivering. Econometrics, while slower, gives you a clearer picture across multiple inputs – promotions, retail environment, email volumes, and so on.
Take email, for instance. You might not click through, but just seeing the subject line can nudge a consumer to purchase.
We’ve done analysis that shows if someone receives an email, their overall likelihood to buy – across any channel – goes up. That kind of nuance is what econometrics helps surface.
How are you working with your agency partners to get the most from your media?
We work with Essence, now part of WPP Media. And honestly, the relationship is great. We’re not just ticking boxes – it’s collaborative. We’re on WhatsApp, sharing thoughts, and treating each other as genuine partners.
The key is transparency.
They know where we see opportunity, and where there’s no point pushing for the sake of it. We’ve got a good mix of people who know our business inside out and new voices bringing fresh perspectives.
It’s not faceless, which is often the criticism of network agencies. You can make an agency relationship whatever you want – and we try to be the kind of client people enjoy working with.
You’ve got a lot of media channels to play with. What’s proving most effective?
Because we operate across retail, wholesale, marketplaces, and DTC, understanding the halo effect of media is essential. For example, if we’re running a TV campaign like the TNT sponsorship, we want to know what impact it’s having not just online, but in-store too.
We’re assessing earned media, PR value, and how it affects things like site behavior and product consideration. Working out that full media value equation is a big priority – not just direct attribution but broader influence.
How are you using platforms like social, CTV, and digital out-of-home?
Social is interesting, particularly TikTok. With TikTok Shop and influencer content, you get something close to genuine word-of-mouth – which is hard to generate these days.
It’s probably not our biggest sales channel, but it’s a great way to introduce people to our brands.
Programmatic? Personally, I’m not a fan of display, but CTV, audio, and digital out-of-home are really exciting. Programmatic is just a way of buying – if you use it to enter channels like CTV cost-effectively, that’s a win. You can start small, test, and scale from there.
Amazon and Google (via YouTube) are must-haves for CTV, and you end up with a plan that resembles traditional TV – just with lower barriers to entry.
That’s the beauty of programmatic when used right.
Creativity is often said to be lacking in digital. What are your thoughts there?
What excites me is creativity linked to commerce – platforms that take you from ad to purchase.
Amazon is already dominating, but TikTok could evolve into that space. The key is great product marketing.
You don’t always need flashy brand work. Just having belief in your product and putting it front and center can drive results. That approach brings people into the funnel, and if they like what they see, they’ll stick around. It’s a different kind of creativity – less top-down and more about building from the middle.
And of course, we can’t ignore AI. How is it impacting your work?
AI’s been in our world for a long time – programmatic, after all, is just algorithmic. But now, AI is making data processing and insights generation much faster. It’s like having an expert sitting beside you all the time.
Where it’ll really take off is content creation. AI can supercharge things like multivariate testing, allowing us to find what resonates with audiences faster – and at scale.
That’s critical because content demand is only going to grow.
Looking ahead, what’s most exciting for you in the rest of the year?
We’ve done a lot of firsts – TV for the first time in years, murals, major sponsorships, and high-growth DTC activity. What excites me now is building on that.
We’re reaching more consumers than ever in ways they actually want to engage with. And as strange as it sounds, measurement is the exciting bit.
The more we measure well, the more confident we can be, and the bolder we can get. That’s what makes marketing fun.
