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MARKETING APPOINTMENTS
New chief marketing officer swooshes into the Nike hot seat next year
By our News Team | 2023
Company marketing veteran set to return from January 2024 as part of an executive reshuffle to push ‘next era of growth’.
As it faces increasingly tough competition in the sportswear market, Nike has announced the appointment of a new global chief marketing officer.
She is Nicole Hubbard Graham, who takes over in January 2024 to succeed the brand’s long-standing CMO, Dirk-Jan (known as ‘DJ’) van Hameren, who is retiring next year.
Van Hameren has served as Nike’s head of marketing since 2018 and has been at the company for 31 years. He is a former a former Olympic cyclist.
Photo by Toro Tseleng from Pexels
Graham is no stranger to the Nike brand, having worked there for almost 20 years before leaving in 2021 to be part of an advertising agency start-up called Adopt. In her previous roles at Nike, she managed its global marketing teams and its direct-to-consumer business.
In a press release issued this week, Nike says she will “oversee all aspects of marketing, aligning the company’s brand voice against its next era of growth”.
Built a world-class marketing team
The press release adds that “Van Hameren has been a visionary leader at the cornerstone of Nike’s global brand storytelling. His leadership propelled the business over three decades and built the brand’s world-class marketing team”.
Another brand-focused change at executive level is John Hoke, a 30-year Nike veteran, who will become Chief Innovation Officer. He most recently served as Nike’s first Chief Design Officer and will partner with Tom Clarke, President of Innovation, to “amplify and accelerate Nike’s innovation strategy and distinction”.
According to the industry publication, Marketing Dive, “fresh marketing leadership is part of a larger executive shuffle at Nike, one of several this year”.
Another industry publication, Ad Week, is reporting that up to 70 people within Nike’s brand creative team have been laid off. At the time of writing, this had not been confirmed by Nike.
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